How many ears do you think you have?
Probably five hundred pairs.
Five hundred pairs of ears!
Well when you say it, it sounds crazy.
The Magic Kingdom.
Home of Cinderella, lustful bears, actual ducks, and now fashion icons.
I am a terrible Instagram husband.
I’m just putting this out there.
Some people want to wear Disney all the time.
Have you ever not smiled in a photo before?
I grew up with the movies, singing along with warthogs and magical teapots.
But since my life now looks less like Belle's and more like the villager whining about expensive eggs,
I don't get why any adult would dress like a fairy tale.
Good boy!
He's got his lucky feather, we're gonna be just fine!
These are the Disneybounders.
Disney doesn’t allow adults to wear costumes in its parks,
so these fans began wearing outfits inspired by characters.
Today the Disneybound hashtag has close to a million posts.
It's an obsession, focused on one of the world's most powerful companies.
I’m tracking down Disney addicts to discover how far their fandom can go, and how Disney
made the leap from their screens to their closets.
Our first Disney bound was together as a couple.
As a matter of fact I might even have a picture of it.
I Disneybounded before that but, I wasn't as good at it.
What's up guys, I'm here with Leo.
What's up everybody, we're at Disney World!
We are officially inside Shanghai Disneyland.
Leo and I are in Tokyo today.
Sarah's whole world revolves around her Disney habit.
I met my boyfriend because he's a Disney cosplayer.
I'm Prince Eric and then sometimes I also dress like him.
I met a lot of my friends through making YouTube videos about Disney.
Oh, yeah, you gotta break us up.
Yeah.
I do anything and everything related to Disney.
Including Disneybounding.
Including and especially Disneybounding.
When I think of Disney, I think of trademarks.
Disney is notorious for guarding intellectual property.
They've managed to overhaul U.S. copyright limits twice to keep Mickey out of the public domain.
I'm curious how Sarah creates looks that feel Disney without being Disney.
This is the workshop?
Yeah.
You know, I've got things like this that's very obviously for Minnie.
Scrooge is more formal, and so I did a more formal look for him.
And how often do you wear these clothes just in your day to day?
Pretty often.
It's not like this is a costume closet.
This is just clothes.
Yeah, you should be able to wear a Disneybound to school or to work.
I, too, want to embody my inner Disney princess.
So I run some options by Sarah.
What is this blue?
Cinderella blue?
Maybe it’s a little dark?
Yeah, it's a little dark for Cinderella, maybe the Genie?
Possibly?
Apparently my color palette isn’t very royal.
So I settle on a different soulmate.
I was thinking, actually I kind of feel a kinship towards this character: Smee.
That's right, Smee.
The near-sighted pirate from Peter Pan.
Now, we accessorize.
Oh my god.
I know, it's pretty wild in here.
You took me to my happy place.
This is really the American dream.
An Asian woman in her thirties can, too, be a geriatric, white haired, potbellied pirate.
You don't have to be so literal with a Disneybound, you can interpret the hat in any way.
Can I do this is as a 90s, hip-hop dad look?
Yes!
I do think that you need some glasses to complete it.
Those are really funky because they're glasses and sunglasses.
I love it.
Do you like 'em?
I mean, I honestly feel like a Williamsburg asshole hipster from 2004.
But I see what is happening.
It's coming together before my eyes.
There you go, channel my inner Smee.
Captain.
No, no, no, no, against the wall.
Against the wall.
Now that I'm twinning with a pirate grandpa,
Sarah is throwing me into the deep end of the Disneybounding pool.
Everyone come in!
The trivia nerds.
What's up everybody?
We have a first time Disneybounder here.
Does everyone know who she's Disneybounding as?
Smee!
There ya go!
Are you guys ready?
Question one:
What's the name of the daycare center in Toy Story 3?
Everyone seemed really confident on that, perfect.
What is Mickey Mouse's birthday?
In the movie Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, what is the name of the band that Protozoa plays in?
What is the name of the first Mickey Mouse cartoon in color?
What is Troy Bolton's basketball jersey number in High School Musical?
