My final princess is the wonderful Tiana from Disney’s Princess and the Frog.
About the Look
Tiana was Disney’s first (and so far, only) Black princess, and it was handled about as well as you can expect from a studio that created their first Black princess over seventy years after creating their first white (as snow!) one. Tiana has only 19 minutes of screentime as a human. Her marketing reinforced racist stereotypes. Her appearance in Ralph Breaks the Internet had to be color corrected and revised due to initial white washing.
That said, Tiana is a fully realized feminist character with an incredible wardrobe. I love every single thing she wears, all rendered beautifully with traditional hand-drawn animation techniques. And she’s ambitious, hard-working, and persistent in the face of constant obstacles, which is exactly the role model I need right now.
This past June, Disney announced they are reimagining Splash Mountain as a Tiana themed ride. Splash Mountain is a popular Parks attraction but it is based on an outdated, harmful, racist film. Replacing it with Tiana and Naveen is a message, and a necessary one.
About My Look
The shirt was purchased on Etsy at the Black and woman owned shop GloryTribeUS. I chose to get a large and wear it as a 20s style dress. The design comes in a variety of colors, I chose green to reference Tiana’s final lily pad gown.
My shoes are the same ones I wore yesterday as Chibiusa, buckled differently. I’m wearing nylons and a bodysuit underneath, in my skin tone.
The headband is the same I wore as Cinderella. The silver beads are two ‘Mardi Gras’ necklaces I have from parties past. The BLM bracelet was made for this look by my daughter, Aeris. I purchased the water lily bracelet to reference Padmé but it seemed an appropriate addition to Tiana’s look.
or Commission a Look