#disney flappers

[prohibitionprincesses]

Twenties Darling

When George Darling first declared it time for Wendy to “grow up,” British society had little concept of adolescence. In Edwardian England, you went from being a child to being a young adult. But it turns out that Wendy wasn’t the only young person who wasn’t ready to grow up so fast.

With the Roaring Twenties comes the West’s first form of youth culture. The trauma of the Great War and the Spanish Flu pandemic has left the surviving teenagers determined to enjoy their lives while they still can. Also contributing to the change is the fact that secondary education is no longer just for the elite; middle class teenagers are now attending high school, and sometimes college, creating a new section of life  between childhood and adulthood, where all the teens and college-age people are gathered in one social setting.

Wendy Darling enters the Twenties—and her twenties—in a melancholy state. She's seen her brothers changed by the Great War, and and lost school friends to both that war and the Spanish Flu. The introduction of jazz and flapper culture is a welcome escape from her personal demons and college studies. Mr. Darling has hangups about “negro music,” but the Darling children have long ago learned that so-called "less civilized" cultures can make some damn good music and dancing. For the first time since Never Land, Wendy can dance vigorously in a feathered headband, to high-energy tunes.

Victorian courtship is also being replaced by independent dating. And girls don't even have to wait for boys to ask them out first! It's now acceptable for her to make the first move. Wendy is now free to be as flirtatious and flighty as a mermaid. And the other girls at her sorority won't try to drown her for trying to join in the fun. (Well, some of them maybe.)

Wendy can also guzzle rum like a pirate, because alcohol is still perfectly legal in the United Kingdom. But when she visits America as an exchange student, she can finally attend a proper speakeasy. Donning furs and sneaking to secret hideaways brings back memories of her time with the Lost Boys. When the energy at the Hangman's Tree speakeasy winds down, Wendy, emboldened by liquor and the energy of the night, takes the stage. She brings many a drunk lounge-lizard to tears with her slow-jazz rendition of “Your Mother and Mine.” Even Tinker Bell is misty-eyed, from the green absinthe bottle she’s taken up residence in.

AN: This took longer than planned. Tinker Bell and Tiger Lily came out good enough the first time around that I didn't feel the need to redraw them. But I really wanted to change Wendy's pose. Her getup is very inspired by "Downton Abbey." Drawing that dead fox made me sad, but it was true to both the time period and the Lost Boys. (It's easy to forget that they're all human boys wearing pajamas made from full-bodied animals skins!)

The ship behind her is clipart.

[prohibitionprincesses]

New Money

Manhattan, New York

The proverbial Cinderella Story is the very definition of the Roaring Twenties, as young Cindy Tremaine is about to find out.

By the late 1910s, poor Cindy is struggling to maintain the hope that she promised her parents she'd never give up, as she is worked to exhaustion by her abusive stepfamily. With the limitations placed on both the poor and women, she knows that her only realistic way out of this hellhole is through marriage. With her natural beauty and charm, she’s confident she could score a wealthy man, if she just had some way of worming herself into one of those upper-class social gatherings...and into something nice to wear. It seems impossible...

But then Cindy starts to notice some surprising upgrades in her stepfamily's lives. She's carrying and cleaning luxury items that would be pricey even for her filthy-rich relatives. Without revealing how much she's learning, Cindy gradually worms information from her stepmother and stepsisters about how they're affording all these things, and becomes familiar with the growing system of Credit—"Buy now, pay later." Credit Unions have been opened since the early 1900s, and as of 1914, Western Union and some department stores have begun issuing the first ever credit cards. The doorway Cindy needs to set her plan in motion has just opened before her, like magic. 

While out running errands, Cindy looks around and realizes that social mobility is exploding all around her. Immigrants are fleeing persecution and starting new lives here in America. The African American community is undergoing a cultural revolution of art and music. The number of high school students in the country has doubled, and more and more of them are going on to college. To top it all off, women are finally about to win the right to vote.