I assumed knowing the names of all seven dwarves would make me a trivia star.
But I’m way out of my league.
In the movie Zombies, what device do the zombie kids where to squash their urge to eat brains?
Well that was a bloodbath.
But I see now how Disneybounding has brought people together.
It's a community, where everyone adds their own flavor.
I am a princess girl through and through.
Stop!
Oh my gosh, you have a half sleeve of Disney princesses?
This is literally happily ever after for ever, ever, ever.
As I meet more and more diehard Disney junkies,
I wonder whether something deeper than fandom is at play.
I love your outfit.
Thank you!
Can I try to guess at what you are?
Yeah!
The blue and the yellow.
Yeah.
Are you Snow White?
Yeah!
But are you Mexican Snow White?
Welcome to Agrabah, city of mystery.
Like most of American cinema, Disney’s depiction of other cultures has changed with the times.
Aladdin called the Middle East barbaric,
Dumbo had a bird named Jim Crow.
I didn't see that, I only heard.
In recent years, the company has embraced diverse characters,
featuring heroic princesses from China to Polynesia.
Shang, go!
But given these characters didn’t exist when she was a child,
I wonder what drew Yvette to Disney's table.
What were your favorite Disney movies and characters as a kid?
Oh my God, I love Ariel so much!
As you could tell, I love Ariel!
I'm so secretly like –
Not so secretly.
Not so secretly, creepily.
I'm so creepily obsessed with Ariel.
The Little Mermaid debuted in 1989.
It ushered in a new era of movies featuring women searching for their place.
I always felt like I wasn't American enough for the Americans.
I wasn't Mexican enough for Mexico.
Yvette tells me that before Disneybounding she had a hard time fitting in.
Her parents were immigrants from Sinaloa, Mexico.
I didn't grow up speaking English.
They would take me outside of class to teach me how to speak English and I felt like that
was pretty much Ariel.
She was not feeling really part of the mer-world,
but not too much part of the human world.
Her story to me was very like, I get it.
I'm in that in-between space, and that's okay.
I'm neither from here nor there and that's okay.
And I can be part of both worlds.
Part of your world.
Yvette makes her bounding pieces by hand.
I taught myself how to sew.
A lot of stores aren't plus size friendly, so I need to do something that's more fitted for my body.
Apparently there is a Disney character in everything.
This one is perfect for Cinderella, because it's more of that light, silvery, baby blue.
Yeah.
This one is perfect for village Ariel, because you know Ariel has a bunch of different outfits
throughout the movie.
Of course, as every woman does.
Yeah, you can't just have one.
When I'm in the village, I wear something different, too.
As opposed to the castle.
Yes!
We need different outfits, girl!
Yvette wants to prove that being a Disney princess doesn't mean you have to be fair skinned,
a size two and serenading door mice in a perfect soprano.
I always felt like I didn't belong anywhere.
Disney gave me some type of belonging.
Disney movies hit home for so many of us.
But something is still gnawing at me, because at the end of the day what's behind these looks
isn't magic.
It's a global corporation.
Disney generates 55 billion dollars a year.
It’s not just fairy tales.
They're buying 21st Century Fox.
They own ESPN, ABC, Hulu, Marvel, Star Wars,
even the History Channel wears Mickey Mouse ears.
So this is part of the Vance collaboration.
This is Geoff McFetridge.
This is one of the custom prints that he did.
It launched just a few weeks ago.
Since brand collaborations began, Disney’s fashion footprint now looks more like a body slam.
There are Disney collections at Gucci, Forever 21, and Walmart.
Mickey and Minnie fashion has more than doubled in the last five years.
We have the ability to touch all demographics, all families.
Disney as a brand invites everyone to participate, to find their piece of it that connects with
them on an emotional level.
Have you noticed that adults are more interested in Disney style today more than ever before?
Yes, it's a little bit generationally, this desire to still hold on to something that's
emotional and dear to you.
There's an adult audience out there that wants fashion from us.
I'm surprised it took us so long.
Far from lawsuits Disney has instead capitalized on the bounding trend.
