this is about you know her from Beauty
and the Beast you know this dress and
this one but are they accurate we got
this fashion historian hello
my name is April Callaghan I'm a fashion
historian at the Fashion Institute of
Technology and she's going to walk us
through what Disney got right and what
they got wrong about these dresses first
let's establish a time period
pre-revolutionary 18th century France
great we know this because the
aristocracy still exists as we all know
from the movie a young prince lived in a
shining castle let's start with the
yellow dress right off the bat we know
that this bright intense yellow color
was probably not possible in 18th
century France before the invention of
synthetic or aniline dyes in 1856 all
colors were sourced from natural dye
stuffs including plants minerals and
animals yellow colors tended to be pale
buttercup or even a deep dark mustard
with a brown undertone our second clue
that Belle's dress might not be 18th
century is the shape or silhouette in
the 18th century the volume as you can
see in this fashion plate of Marie
Antoinette came directly out from the
hips
whereas Belle's skirt as well
bell-shaped so this is not accurate
let's draw Belle's yellow dress from the
undergarments up
first up the underwear during the 18th
century the very first layer of
undergarment that both men and women
weren't were known as a chemise which
was either made of cotton or linen for
more than 400 years women's
undergarments consisted of the chemise
over which was worn the corset that's
the next layer in the 18th century
corsets kind of created a conical shape
and the thing is in a very narrow waist
and raising and lifting the bosom the
corset in the chemise is just the very
beginning we have more foundation
garments that go on to create the
silhouette that's the third layer to
create the volume of the skirt women
were actually wearing basket-like
constructions strapped around their
waist these are known as pan yeas Pena's
were often made of either wood cane or
even wire so as an aristocrat your pan
yeas would be
weiter the higher-ranked you are some of
these skirts were so wide that they had
to enter and exit a room sideways
Belle's dress silhouette is actually far
more 19th century than it is 18th
century here we see a fashion plate from
the 1850s this is remarkably similar to
the style of dress that Belle is wearing
the fourth layer would be the petticoats
over the panier layers and layers of
petticoats would be worn petticoats can
weigh up to 1520 pounds and then the
gown which was in multiple pieces your
gown wasn't exactly like we think of a
dress today because it didn't close in
the front it was more of like a long
jacket the second part of the gown and
in order to fasten your gown over your
corset you would be wearing what's
called a stomacher and a stomacher is a
stiffened triangular piece of textile
that your gown would then be pinned or
sewn to to keep the front of your dress
closed women were literally sewn into
their dress each and every day let's
face it 18th century fashion was not
comfortable finally we have to look at
Belle's hair which for this time period
is missing a huge component this is a
pouf these extremely trendy fashionable
hairstyles which were created partially
by a wig which might have an under
structure of wood or wire and then the
wearer's own hair would be arranged
around this the height of some of these
poof's could be 1 or 2 or 3 feet even
like we said huge so here's what Belle
would have looked like compared to the
original Disney look oh wait one more
thing you will also note an 18th century
fashion gloves were not so much of an
important accessory fans much more so
certain movements with your fan could be
considered flirtatious and you could
even answer yes or no by placing the fan
on one cheek versus another so finally
this is what Princess Belle would have
looked like now let's look at valve
before all of the dancing and singing
with inanimate objects bells blue day
dress Belle lived in a provincial town
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was her blue dress appropriate for an
18th century commoner the two main
things that are wrong with Belle's look
in town is that she's not wearing
stockings and she's not wearing a hat
so this is not accurate either now we're
going to draw every layer of this dress
her underwear would have also been a
chemise the next layer would have been
stockings regardless of class in the
18th century all women wore knit
stockings these were essentially like
thigh-high tights but because elastic
had not been invented yet
you had to secure the stocking to your
leg by tying a ribbon just above the
knee and then the corset even
working-class women during the 18th
century would have been wearing a corset
and this was considered proper and
modest in this particular image we see a
male corset maker fitting a corset to
this woman it was actually legally
mandated that only men were allowed to
make corsets and this was all part of
the 18th century guild system next the
silhouette garment the silhouette of her
skirt is not supported by the pan yeas
that we spoke about earlier instead
there's a certain softness to it beneath
this would have probably been what's
called a bum roll which were padded
tubes that were worn tight about the
waist on top of this bum roll would have
been multiple petticoats and then the
next layer a caracal being a short
jacket that tended to have a little
flounce in the back and this would be
paired with a skirt over the garments
was the apron one of the things that the
animators absolutely got right was the
fact that she's wearing a white apron
during the 18th century clothing and
textiles were tremendously expensive so
to protect and care for your clothing
working-class women tended to wear
aprons over their textiles and she would
have worn a hat all women wore bonnets
caps
hair ornaments to display your hair in
public was a signal of sexual
availability finally the last piece this
little kerchief around her shoulders is
called a fee shoe because the corsets
forced the breasts up and out every once
in a while there was an occasional nip
slip and the fee shoe prevented that and
provided a little bit more modesty so
here's what townsfolk bail would have
looked like compared to the Disney
version the Disney animators have taken
design and aesthetic references spanning
several different decades to basically
create a romanticized fictionalized
historic past and this makes the film
indeed a tale as old as time and that's
what Belle would have worn if she lived
in history
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