How NOT to break the rules: Disneybounding 101

I don’t know about you but when I visit a Disney park, I love to embody as much of the magic as possible. This includes dressing Disney style! And as much as I’d LOVE to wear a full on Cinderella ball gown, that is actually not allowed in parks for adults. According to the official Disney “Attire Policy:”

Such a bummer! But what if you don’t want to wear a generic Mickey Mouse t-shirt and you want to dress like your favorite Disney character? Enter “Disneybounding.” This is the concept of creating outfits that give a sense of dressing like a character without being in a “costume.” 

I was first introduced to the concept of Disneybounding by the blogger Leslie Kay. She would create outfits based on Disney characters and post them on her Tumblr and Instagram. Leslie started her blog because she was getting ready for a trip to Disney World. She was “Disney Bound.” The title stuck and soon became the name associated with this style. 

Around the same time that Disneybound was created, a non-sanctioned event in Disney parks started to grow called Dapper Day. This took Disneybounding, added a vintage flair, and brought the outfits straight to the parks. During our trip to Disneyland in November there was actually a Dapper Day convention happening. The outfits were incredible!

Whether it’s Dapper Day or not, it’s so much fun to people-watch in the parks to see what folks are dressed up as! You know what’s even more fun? Participate in the fashion fun yourself! If you are saying “oh no I can’t do this!”, you really can! Just follow a few simple steps and you’ll be Disneybounding in no time!

Let’s do one together. We’ll start easy with everyone’s favorite mouse, Mickey!

1. Choose your occasion - When are you going to wear your outfit? Date night? A day in the parks? A random Tuesday? The time and place of your outfit will dictate the style and what sort of clothing choices you should make. For our Mickey outfit, let’s put something together to wear in the parks!

1. Color Blocking - Take a look at your character and pull out the main colors. For Mickey we’re looking at black, red, and yellow mostly.

1. Find your major pieces - My favorite place to go shopping is my own closet! You never know what Disneybounding gold you’ll find in there. You can also check out local thrift stores. However, I’ve found that it’s hard to find plus-size clothes in the thrift stores around me. There is nothing saying you can’t buy new clothing pieces but it can get costly buying new items. Try finding an item that will work with multiple characters! For example, a yellow dress is good for Belle, Winnie the Pooh, Snow White, Joy, Flounder, Pluto… I could go on. One of my favorite tshirts is from Universal Standard. I got it during one of their free t-shirt offers and I just love it! It’s plain black and perfect for this outfit. I found this red skort that will be perfect for Mickey’s shorts but will also be good for Minnie Mouse, Sebastian, Mushu, etc. The yellow sneakers are perfect for the park and can be paired with a Snow White outfit, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, etc.
   

Shirt - Universal Standard

Skort - Woman Within

Shoes - Amazon

1. Next up, accessories! To pull together a great outfit, you need accessories! A lot of this depends on where you are going to be wearing your outfit. For us, we’ll be at the parks so we don’t want too many crazy extras hanging off of us. For a bag, I picked this belt bag from Hello Clio. It has a special pocket for your Kindle. If you're a Kindle girly like me, you bring it with you everywhere! I added the cute patch to Disneyfy it. The hat is simple and so is the jewelry. Accessories are also a good place to include details from the character. The patch is definitely a way for me to pull in Mickey traits (aka his hands) in a more symbolic way. Maybe you have a fork in your hair as Ariel or pumpkin earrings if you are the Fairy Godmother. Those little details are what really make the ‘bound!
   

Belt bag - Hello Clio

Patch - Stoney Clover Lane

Hat - Disney Store

Necklace - Bauble Bar

Earrings - Bauble Bar

And voila! You have a Mickey Mouse Disneybound outfit to wear to the parks.

Disneybounding can be so much fun and building your outfit is a great way to get excited for whatever the occasion is. The entire month of March is a Disneybound Challenge! You can find more information about themes and dates on the Disneybound Instagram page. I’ll be creating a few Pooh-sized outfits every week to go along with the challenge! Try it out! And if you do a Pooh-size Disneybound, tag me in your photos!