What is Disneybounding?

If you’re new to the Disney community, chances are you’ve never heard the term Disneybounding before. But if you are anything like me (an adult who loves all things Disney and who wishes they were young enough to wear Princess dresses in Disneyland – and well, IRL), you will come to love Disneybounding as much as I do.

The trend stemmed from the Tumblr blog: Disneybound.co created by Leslie Kay in 2012, as a way for adults to show their love for Disney in more modern, fashion forward ways. Since people above 14 years of age are not allowed to wear full costumes to the Disney parks, Disneybounding allows adults to dress up as their favorite characters without breaking any park rules. If you search #Disneybound today, you will see a whole community of participants showing off their creative and stylish interpretations of their favorite Disney characters.

How do you do it?

Now how exactly does Disneybounding work?

It is when you take elements from a particular character – colors, placement of colors, accessories, even hairstyles – and translate them into modern clothing. Like taking Belle’s yellow gown and turning it into a yellow off-shoulder sun dress. Or taking Ariel’s purple shell bra and green tail and wearing a purple tube top and green fitted skirt instead. The possibilities are endless, which is what makes Disneybounding so much fun.

What is Disney Style?

As someone who dresses in Disney practically on a daily basis, I don’t normally Disneybound that often. Instead I do what I like to call simply: Disney Style. I don’t dress up as a particular character, but I like to add touches of Disney – like a simple necklace or character tshirt – to my day to day style. (If that’s something you’d like to see, I actually have a series on IGTV where I show you my Disney outfits every single day! Go check it out if you want to see how I put these outfits together)

The difference?

Disneybounding is dressing up (modernly) as a Disney character. Disney Style is dressing in Disney as yourself. 

If that’s still confusing for you , I’ve decided to start a Disneybound vs Disney Style monthly series on this blog, where I pick one or two movies/themes to Disney Style, and one or two characters to Disneybound.

First up are two of my favorites: Tangled and Beauty and the Beast

TANGLED
Disney Style

For me, Disney Style is much more literal. Because it’s taking actual Disney merch and styling it in your own way.

For this Tangled outfit, I just took this purple Rapuzel shirt and paired it with a pink cardigan. I felt like these colors best represented the film. Also how cute is Pascal?

RAPUNZEL
Disneybound

Starting off the bounds with the Princesses for this blog.

For Rapunzel, I picked out this pouffy purple gingham top to represent her pouffy purple dress, and pink jeans for the hints of pink all throughout her outfit. Of course I had to do a braid as well. Wouldn’t be Rapunzel without it.

For accessories, I found this sun and moon layered necklace at Forever 21 and split it into two. The sun reminded me so much of Rapunzel’s lanterns that I couldn’t resist. Then I paired it with this Tangled ring set I got in Tokyo Disneyland.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Disney Style 

Styled this white Beauty and the Beast shirt with a simple light denim jacket. Something I always like to do when Disney styling is layering. It helps elevate the outfit and make it a little more grown up (and appropriate for adult life lol)

BELLE
Disneybound

For Belle, I picked out this white peasant blouse and this blue and white midi skirt.

Although this also works for the animated classic, this bound actually reminds me of the live action Belle more.

From the printed blue fabric, to the airy white cotton, to Belle’s rosetree necklace, even to her hair.

“Disneybounding is a way to express your love for Disney through fashion”
– Leslie Kay

What I love most about both Disney Style and Disneybounding, is that there are no rules. You can dress in Disney however you like, and you can really get creative with the styles and bounds you choose to do. More than actually wearing these outfits, it’s actually the planning that I enjoy most. Finding pieces in my wardrobe that work perfectly for a style or a bound is one of the most satisfying feelings ever.

So go take a look in your closet and dress in Disney today! We all need a little magic in our lives. Why not start with our clothes, right?

*Disney Style Shirts: Uniqlo

I can’t find the exact shirts I have anymore, but Uniqlo always carries beautiful new Disney designs regularly. 

*Lipsticks used: Happy Skin x Disney Collection

These lipsticks are really creamy and perfect for their respective Princesses! Highly recommend!