Relying heavily on the advice of magazine columnist “the Fairy Godmother,” Cindy learns that the most important thing in winning over others is “it,” and all “it” is, is confidence. Clara Bow demonstrates on the silent screen, and Cindy practices dancing to the radio whenever her step-family isn’t looking (much to the chagrin of her rodent friends, who scramble to get out of her way). “It” finally all pays off when the most eligible bachelor in Manhattan throws a Gatsby-worthy New Year's ball at his mansion, on the eve of Prohibition. This December 31 of 1919, Charles "Charming" Prince's courtyard is lined with pumpkins full of alcohol that will only be legal for a few more hours. 

The party is a wild display of extravagance and decadence that Jay Gatsby would envy. But the most enthusiastic dancer is a girl who no one knows. She must come from an incredibly wealthy background, with all her extravagant jewels and sequins. She belts it out on top of the pumpkin kegs to the roaring cheers of guests and servants alike, kicking her heels in a pair of art-deco glass shoes. The smitten heir jumps up onto the pumpkins to dance with her, and suddenly Cindy forgets all about money.

In the crowd below, Cindy’s stepmother narrows her eyes suspiciously, while her two daughters bury their heads in some pumpkin kegs.

Before Charming can get the girl’s name, the clock strikes midnight…and an ambush of FBI agents burst from their hiding places around the mansion’s grounds, hollering, “This is a raid!” Prohibition is now officially in effect. Feathers and sequins fly through the air as guests tear across the courtyard. Coppers are hacking the pumpkin kegs to pieces with axes, spilling their contents onto the brick paths below. Cindy’s stepmother tries to bribe the police lieutenant, while the stepsisters catch booze from the wrecked pumpkins in their bucket hats.  Charming searches frantically for his dance partner, but Cindy has already taken off in her rented limo.

The next morning, no one from the party seems to know the mysterious woman. Did 200 drunken dancers all hallucinate the same girl? 

Then, finally, among the overturned furniture and smashed pumpkins, Charming’s butler finds an art-deco glass slipper—the largest purchase on Cindy’s new credit card.

A/N: I really did Cindy dirty in this series for a long time. She's my least-favorite Disney princess, and her ballgown doesn't give one much to work with. Her overall motif felt too similar to Elsa, who I like much better. Still, I could have tried harder. I was inspired to give this another shot after seeing Amit Naftali's take on a flapper Cinderella. In addition to that picture, I also based my redo on this dress. Her new hairdo is based on this picture of actress Greta Garbo. And as before, Cindy's headpiece is inspired by Daisy Buchanan's from "The Great Gatsby" (2013).

[prohibitionprincesses]

Topsy Turvy Flapper

Charleston, South Carolina

Esmeralda Danzer is a traveling Vaudeville dancer. As a Romani person in the 1920s, the entertainment industry is one of the few in which she can thrive with relative ease. Just as Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli, and Charlie Chaplin. It certainly helps that not only is Vaudeville at the peak of its popularity, but Esmeralda's greatest talent, rigorous and "risque" (for the time) dancing, is the new national pastime. Her troupe combines jazz with traditional Romani music, in a proto-version of what will eventually be called "Gypsy Jazz." The band is long overdue for a stop in Charleston, South Carolina—entertainment hotspot, and home of the new and “scandalous” Charleston dance.

While performing at the Topsy Turvy Club, Esmeralda meets Quasimodo Bell, a shy young worker from a local circus. Quasi spends most of his days backstage as a strongman, but occasionally endures taunting in the sideshow, where he's billed as "the Hunchback." Before meeting Esmeralda, Quasi's only friends were Vic, Hugh, and Laverne, three disfigured dwarfs who also perform in his troupe. Sneaking into this speakeasy is his first time breaking the law.

