Historical Disney Princess Coloring Pages

I felt like going a bit further back in time, to Aurora!

(Interestingly enough, growing up, I assumed all Disney Princesses were in the Medieval Era, but there's only two who actually are: Merida and Aurora!)

This is a good starting point for research--especially for kids!



Most people seem to agree that, even though Prince Phillip says "It's the 14th Century," the fashion in the movie is far more 15th Century. Maybe, like I often do, he got confused and thought the 1400s would be the 14th Century (but, no, 1400s is 15th Century, much to mental anguish of kids learning dates!)

1470

1420-1430

 

1430

1412-16

1412-16

1460

children's wear

1400-1410

Chaplan/Garland

As mentioned in the Ariel post, the red at the time would have been made most likely from Madder. There were some lichen pinks used in Scandinavia, but I'm not sure if those dyestuffs made it England and France, or if they were popular there. I did find that scarlet red was made with Kermes insect, which is a lot like the cochineal insect native to South America that makes purples, reds, and vibrant pinks. It looks like kermes does make a nice pink just like Aurora is wearing:

kermes/scarlet pink

It's  hard trying to find something that looks remotely like Aurora's wide, V-shaped collar, as well as her belt, but find it I did!





Links:

Fashion History Timeline 1410-1419
The Basics of French Women's Clothing 1400-1440 : Part 1
Hairstyles of men and women in 1400s
Dying with Kermes
Rosalie's Medieval Woman: Headwear

Rapunzel, placed in 1550s-60s northern France at Mont-Saint-Michael!

I want to apologize for how rambly some of these research notes are. I've started using them as a place to record my research as I find it, and to help me organize my thoughts as I try to figure out what era, place, etc, for each.

I placed Rapunzel here because--despite the Germanic roots of the fairy tale--the movie directors took direct inspiration from Mont-Saint-Michael for the style of the city of Corona:

Mont-Saint-Michael vs Corona

I based the time period off of the generic Renaissance clothing of the main characters. Eugene/Flynn has a short doublet. The king seems to be wearing a very Henry VIII-esk attire, complete with poofy sleeves, long coat, and even golden chain-thing around his neck:

Henry VII

Rapunzel's Dad, the King

Even the Queen has clothing from the era, with the wide-necked collar, long torso, slit skirt, and even puffed sleeves. I found pictures from both the 1540s and 1560s, which makes sense because the queen wears this outfit when her baby is born, and then 16 years later when she is reunited with

Queen Arianna with portraits from 1548-61

Rapunzel's dress is actually a lot like her moms, as well as these dresses:

1550-60

1552-53

1561

For reference, here's commoner clothing from the general era




I'm at a loss for the color of Rapunzel's gown. We know that "purple" was a color for royalty (and that Mother Gothel had no problems stealing from royalty, so the fabric Rapunzel used for her gowns could have been stolen)...but we're not quite sure what hue Renaissance "purple" fabric was! The Tyrian purple made from  snails is said to have been anywhere from a wine red to a blue-ish purple, depending on how it was made. But, we don't really know what color was used, because painters were limited in their colors! They did not have a light-fast purple paint pigment, and so had to glaze blue over red (or do stripes of red and blue) to achieve a purple-ish color. (What purple pigments were used during the Renaissance? Did artists simply mix red and blue together or was there a special, purple pigment?). They even tried using flourite to make a purple pigment during this time, and that color looks like more of a mauve than purple (Occurance of Purple Pigment Fluorite on Paintings in the National Gallery). One artist made a nice purple, unconventionally, by using coal black, lead white and red lake paints Anthony van Dyck, Portrait of a Woman and Child, 1620-21.

'purple' robe painted with fluorite

purple baby dress painted with black, white and red

Looking at that dress made me wonder about logwood, which creates both black and purple, depending on how much dyestuff is used. It seems like the mother might have had the more expensive black while the child has a lighter purple (which is still a very different hue than tyrian purple). Logwood didn't make it to England until somewhere around mid 1500s, and was actually banned by Queen Elizabeth I (technically because it did not hold dye well, but could also be because Spain had a monopoly on the import of logwood.)  Before that, black was made with oak gals, indigo, woad, and mordents.

