Fairy Tale Costumes

The fairytale movie of Aladdin unfolding at Agrabah is an enchanting story of the Arabian land, one that features stunning costumes and fashion style that leave many designers in awe.

The endless effort to create a magical feel resulted in an abundance of opulence and glamour. With the film offering an array of costumes that are as rich as the streets of Agrabah, the costumes that Princess Jasmine dons particular is the envy of many.

Costume designer Michael Wilkinson recreated classic designs of costumes of exploding turbans, intricate headpieces, and tiaras that Princess Jasmine wears. He chose exquisite jewel-tone fabrics to help tell the story of a princess and a street rat, a sultan, and a vizier.

Colour Choise

The iconic motif was the colour turquoise that the designer tried to incorporate in all the Princess’ costumes. One of the first steps toward expanding Jasmine’s style was broadening her color palette. He chooses oranges and fuchsias, as a reference to her inner character of strong character. These bold colours were particularly chosen to depict her as a very confident woman.”

Orange

This gown is stunning as well and stands out from the other gowns the Princess wears throughout the film. While it seems very different in its use of colors from the other movie gowns, it is actually one of the more accurate ones when you compare it to Arab and South Indian cultures.

Turquoise Gown

The designer preferred to add plenty of detailing and accents to the gorgeous Turquoise gown that Princess Jasmine wears during the movie. With a beautiful imagery of a peacock motif, it suggests a Princess trapped in a golden cage. Beauty and opulence were the main themes behind creating this dress. A consistent “peacock motif” is also seen throughout her jewelry and clothing.

Magenta

This gown is just stunning and features a five-foot train in addition to the vivid colors and decorative accents. This is from a scene where people are coming to ask for her hand in marriage, and the gown does a great deal to set up the scene. The dress defines the formality and the structure of the dress itself which is highly decorative.

Interesting Facts

The costume designer worked with 80 people to prepare an endless line of costumes for the movie.

A total of about 400 costumes were prepared.

Ten costume prop-makers worked for six months to make a truly fantastic assemblage of headwear

For authenticity, the Oscar-nominee heavily researched clothing, art and sculpture of the Middle East region and imagery throughout the centuries from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (The Arabian Nights), which includes the original printed tale of the titular character. Since — quick Disney geography lesson — the fictional port city of Agrabah is located on the Silk Road, where the East and West meet to trade, the costume designer also studied references from Africa, Turkey and Pakistan.

The designer and his team custom designed over 200 original costumes for the extras alone.

The fabrics for the costume were sourced from all over the world primarily from the eastern fronts like Shanghai, Pakistan, Turkey and India.