Esmeralda is shocked to learn that Quasi’s foster-father is none other than Claude Frollo. Frollo is a judge considered racist even for his time, venomously obsessed with enforcing Prohibition, and using it to harass minorities at any opportunity. Frollo pushed Quasi into the circus career, convincing him that it was all he'd ever be good for, in spite of Quasi's artistic talents. Esmeralda can't believe someone as cruel and bigoted as Frollo could have raised someone as kind as Quasimodo. The surprises continue when Chief of Police Phoebus Gold turns out to also be incredibly progressive and noble, and a romance begins.

Judge Frollo develops a twisted fixation on Esmeralda, after witnessing her “sinful” performances around town, and being publicly challenged by her when he refuses to stop a mob from harassing Quasi at the sideshow. Quasi and the Chief track Esmeralda to an underground speakeasy called the Court of Miracles, to warn her that Frollo is planning a raid. Unfortunately, Frollo used Quasimodo and Phoebus to lead them right to the hideout.

Now completely unhinged, Frollo cuffs Esmeralda to the bars of her prison cell and douses her in alcohol, planning to “burn the witch in her own sin.” But just before the deranged judge can drop the match onto her, Quasi breaks through the bars of his cell, and sends Frollo across the jailhouse in a swipe of his arm. A mass jailbreak ensues, followed by an epic brawl, with some cops like Phoebus joining the wrongfully imprisoned citizens against Frollo’s corruption. Frollo ends up falling off the highest part of the Grace Memorial Bridge, to his long-overdue demise. Quasimodo is hailed as a national hero, and the city celebrates. Quasi eventually finally finds love with a gun moll named Maddy, who betrays her scam-artist boyfriend Sarouch and turns a new leaf.

AN: I hate how long I took for this one, since Esmeralda is my favorite Disney heroine. I didn't want to redraw her flapper picture from scratch, but the old version was of such low-quality that it couldn't be salvaged. It looks alright from the thumbnail, but up close you'll see what I mean. Her dress was inspired by Seraphine's red dress in the comic "Lackadaisy."

[prohibitionprincesses]

Let it Go on the Dance Floor

The wealthy Arendelle family left Scandinavia in 1912 to expand the family business to the States, where their new mansion in Minnesota was already complete. But the ship never made it to the New York harbor.

Being first-class, the mother and daughters made it to a lifeboat, but that lifeboat capsized. Elsa instinctively created a small ice raft under herself and her sister, who she shielded from the frigid temperatures with her own body; the cold never bothered Elsa. But she wasn't big enough to do the same for their mother, nor strong enough to hold on to her. The sisters were rescued, and brought to Arendelle Manor, located between Minneapolis and St. Paul. There they were raised by their Uncle Kai and Aunt Greta, who ran the house with the formal Edwardian etiquette they were used to, but were warm and loving to their nieces. They never directly addressed Elsa's "condition," but quietly accommodated her needs. Elsa grew up concealing and suppressing her gift as best she could, fearing that it was her emotional outburst that had caused the iceberg to appear in front of the Titanic.

Years later, Annie Arendelle is ecstatic by the booming Roaring Twenties. For the first time in forever, Annie is allowed to have as much wild fun as when she was a child. The new social freedoms for young women offer an open door for Annie to find love. Elsie however remains stubbornly trapped in an Edwardian "conceal, don't feel" lifestyle. At a Forth of July carnival, Annie meets Hans Sønder, and declares herself in love. Later, at the family's Forth of July ball, Elsie has a lapse in self-control, and turns everyone's (illegal) champagne into booze icicles, exposing her condition to everyone. In a panic, Elsie literally heads for the hills. She doesn't realize that she has left Minneapolis, St. Paul, and every suburb in-between covered in a thick July snowfall. For the many people whose business involves the illegal sale of alcohol, assets have literally frozen.

Dr. Weaselten Weselton, a prominent psychiatrist and guest at the family ball, comes up with a scientific explanation for how a woman's uncontrolled hysteria might have adverse affects on the weather, and suggests having Elsie committed for the protection of society. Annie won't have that, and begins tracking down her sister. She teams up with iceman Kristoff Bjorgman, and a talking snowman newsie named Olaf.

