The live-action Disney Princess dresses, ranked

As Disney keeps rolling out live-action versions of its classic animated movies, costume and manufacturing designers maintain dealing with the problem of creating enticing animated photos look equally good in the true world.

Think about the Disney Princess characters: All of them have iconic clothes that look attractive of their authentic animated outings (besides Aladdin’s Jasmine, who rocks a pants-and-crop-top mixture). In animation, these robes are all spectacular. However how do they match up in dwell motion?

To date, seven princesses from the official Disney Princess lineup have gotten live-action remake motion pictures. The most recent, Snow White, provides its protagonist a deeply… disappointing wardrobe, which prompted us to look again and see which remake group did and didn’t perceive the task.

Like any good ranking, this one has a algorithm.

I’m additionally not essentially in search of constancy to the animated model. Generally that’s not a superb factor (cough, Snow White, cough). The outfits ought to merely look good, even when they aren’t essentially direct replicas.

So as from worst to greatest, listed here are all of the live-action Disney Princesses and their wardrobes, ranked.

7. Snow White in Snow White (2025)

Designer: Sandy Powell; Princess: Rachel Zegler

I’ve seen Halloween costumes that look higher than this gown. I really feel like I can inform precisely what kind of thick, foam-like materials makes up the sleeves. I’m additionally zeroing in on a budget vinyl stuff within the collar that’s suspended between some stiff wires. The skirt is that this plastic-looking tulle monstrosity that’s a shade of yellow not even within the authentic animation.

Sure, the unique Snow White gown does have some questionable shade selections, however the live-action answer is not to crank the saturation up on the pink, blue, and yellow. Snow White’s plot-relevant necklace — a present from her father with 4 bland adjectives to ✨ encourage ✨ her — seems like one thing I might order off Etsy for $20. It’s simply lazy! I don’t know the place Snow White’s nearly $300 million budget went, but it surely definitely was not the wardrobe.

Snow’s different clothes on this film are so briefly worn and so unremarkable that they will’t save the travesty of the primary one.

6. Belle in Magnificence and the Beast (2017)

Costume designer: Jacqueline Durran; Princess: Emma Watson

Belle’s core wardrobe isn’t horrible. The blue-and-white gown she wears within the village really seems like a pleasant up to date model of her animated going-to-town outfit. And her pink winter cloak has some pretty embroidery. However in the case of her massive showstopping robe, the one she wears in the course of the romantic ballroom scene — woof.

For starters, not like her different clothes, it seems so distinctly modern. And never even in a enjoyable, anachronistic means! I don’t give a hoot about whether or not she wore a corset, however its tiering and silhouette simply seems extra like late-2010s promenade gown than 18th-century French ballgown.

Her finale gown is fortunately a bit higher, not less than by way of the form, however the sample seems like a tea towel I’d discover in a grandma’s kitchen.

5. Jasmine in Aladdin (2019)

Costume designer: Michael Wilkinson; Princess: Naomi Scott

I’m a bit torn about Jasmine’s outfits, that are so gaudy and excessive, they nearly really feel like a parody of the unique film. However then once more, the complete film performs into that aesthetic, so her seems do cohesively slot in. The turquoise ensemble that the majority instantly imitates her animated counterpart is the most effective, for the reason that others begin to encroach on discordant shade clashing. They is likely to be splashy, however not less than they don’t look low-cost!

They do, nonetheless, look extra like they belong within the Broadway present — vibrant and glittery, so even audiences within the low-cost seats can recognize them. However up shut, they give the impression of being a little bit too intense.

Costume designer: Bina Daigeler; Princess: Liu Yifei

For probably the most half, Mulan’s wardrobe is understandably utilitarian. In spite of everything, she spends many of the film within the navy, sporting an official uniform. It really works! She has one different gown — the robe she wears when her household hauls her off to see the matchmaker. It’s totally different from the animated model, but it surely nonetheless serves the aim of displaying that Mulan isn’t comfy in a elaborate gown.

3. Ariel in The Little Mermaid (2023)

Costume designer: Colleen Atwood; Princess: Halle Bailey

Ariel principally will get two clothes when she’s in human type, and each of them are callbacks to her animated film robes, whereas nonetheless becoming in with the brand new film’s visible aesthetic. One is the blue gown she wears whereas exploring the city with Eric, which within the film seems prefer it’s made from a really gentle, breathable materials that’s nonetheless tremendous cute. It’s now a fairly seafoam inexperienced, and the beachy design feels proper according to the Caribbean-inspired setting!

The opposite is the pink ballgown she wears to dinner with Eric and Grimsby, the one the place she makes use of a fork to comb her hair. Let’s be actual: The unique vibrant pink gown by no means actually labored with Ariel’s ketchup-red hair. However the dwell motion mutes the colours a bit, making it the softer pink of a conch shell. It’s undoubtedly alleged to be impressed by that pink ballgown with the puffy sleeves, but it surely has its personal distinct look, evoking seafaring pirate-y apparel.

2. Aurora in Maleficent (2014)

Costume designer: Ellen Mirojnick; Princess: Elle Fanning

Maleficent is instructed from the perspective of Angelina Jolie’s eponymous darkish fairy, however the robes her adopted daughter Aurora wears undoubtedly give main-character vitality. They actually match the film’s darkish medieval-fantasy aesthetic, with delicate embroidery and extra muted (however nonetheless attractive) shade palettes. The blue robe she’s sporting when she pricks her finger within the fortress doesn’t seem like the animated model, but it surely has a stunning, elegant silhouette, and it really works higher on this context, for the reason that character isn’t dressed up for a ball.

She ends the film in a very attractive gold robe with some intricate floral detailing, which actually hammers residence the entire “youngster raised by fairies in a magical forest” vibe!

1. Cinderella in Cinderella (2015)

Costume designer: …additionally Sandy Powell; Princess: Lily James

I’ve this understandably ridiculous principle that each cent of the live-action-Disney-movie costume funds, previous, future, and current, went to Cinderella, leaving nothing for every other Disney live-action redux. This has to be the case, as a result of apparently the costume designer behind the travesty that’s the 2025 Snow White is additionally accountable for Cinderella, and I genuinely can not consider one other rationalization as to why the distinction in high quality between the 2 is so huge.

Each costume Cinderella wears — even her servant-girl outfit! — seems so ethereal. The pink gown her stepsisters destroy is gorgeous, and the marriage gown she wears within the finale, with its attractive flower accents, is totally beautiful.

However the pièce de résistance is her iconic ballgown. It’s clearly impressed by the animated film, however Powell gave it an identification of its personal. It seems like a watercolor portray come to life, and strikes with such class that it’s laborious to not gawk at Cinderella as she glides throughout the ballroom. No surprise everybody within the kingdom instantly falls in love along with her, the prince included.

Maybe Powell knew her Disney live-action remake profession peaked in 2015, and she or he didn’t elevate a finger for the 2025 Snow White? I get it. Why mess with perfection?