Historical Disney Princess Coloring Pages

My 6-year old daughter LOVES princesses, and I thought it would be fun to explore what these princesses would have worn, eaten, lived, etc, if they had been real.

This proved more difficult than I assumed! Some of the princesses are easy to place (Tiana and Pocahontas), and others are much more difficult! If you try and find out when and where The Little Mermaid takes place, you'll get very different answers.

So, with each coloring page  I made, I'm going to try to list when and where I think each one could have taken place, and put some links to historical images/garments from that time period and place. The coloring pages aren't as tidy as I'd like--one day I hope to go through and make the lines clearer etc. But, for now, I figured it's best to post the pictures so people can use them if they need/want them.

I have no idea if I'll get through all of them, but so far I have four! I'll give each princess their own post in this thread. I'll also post a link to each coloring page down below. If you click the thumbnail, it should take you to a larger image!

Jasmine 1660s Ottoman Empire

Ariel 1660s Mediterranean

Ariel 1660s Mediterranean

Belle 1760s France

Belle 1760s France

Aurora 1410s France

Aurora 1410s France

Rapunzel 1550s France

Snow White, 1560's Germany

Snow White, 1560's Germany

Cinderella late 1880s, Belgium

Cinderella, late 1880s, Belgium

Cinderella, late 1880s, Belgium

 

Cinderella late 1880s, Belgium

Elsa, 1843, Norway (Regency dress)

Elsa, 1843, Norway

To start off with, here's Jasmine!

I had two time periods I was tempted to place her in. One was during the Sassanid Persian empire (400-600 AD).  This is when the 1001 Nights stories were originally written and said to take place, and when women were actually Sultans, and Jasmine would have had the freedoms she portrays in the movie. But, there are VERY few actual images of women from that time and place! Here's the only ones I could find:

Queen Boron, ruler of Sasanian Empire

Sasanian woman

Sasanian Queen offering lotus flower to King Bahram II

For those wanting to know more about Sasanian women:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Sasanian_Empire
A Study of the Imagery and Place of Women in the Sasanian Period: Sigillographic Evidence.
Ladies of the East: Representation of Women on Sasanian Ewers
Women in Pre-Islamic Persia

Because of the lack of primary-source images of women from the time period, and how a lot of the architecture and technology in the movie Aladdin is from after 1600 AD, I decided to place Jasmine in the Ottoman Empire (which also stretched far enough to intermingle all the Indian, Persian, Arabian, etc influences seen in the movie)

This video helped solidify that:



Based upon that video and all the other factors, I placed Jasmine in the late 1600s to early 1700's Ottoman Empire. The Sultan in Aladdin uses a telescope, and those were invented in 1608. The Sultan's palace looks a lot like the Taj Majal, and that was finished in 1648. So if Sultan was inspired by it when making his palace, it'd need to be after that.

These were some of the images I used to base Jasmine's outfit off of. I tried to style it to keep it looking like Jasmine, but also being more historical.



Sources:

Ancient Middle East and Islam – History of Jewelry Around the World
Antoine Galland, Author of 1001 Nights He translated it and added Aladdin to it in 1701. He was born in 1646
Under Suleiman’s Rule: The Role of Women in the Ottoman Empire "The Sultanate (or Reign) of Women is a period that began with Suleiman’s reign in 1520 and lasted until Sultana Turhan died in 1683. "
Social and Economic Position of Women in an Ottoman City, Bursa, 1600-1700
CLOTHING AND FASHION IN ISTANBUL (1453–1923)
WOMEN'S CLOTHING IN 16TH CENTURY TURKEY / OTTOMAN EMPIRE

Now for Ariel!

I saw a lot of hypothetical dates for when and where this movie took place. Many thought that, since it was written by Hans Christian Anderson in 1837 in Denmark, that the movie takes place then and there, too.

But, things seem far too warm and Mediterranean for Denmark, and Prince Eric's boat looks like it's from the Golden Age of Piracy (1650 to 1730s), I think it makes more sense to place it in a warmer climate and an earlier time. Ariel's mother was also killed by a pirate when Ariel was young, so I think the 1660's make sense. Also, the servants wear clothing very similar to 1660's style, and Prince Eric's shirt looks like the shirts worn during that era, rather than the early Victorian shirts. Literally no one in the movie is wearing anything from the 1830s, so I can easily rule that out.

Some people like to think it takes place in the Danish West Indies (in the Caribbean) or in the Mediterranean. I think the styles for royalty were about the same in either place, so I'm not too concerned about it.

Also, fascinatingly enough, there's actually a lot of poofy-sleeved, wide-necked dresses in this era, too!



The working-class women's clothing is very similar to Ariel's, too:



Note: the "pinks" in this era are more of a salmon color. Madder is the usual plant used for dying reds and pinks, and it lends itself to a more orangish hue. They might have access to cochineal from the Americas for making more purple-ish pinks, but I'm not certain when that was imported... I also tried to change Ariel's posture in her ballgown to match the posture and dressshape that came from the stays used during that time period. I did not change Ariel's hair, because I wanted her to look like herself, and also because she liked her hair free-flowing and might not have been patient with lady's maids messing with her hair when she just became human! I did switch out her hat for a more historical hat (which would also help prevent sunburn during her adventures!)

The 1660s Restoration Costume Comes to LifeThis whole website is a GOLD MINE of information for this era, with sections on everything from shoes to shirts  to rich and poor clothing to even hats and bonnets! Nearly all of the images posted above were taken from this site.

Belle was much easier to place!

Beauty in the Beast takes place in France...before the French Revolution (which started in 1789). No one in the movie seems to have the extreme hair styles of the later part of the 1700's, so I'm aiming for about 1750-1760 for fashion. This also allows for Belle to have her natural hair color (as women weren't powdering their hair white)  

Robe à la française, ca. 1750

1759

1760-65

1759

1750

It does seem that most working women wore jackets with sleeves, but I did find one source of a sleeveless jacket, that's pretty much identical to Belle's!

Woman's Waistcoat, ca. 1730–1780

Links for further research:

Archive for the ‘Baroque/Rococo 1650-1800’ Category
Fashion History Timeline: 1750-1759
The Met search results for Robe à la Française
Rococo fashion of women in 1750-1775