Kristoff's business may be declining due to the invention of the refrigerator, but most people still use ice boxes in the '20s, so his job security looks alright. New houses are still being built with ice doors opening right into the kitchen. And that St. Paul Winter Carnival has been doing its ice palaces since the 1800s. The group eventually finds that Elsie has made an art-deco ice palace of her own, that blows all of those others out of the water.

Unfortunately that ritzy ice palace is destroyed in a rein of Tommy gun bullets, from Hans' henchmen. Turns out Annie's new fiance isn't quite as respectable as he claims to be. Hans uses his social connections to get Elsie committed to an asylum, and tries to wack Annie, by leaving her to die from the icy illness her sister accidentally gave her. Elsie breaks out of the asylum, only to find that Annie is now a ritzy art-deco ice statue. Elsie drops her last Edwardian barrier, and lets lose the waterworks, which turn out to be the remedy for Annie's condition. The sisters expose Hans' mafia ties, and "Dr." Weselton's quackery. Annie hooks up with Kris, but takes things a bit slower this time around. Elsie un-f*cks the weather, except for a new art-deco ice a palace, where she finally lets it go on the dance floor.

AN: I deeply regret taking so long to get this one polished. This entire series was supposed to be released over the year 2020, with "Frozen" and "Anastasia" being posted in December. But then...2020 happened.

[prohibitionprincesses]

Arabian Jazz

When the Ottoman Empire dissolved in 1922, Yasmine Agrabah and her father Hamed were among the wave of Arab immigrants starting a new life in Jacksonville, Florida. But a few years later, in 1926, the family moves to the other side of the state, to the newly developing Aladdin City. (Yes, seriously.)

Hamed Agrabah is a respected, if eccentric, businessman, who runs a successful shop selling animal figurines. He has no problem with his daughter being outspoken and dressing in Western fashion, because in the 1920s, neither of those is too unusual for women in many Middle Eastern countries. Women in Afghanistan actually gained the right to vote a year before women in the U.S. did! The Arab world is even developing its own version of jazz music. Yasmine Anglicizes her first name to Jasmine, and goes by Jazz for short. But Hamed draws the line at Jazz venturing outside their upper-class neighborhood, fearful for her safety.

Jazz sneaks out at night to frequent speakeasies, despite having no interest in alcohol. She just wants to break some rules, and make some real friends. During her nights out, she meets streetwise bootlegger Al, and the connection is immediate. But they’re separated when the speakeasy is busted, and they're both hauled off by the coppers. Jazz is bailed out of jail by her displeased father. To rub salt in the wound, her father’s business partner Jafar casually drops that he heard Al was killed in prison. Jazz is devastated, and blames herself.

Some time later, Jazz’s father hosts a fancy party at their mansion, in the hopes of introducing her to some eligible young men. A purple-and-gold limousine catches everyone’s attention as it pulls up to the driveway. The visitor’s blue-skinned butler introduces “Ali Ababwa,” a brilliant young business mind from a renowned “old money” family that no one has heard of. In his spiffy white suit with gold trim, Ali saunters into the party and charms the pants off everyone except Jazz and Jafar. Later that night, on her bedroom balcony, Jazz sees “Ali” trying to shoo her cat Raja away with his white, gold-brimmed fedora. His bad haircut underneath is instantly familiar. Ali insists that he and Jazz have never met, but she isn’t convinced. Nevertheless, she joins him in his purple limo for a night of adventure. Among other things, they see a production of the groundbreaking animated film “The Adventures of Prince Achmed”—the first feature-length animated movie in cinema. As the film ends, Jaz muses, “It’s too bad Abu couldn’t see this,” referring to Al’s pet monkey, and trips up “Ali” in his lie.