Even without tyrian or logwood purple, you can actually make a purple with woad/indigo and madder (one overdyed over the other), like this:

Double dyed Madder over Woad or Indigo

You can also make purple with lichen:

Lichen purple color samples from 1800s. Click to read more about lichen dyes

I tried coloring Rapunzel in with the madder+woad greyish purple. But, purple is my favorite color, and that greyish color didn't bring me joy. So I went for the more vibrant purples that are achieved with snails or lichen.

Crowns. It looks like most of the royal women wore pearls twisted into their hair, unless for official occasions, when they might have worn a crown. Deceased royalty are shown wearing a crown like Crown of Princess Blanche, but most of their portraits have them with French hoods  (like Madeleine of Valois, the French princess who was Queen of Scotland for a short while) or with the beads, like Isabella of Portugal, the Holy Roman Empress). In the end, I chose to forgo a crown altogether.

In the end, I decided to forgo any sort head gear. I did however try my hand at drawing her hair "taped." Hair taping was a way to use ribbons to attach braids decoratively to the head. It was fun trying to find a way to draw such long, thick braids wrapped around her head!

hair taping

Links for research:

Working Womens' Dress in 16th Century Flanders
Renissance Clothing - Women's Clothing in Elizabethan England
The Spanish Farthingale
Fashion History Timeline 1560-1569
16th Century Dyes:  Was the color of Purple for Royalty only? - - And was it rendered from Sea Snails?  
1485-1600 - Women's Hair & Headdresses As Shown In 'English Costume History by Dion Clayton Calthrop'
Renissance Color Palette
Why Was the Color Violet Rarely Used by Artists before the 1860s?
Italian Renaissance Hair Taping - Examples

This channel also has some awesome videos on Tudor-era clothing. I especially liked this overview that follows Queen Elizabeth's fashion:

Snow White 1550-60s Germany.

While researching Rapunzel, I found a lot of images that looked a LOT like Snow White's clothing. Since most of the movie says German Renaissance, I decided to do Rapunzel next.

Eleonora di Toledo, ca 1571 Italy

Catherine of Austria 1548-49

Queen of Poland

1556-60

Looking at the various outfits of nobility around Europe, it seems that fashion for the royals was similar in Italy, Poland, Germany, and Austria. So, I think it's safe to pull from all of those areas when designing Snow White's royal outfit (and her red, blue, and yellow outfit is definitely royal. The deep blue and red fabric and gold trim--as well as the frill around the neck, clearly designates it as a wealthy person's attire. )

Working Class outfit:

Movie Snow White looks like she has a separate "pair of bodies" for her upper half. Before 1580s, the support structure for the torso was sewn into the kirtle (which is the dress that goes over the chemise underwear). I'm going to assume that the poorer section of society would not have started using a separate pair of bodies for a few more decades, so she's going to need a solid colored kirtle, with maybe an apron and partlet. I found this website extremely helpful for images and information of mid-1500s commoner clothing. Since movie Snow White has poofy blouse sleeves, I went with her chemise sleeves being visible and rolled up, some of these images

1559

1566

1565

I also had her hair "taped." My daughter was confused about the hair taping, so I added a ribbon between the braid and unbraided hair (which is seen in some hair taping) images. I liked doing the hair taping for her, because it looks a bit like how the movie Snow White has thick hair around her face with a ribbon+bow.

This video was really helpful for figuring out how all the parts of the dress went together:



Links for more research:
Story of Snow White (Marquise Giovanna Zazzera of Italy)
Margaretha von Waldeck A real-life Snow White, raised in Germany
dress diary researching german working class in the last quarter of the sixteenth century/
What 16th Century Flemish Working-class Women Wore
Working Womens' Dress in 16th Century Flanders

This should be a post of some cute Cinderella coloring pages. Instead, it's going to be screaming into the internet about the mid-to-late 1800s fashion. Maybe after I'm done screaming, I'll have an idea for when to place this confounding movie!

The main issue we discover when looking at the animated movie, is that the stepsisters have distinct bustle gowns. Cinderella, however, has a wide, full skirt...but does have bumps on the sides that look a bit like bustle fabric when viewed from the front.

