No Disney princess could measure up to the fashion sense of this classic antagonist.
Like a lot of portrait photo studios in Japan, the Studio Alice chain offers a wide variety of rental kimono for customers who want to dress up in an elegant fashion for their picture. What’s unique, though, is that Studio Alice also has a wide variety of Disney-themed kimono.
These aren’t cheap, cheesy garments, either. Rather than just slap a logo or screenshot onto the fabric and call it a day, Studio Alice has designed kimono that incorporate the storylines and visual motifs of 20 different Disney heroines and villainesses, blending the aesthetics of Disney animation and classical kimono design, all done in the furisode (“loose sleeve”) style traditionally worn by girls and young women.
Studio Alice has recently released the ranking list of the most popular Disney kimono among customers, and surprisingly it’s no plucky, pure-hearted princess who takes the top spot. Before we get there, though, let’s look at the other members of the top 10.
Starting off at number 10 we have the Daisy kimono (pictured on the left in the above image), followed by Cinderella at number nine. Daisy’s kimono features several bouquets’ worth of her namesake flower on a field of lavender similar to the clothing she’s often depicted wearing, while Cinderella’s shining floral print is evocative of the glass of her slippers.
Moving on to numbers eight and seven, Maleficent’s kimono crackles with her green-lit magic. But while the Sleeping Beauty sorceress needs little introduction, even fairly passionate Disney fans may not immediately recognize the name of Faline, a.k.a. Bambi’s girlfriend, whose kimono is suitably verdant for a forest-set story.
Coming in at number six, The Aristocats’ Marie has a large and devoted fanbase in Japan, where her pink-and-white color scheme provides plenty of cuteness. Color is also a key factor in the number-five kimono, based on Beauty and the Beast’s Belle, which has a stripe of saffron reminiscent of her ball gown, a rose on the obi (sash), and baroque chandeliers.
Specific theming is a little harder to suss out on the kimono for number-four Alice (of in Wonderland fame) and number-three Snow White, though Alice’s does seem to have a bit of a playing card thing going on, and Snow White’s crimson obi is possibly a reference to the poisoned apple she munches on.
Finishing in second place is Minnie, whose kimono’s trim brings to mind the dots on her dress. And finally, at the top of the list is a Disney villain who’s always had an eye for eye-catching fashion, it’s none other than 101 Dalmatians’ Cruella de Vil. While Cruella herself may be evil right down to her name, it’s hard to deny that that’s a very striking kimono, with the sharply contrasting colors making it at once both sophisticated and playful, with extra flair from the Dalmatian-style dots (the kimono may have also gotten a boost from a recent celebrity cosplay project).
The entire lineup is available for portrait sessions at Studio Alice locations across Japan. And if all this has you wondering what other themes you could design a kimono collection around, you can check out this array of kimono for every country that competed at the Tokyo Olympics.
Related: Studio Alice Disney kimono website
Source, images: Press release
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[ Read in Japanese ]