Continuing along the vein of remixing my childhood entertainment preferences, I recently came across these incredible lovely illustrations.  Shoomlah, aka Claire Hummel of Los Angeles, is a concept artist for Microsoft Game Studios Publishing by day, and she also found the time to do some research into fashion history and put her talent and imagination into conceptualizing some (more or less) ‘historically accurate’ character designs for the Disney princesses.

As someone who was greatly invested in the Disney princesses as a child- and as an adult, who are we kidding- and who is highly interested in history and mythology, this blend of history and fantasy is a beautiful interpretation and contextualization of stories that I and millions of people have spent their childhoods watching and rewatching, living and reliving.  Even better: on her deviantart page, Shoomlah accompanies each image with some insights into her research process, her goals for the image, and the challenges and compromises involved in trying to interpret icons of cinema and pop culture that have been displaced from their historical origins.

High Medieval Sleeping Beauty/ La Dame et la Licorne, circa 1490

Late Renaissance Snow White/Cesare Vecellio Costume Woodcut, circa 1590

Rococo Beauty and the Beast/ Silk Taffeta Brocade Court Dress, British (c1750)

Antebellum Cinderella/ Harper’s Weekly Fashion Illustration, 1865

Edwardian Little Mermiad/ The Delineator Fashion Illustration, 1902