It Came From the Fandom: DisneyBound

Beware, for Disney's legal team is mighty and not to be trifled with.

The above is basically why adults aren't allowed to wear character costumes in the parks. No one is going to mistake the ten-year-old in the Cinderella dress for the actual official Princess offering photo ops and autographs, but an adult might be, and that raises potential liability issues for the company. A blanket ban on costumes for any guest over the age of 14 is the simplest way to avoid such problems altogether.

But in case no one had noticed, the majority of the grown-ups walking through those gates, with or without young'uns in tow, are Millennials now. Millennials grew up during the Disney Renaissance. Their childhoods were defined by a nearly constant stream of quality animated movies, which may be part of why so many of them didn't outgrow Disney when they hit puberty.

My point is, there are a whole lot of adults who wish they could dress as the characters when visiting Disneyland. And that is the reason for the practice known as “DisneyBound,” wherein people visit Disney parks in outfits that are not character costumes, but use color and accessories to be reminiscent of characters' looks.

I've tried it myself. I bet you'll never guess which character. (Sis, I see you preparing to type a blinding-flash-of-the-obvious comment, but you were there. So it wouldn't be a guess, would it?) Turns out, it's a lot of fun. Putting such an outfit together can be a great creative exercise, and it's a good way to snag a little extra Cast Member attention.

And if you need a little boost of inspiration...there's an app for that. Well, sort of. It's actually a Tumblr blog, dedicated solely to posting images of potential DisneyBound outfits. Some of the entries are submissions, but the vast majority are original content, composited from images of garments, accessories, and jewelry found elsewhere online. It's almost exclusively women's fashion (which is—let's face it—more variable), but someone with more masculine style could easily adapt the ideas.

Moreover, it's a really prolific blog, posting multiple outfits every dang day, often according to a daily theme, so a huge variety of concepts get explored. And before you ask...yes, some theme park-exclusive characters have been featured. It's a great blog just to scroll through.

Have fun!