Dressing Disney's children in the twenty-first century

This article is concerned with the clothing and costuming of children in the Disney Princess transmedial universe. This extends to the fictional children who grow into their 'princesshood' within the film, as well as the nonfictional children who are the implied audience both for the films and for their associated merchandise. Since Disney acquired Pixar in 2006 and John Lasseter was made creative director of both companies, there has been an increased focus on childhood in Disney's output, and this is particularly notable in the 'princess' films produced under Lasseter: The Princess and the Frog (Clements and Musker, 2009), Tangled (Greno and Howard, 2010), Brave (Andrews and Chapman, 2012), Frozen (Buck and Lee, 2013) and Moana (Clements and Musker, 2016). This article first explores the films' use of costume simultaneously to establish the childness of the characters and visually foreshadow the 'princesses' they will become. It then turns to the implied child audience of these films, considering the Disney Princess line of merchandise and the role of clothing and costume within it.