Every bounder we featured in this video has tens of thousands of followers on Instagram.
Which means that, in exchange for perks like product samples, Disney can get all kinds
of free publicity.
Can you think of one place that Disney hasn't touched?
The moon?
Or have they?
I don't know, I wouldn’t be shocked.
This is Chelsea: a full time influencer, and genuine Disney fan girl.
She calls her style “Disney flavored”.
She's not always a specific character, and thanks to her following she gets invited to
weigh in on new styles before they hit stores.
Disney to me is selling a feeling.
The feeling of happiness, and joy, and magic, and nostalgia.
No matter how uncertain the world seems.
Disney kind of stays constant and consistent.
I grew up in a very small town in West Virginia.
Disney was always a pipe dream cause it is an expensive place to visit.
My first kind of memory with Disney is watching Cinderella.
I didn't realize how much it was kind of planting a seed in my head of what life could be.
As Chelsea got older, that seed grew and so did her princess dreams.
I'd always wanted to be the best.
I wanted to make my parents proud.
I wanted to be successful coming out of a small town.
This year she and her husband left their small town and moved next door to her favorite castle.
Disney leaves nothing to you, really.
Like they take care of you down to every little detail.
So there's always someone holding your hand no matter how old you are.
Yeah.
I mean honestly sometimes I wish I had a chaperone in my life, you know?
The world is a little chaotic right now.
It's a really good escape.
Chelsea’s escaped to Disney World around 100 days this year.
This is like the postcard.
I know, I know.
You can actually mail postcards from here by the way.
Chelsea's new home is called Celebration,
a suburban development built over a swamp by Disney in the 90’s.
It was designed as an old timey utopia.
For Chelsea, moving to Celebration was a gamble.
Her Instagram feed doesn't yet pay the bills.
But even if happily-ever-afters aren't perfect, Chelsea feels that she's found hers.
Say hi!
Hi.
I'm not a millionaire but I feel content.
I'm happy.
It's one thing to dream, it's one thing to see it become a reality.
Do you believe in magic?
Absolutely.
Oh, hello!
Oh, my god!
Hello!
Do you know who I am?
The yellow, the bun...
Girl, are you Belle?
Are you a princess?
I did it!
Here's the thing about unfiltered positivity: it's contagious.
Yvette and I have a date at Disneyland.
Hi!
She's pretty famous here.
Oh you do?
Everyone here is just so damn nice.
Of course!
I saw it and I knew right away, I love them so much!
After years of feeling like an outsider, Yvette has found the place where she belongs.
And Disney is finding new ways to reach its diverse audience.
Oh wow.
Yeah, so they have an actual ofrenda here.
So they have offerings for the dead.
So different foods that they might have liked–
Yeah.
they put on there and then they have–
Like this is pretty legit!
Oh yeah!
In 2013, Disney did try to trademark a Mexican Holiday, but they also got a lot of things right.
It's really nice to see my culture
display correctly throughout the parks.
It kind of gives me a sense of acceptance, like they've embraced our people.
There's a lot of Latinos, Mexicanos that come to Disneyland.
So you have a lot of hopes and dreams for the future of Disney.
I do.
We're going to see a queer prince one day.
We're going to see Vietnamese, Japanese, different parts of Asia.
We're gonna see our Latina princess, Puerto Rico, from Cuba, from South America.
I feel like slowly we're going to be getting there one day.
Until Disney does get there, its fans are busy creating the Disney they believe in.
Hi Cinderella!
Hello there Connie, hello Sarah!
You brought Gus with you!
We brought GusGus, yeah!
Oh, you’re so very sweet!
It makes me feel like I did when I was a kid.
I don't see a reason to stop.
Disney!
It's really hard to kind of be vulnerable, and open up to people.
But without having any happiness and love to pick us up it wouldn't be a very good world to live in.
In a land of synthetic monuments, Disneybounders have found real reasons to share hope, friendship,
and fanny packs.
If the world looks better through rose colored glasses, maybe I'll grab a pair.
Hey, those could go great with a Piglet Disneybound.
Thank you for watching Style Out There.
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