Later, Jafar’s hitmen send Al to sleep with the fishes, and Jafar slips Hamed a very powerful Mickey, hoping to coerce him into signing over his company and daughter. Al shows up just in time to expose Jafar’s snake-oil quackery. But Jafar catches a glimpse of a familiar art-deco bottle in Al’s fedora, and realizes that “Ali” is in fact Al, the young bootlegger who made off with the enchanted booze bottle Jafar had hoped to nab for himself. Jafar has Iago swipe the bottle out of Al’s purple limo, and the genie has a new master.

The magical battle that follows cumulates in the Miami Hurricane of 1926. Al defeats Jafar, frees the genie and gets the girl; but Aladdin City’s real estate value is permanently damaged. Nevertheless, everyone is happy to have survived the hurricane, and be free of a twisted crime lord. Citizens who recall seeing Al battle a giant snake, and Jafar transforming into a giant red genie, attribute these memories to the giggle-water they’ve been guzzling all decade. Those who don’t drink figure maybe they got a head injury during that hurricane. At any rate, Al and Jazz are married, and begin their life together in a whole new world of adventure.

AN: I waited far too long to get Jasmine into this series, and I blame her absence for why my "Prohibition Princesses" project hasn't gained as much attention as I'd hoped. Part of why she's so late coming is that I kept waiting for the chaos in the Middle East to simmer down, to minimize controversy. But Jasmine was also always going to take longer, because my favorite princesses tend to get the most elaborate designs. The patterns on her dress are based largely on her live-action counterpart. UPDATE: I fixed a few details and added Raja.

[prohibitionprincesses]

Journey to the Past

1927. Rasputin may be defeated, but Anastasia and her Grandmama still have a silver storm of political chaos and dangers to navigate through.

The 1920s are a time of great dispute among the remaining Romanovs and their loyalists, over who is now the true tsar. Many loyalists and relatives now regard the Dowager Empress as Russia's true ruler, but it is an honor she has never never accepted, refusing to believe she was truly the last of the nuclear royal family.

The '20s have also seen the start of Anastasia imposters, as well as people claiming to be other Romanov children. The most famous imposter, Anna Anserson, never even made it to the Dowager Empress’s presence; Grandmama dismissed the fake before ever meeting her. The Dowager Empress was not the only one who wanted the little princess to turn up alive; the legend of Anastasia enchants people around the globe. Siberian resident Nadezhda Vasilyeva claimed to be Anastasia, in an attempt to relocate to China. The Kokoshniks of Russian royalty have also become a popular fashion accessory for flappers throughout the Western world.

The silver lining of all these imposters is that when the real Anastasia is finally found, few who get word of the discovery take it seriously, and the Soviets do not seem particularly concerned with her. Anastasia herself now has incredibly mixed feelings about the possibility of ruling Russia. Having grown up in a peasant orphanage with children of various backgrounds, Anya came to have a nuanced view of things, and before learning her true identity, regarded both the Tsar and the Soviets with a somewhat cynical indifference. Now that her memories are returning, the painful truths of her father's reign are an added trauma that she frankly does not need. Anya and Grandmama ultimately decide that the time of ruling bloodlines is for a past era, and that the burden of creating a just government for Russia can be left to someone else. They just want to live together in Paris, with the remaining family that they have.

A/N: This should have been the first non-Disney girl I drew for this series. I was originally saving her for December of 2020 (because of the song), but of course 2020 didn't go as expected.

Her dress is inspired by Billy Kent's Egyptian dress in "Boardwalk Empire," and Liza Minnelli's dress from the Money Song in "Cabaret" (1972). I tried to work in elements from both of Anya's gold dresses from the movie, as well as her music box.

[prohibitionprincesses]

Winds of Change

In 1924, Virginia “Posie” Riverbend officially becomes a citizen of the United States of America, along with the rest of her tribe. About damn time, given they’re more “American” than anyone.  But that same year, the Racial Integrity Act bans Posie from marrying her white boyfriend, “John Smith.” The Powhatan flapper and the white bootlegger carry on their illegal affair in secret, seeking out nightlife adventures.