The bustles were popular in two different time periods, and the skirts were full and round on either side of those bustle periods. To quote MET museum's description on a bustle ballgown

The bustle silhouette, although primarily associated with the second half of the 19th century, originated in earlier fashions as a simple bump at the back of the dress, such as with late 17th-early 18th century mantuas and late 18th- early 19th century Empire dresses. The full-blown bustle silhouette had its first Victorian appearance in the late 1860s, which started as fullness in skirts moving to the back of the dress. This fullness was drawn up in ties for walking that created a fashionable puff. This trendsetting puff expanded and was then built up with supports from a variety of different things such as horsehair, metal hoops and down. Styles of this period were often taken from historical inspiration and covered in various types of trim and lace. Accessories were petite and allowed for the focus on the large elaborate gowns. Around 1874, the style altered and the skirts began to hug the thighs in the front while the bustle at the back was reduced to a natural flow from the waist to the train. This period was marked by darker colors, asymmetrical drapery, oversize accessories and elongated forms created by full-length coats. Near the beginning of the 1880s the trends altered once again to include the bustle, this time it would reach its maximum potential with some skirts having the appearance of a full shelf at the back. The dense textiles preferred were covered in trimming, beadwork, puffs and bows to visually elevate them further. The feminine silhouette continued like this through 1889 before the skirts began to reduce and make way for the S-curve silhouette.

So:

Before 1869ish -- no bustle, big foofy ball gowns (think Gone with the Wind and generic "southern belle" attire)
1869-1876ish - BUSTLES!
1877-1882- no bustles
1883-1889 Bustles again!

Ball gowns through all of these eras (even the bustle eras) were generally wider than the day gowns. This would account for a little of the difference between Cinderella's style and her step-sisters--she has a the ball gown, while they have evening or day gowns. Or, it could be explained by her being fashion-forward, while her stepsisters are behind the times. This also works because her Step Mother also has late 1880s-early 1890s "leg of mutton sleeves." This would allow us to assume Cinderella's step mother is more concerned with her own fashion than her daughter's (this makes sense, because she's very selfish).

All of that would easy let us place the move at around 1895. There's even dresses with the cap sleeves and general silloette of Cinderella's gown!

1893

1888

1898

1895

BUT!--and this is a big BUT--we see Cinderella as a child of around 6, as well as her father.

Cinderella and her father

Her dress looks very much like the 1850s-1860s, pre-bustles, full-skirt attire of girls:

1860

 

1860

1860

1866

After 1865 or so, the skirts get shorter and skinnier.

Also, her father looks a LOT like what the dudes were wearing during the 1860s. He's got the wide lapels, the short in front and long in back coat, and even the same color cravat! The women's dresses also have similar decorations to what young Cinderella is wearing.

1860-66 standing man on left wearing almost exactly what Cinderella's dad is wearing

Man on left, necktie, wide lapels, jacket short in front and long in back

So, the latest we can conceivably go, is having this be Cinderella at age 6 in 1866, making her 20 at 1886, and still within the marriable age of 23 in 1889. It wasn't uncommon for women to marry that late then, and it would make sense that she and her similarly aged step-sisters aren't married yet. Her sisters are rude, selfish and unskilled at gentelwomanly arts (like singing, playing instruments, making polite conversation). And Cinderella is a servant in her own house, to busy to find a guy.

The earliest we can go is about 1850, which is the start of the Cinnoline period, where you get those WIDE foofy skirts Children's Clothing of the 19th Century. If she's 5 in 1850, that puts her at 20 in 1870, and we could put her at 16 in 1866. That's way before her sisters could be wearing bustles.

So, general time frame is the movie taking place between 1869 and 1889. We've narrowed it down to 20 years! That should be good enough to make some coloring pages, right? RIGHT?!

The problem is, you can't go melding 1869 styles with 1889 styles and say it's historically accurate.

1869

1879

1889

There's similarities, but that's like saying the bell bottoms of the 1970s were the same as the flare pants of the 1990s.

It's now 1:00am. I've spent at least 7, maybe 8, hours of my life trying to puzzle this out. I don't feel any closer to the answer. Maybe another 7 hours of research will get me somewhere!



Quick add-on, so I don't forget. Many people like to place the movie in the 1890s because of step mother' "leg of mutton sleeves." If we disregard those foofy sleeves, we can find similar attire in the late 1870s.

1879

1889

EDIT (July 13th, 2023): I just spotted this picture while scrolling through facebook. It's of a woman in 1883

Fancy ball costume from 1883

Let's all ignore the taxidermized kitty on her head and just Look at those little poofy sleeves! Look at that black chocker! Look at how the dress billows out on all sides rather than being straight down like the later 1880s dresses. It's white, too! The updo, with the little curled bangs and height on top of her head is also reminisent of Cinderella (who, of course, did not put Lucifer the cat on her head, despite how much of a brat that cat was!)