It was at the speakeasies that Posie earned her nickname, "Pocahontas," shortened to Posie. She got the nickname for tossing herself over a white man at a speakeasy, just when he was about to take a pounding from some other bootleggers he'd been arguing with; they were taken aback, and the fight was called off. Actually, she'd just tripped and fell over him; hadn't even noticed there was a fight about to start. But she got stuck with the nickname, and that's how she met "John Smith." From then on, she tended to flaunt her heritage with cheeky fashion stereotypes, much like performer Molly Spotted Elk. In 1926, Norma Smallwood, the first Native American to win Miss America, also becomes an inspiration for Posie.

Posie’s father knows that his daughter frequents speakeasies, and has long since given up trying to talk her out of her flapper lifestyle. But he doesn’t know about “John Smith.” Only Posie’s best friend Nikie knows about that. Nikie constantly warns Posie about what could happen if a speakeasy gets raided by the police, and what kind of business “John Smith” is most likely involved in. For Posie, the dangers just make it all more enticing. The fact that the government is still treating Native Americans absolutely abhorrently also stifles Posie’s respect for the law.

The affair seemingly ends in tragedy, when John Smith is reported gunned down during a rooftop shootout. After a period of mourning, Posie rebounds with another white lounge lizard named Ralph Johnson. This government-employed dweeb is everything John Smith wasn’t. He meets Posie because he’s on an assignment from Lewis Meriam, conducting surveys among Native Americans for the Meriam Report, which will address far-too-long overlooked social issues in the American Indian community. Posie gets involved in Ralph's research, and with Ralph. When John Smith later turns up alive, things get complicated.

AN: Turning the Colors of the Wind into a feather boa is the brilliant idea of DeviantArt user EstrangeloEdessa. The hummingbird earrings are a reference to “Boardwalk Empire.”

[prohibitionprincesses]

City of Gold

Tijuana, Mexico

Prohibition may be law in the United States, but in Mexico liquor is still perfectly legal. So naturally, cities along the boarder like Juarez and Tijuana become booming destinations for bootleggers, and tourists from the States seeking drink and other vices. Miguel and Tulio are Mexican-Americans from Texas, running rum from Juarez to El Paso. They serve a terrifying mob boss named Hector “Knuckles” Cortez. He has hired Miguel and Tulio because they’re the craftiest smugglers in the biz. But it turns out, they’re also the only two men in Texas stupid enough to try ripping off Knuckles Cortez.

Fleeing Kuckles, and the police forces of both the U.S. and Mexico, the two crooks end up all the way over in Tijuana—a booming tourist destination near the border of California. Here in "Satan's Playground," they literally bump into another fugitive of the law. Chel Perez is wanted by the Mexican police for petty theft. She’s a streetwise dame who knows the city like the back of her hand, and she’s willing to be their tour guide, in exchange for a piece of the action.

The trio end up opening a popular casino in Tijuana called El Dorado. The theme is gold, the mascot is an armadillo, and it’s supported mostly by the barrels of booze shipped out of the back room to SoCal. Mobsters and movie stars flock to El Dorado to drink, gamble, and make bets on ancient ballgames played with the mascot. The three partners in crime are soon living like gods.

The jolly mayor of Tijuanan loves El Dorado, and he loves Miguel and Tulio. But chief of police Domingo Tzekel-Kan is getting suspicious, and soon comes into contact with Knuckles Cortez. Before long, the armadillo will be out of the bag.

A/N: This took me so long to do the first time, that there was no way I was going to redraw the whole thing. Most of the work this time was on adding that pyramid behind her. I considered making her dress gold and full of Mesoamerican patterns, but I don’t have the time. Plus, Belle will have a gold dress.

I can no longer find most of the pictures that inspired Chel's headdress, but here is one.