Since it's Veteran's Day, I thought I'd use some rare time off to write an article. The only article idea I could think of that wouldn't take all day to research and explore would be a list of princess "peasant" dresses rated in order from the ones I like least to the one I'm seriously considering commissioning my Ren Faire friends to sew for me.

Most people seem to love the princesses' fancy, sparkly, poofy ballgowns, or their iconic princess dresses. I personally was never a fan. I'm a real stickler for comfort and practicality. Ballgowns tend to be made with a material I find uncomfortable (Ah! Silk and satin! Too slippery!), tend to be pretty heavy thanks to all the fabric, pinch or constrict in certain places while being too loose in others, and generally just hard to move in. Makes sense, they're decorative dresses meant to be seen in and not do things in (apart from maybe ballroom dancing), but that's not for me. Not to mention I often panic about getting them stained or dirty since washing is difficult at best, non-existent at worst. (Peasant dress got dirty? No problem! Into the wash!) Plus, I get cold really easily and like something that's warm and comfortable.

Not to mention that I tend to just like the way their average, everyday dresses look. I think they're pretty and underrated.

Now I'm going to rate the "peasant dress" worn by each princess, from the one I like least to the one I like best.

* Note that Rapunzel and Elsa won't make this list because they don't really have a "peasant" dress. Rapunzel's main dress is just as decorative as the dress she wears after she's reunited with her royal parents at the end, and Elsa flat out doesn't wear any modest dresses come adulthood. She has her queenly coronation dress and ice queen dress. That's it.

So, without further ado, onto our list!

11) Pocahontas.



This one's kind of cheating on many levels. Pocahontas is a pre-Colonial Native American, not a European, so "peasant" and "princess" doesn't exist in her society. She also only wears the one outfit through her whole movie.

I guess one could argue that she does have that fancy ballgown in the sequel. Then again, if you don't count the direct-to-video sequels as "canon," that hardly counts. I guess you could also argue that the historical Pocahontas toured Europe and attended many fancy functions in link, but Disney plays so fast and loose with history that it's debatable whether Disney's Pocahontas was ever meant to eventually visit England by the original filmmakers' estimate.

AGH! WHATEVER! Even by it's own merit, Pocahontas's dress is not for me. Thanks to her full figure, I find it too tight and thus uncomfortable, too revealing and thus very cold, and very plain and thus uninteresting. Yeah, it's petty. but that's that.

If her dress was more historically accurate - hung more loosely on her body, had beads attached to the frills, came with many beautiful seashell necklaces like shoomlah's design on link...



I'd be all over it. As it is though, Disney's dress for Pocahontas doesn't do much for me.

10) Belle.



Not my cup of tea.

First off, I've got a real pet peeve about sleeves. They need to be either shorter than the elbow, or three-quarter length very close to the elbow (either rolled up just above the elbow or just slightly below it), or longer than the wrist. Long-sleeved shirts that have the sleeves end below the elbow but don't make the wrists drives me CRAZY! ESPECIALLY if the edge of the sleeve cups the wrist the way Belle's does. ARGH!

I'm also not a fan of the general cut of the dress. I don't like the cut of the bodice, the color blue they used, the white apron, the stark contrast between that shade of blue and white, the material of her white sleeves, which look too poofy and uncomfortable, and so much more...

Also, while I normally love tea-length skirts and dresses (skirts that are longer than the knee but shorter than the ankle), I'm not as fond of it on Belle. For some reason, I don't like that skirt with those flats, or how it makes her bare legs look, or any of the like.

I don't know. This dress just has all the wrong things going on for me. Don't like the cut, the colors, the sleeve-length or material, don't like the skirt length with those bare legs and shoes,or skirt/shoe combination, or whatever.

Sorry Belle, I love you, but not your dress.

9) Jasmine



Based on my past criteria, her dress should be perfect. It looks warm, comfortable, easy to move in, has a full-length skirt and sleeves, et cetera. So what's the problem? Unfortunately, the deep brown color prevents it from being anything spectacular. The overall cut is also really plain, and it covers the whole body so the eye is assaulted with with a shapeless, formless mass of BROWN.

Plus, the head wrap looks difficult to use. I don't know. It might just be me, but I envision having a difficult time figuring out how to wrap that thing, and how to keep it from constantly slipping off my head because my hair is like water--EVERYTHING slips off it.

8) Snow White



When I was a little kid, I went to a private school in which the girl's school uniform had shirts and dresses cut like this. They had the exact same collar, short, poofy capped sleeves, and tight fit around the bodice. I HATED those school uniforms! I grew up to detest short poofy and capped sleeves, cute little upturned collars, etc.

So what keeps this dress away from the very bottom? Why is it higher than Pocahontas', Belle's and Jasmine's? I guess because I love everything else about the dress. What brings this one higher is I love the colors, patches, and general cut.

Honestly, if she fixed up the ridiculously tattered skirt hem and ditched those giant wooden clogs, this would be a very cute dress to wear.

7) Cinderella



This is a dress I'm very neutral about. Don't love it, don't hate it, don't like it or dislike it. It's just a very good, solid dress. Colors are all right, cut is okay, three-quarter-length sleeves are all right even if they're a little loose, and the tea-length skirt gives me nothing to fuss about.

By the way, did anyone ever notice that Carlotta from The Little Mermaid wears Cinderella's peasant dress?



6) Mulan



This is another dress I'm extremely neutral about. Don't love it, don't hate it, don't like it or dislike it. It's rated a little higher than Cinderella's because I love the colors and cut slightly more. It also looks warm and comfortable. The sleeves stop just short of her wrist, which drives me a little nuts, but not enough to detract too much from the rest of it. It's just a solid dress.

5 Anna



This one was REALLY hard to choose. I almost kept Anna off the list because, like Rapunzel and Elsa, I'm not sure she has a "peasant dress." As an adult, she wears three major outfits in the film: her green coronation dress in the beginning, her "winter department" ensemble that she presumably buys from Oaken in the mountains, and her light green three-quarter sleeved dress at the very end.

Since Anna's first and last dresses are worn when she's in her home territory as an acknowledged princess, I couldn't really call those two "peasant dresses." Yet, while I'm fairly sure she bought her iconic pink-cloaked winter outfit from Oaken since she was stranded and freezing in the mountains, with nothing but her uncovered (and frozen) green coronation dress after losing her horse and travel cloak... her winter dress is just as decorative as her "roll-credits" green dress at the end. Don't believe me? Look and compare!



Serious! Look at that thing! Anna's "peasant dress" is even more richly decorated than her casual princess one! How did Oaken, an average mountain merchant selling sunblock and carrots to mountain peasants like Kristoff, manage to get his hands on a dress that decorative?! Look at the elaborate patterns sticked on the edge of that skirt and cloak, that bodice and those boots! Those are NOT easy to make, especially back when everything was hand-stitched. (I should know, I've hand-stitched patterns like that for historically accurate European noble gowns.) And the shimmering gold hem on that bodice? That's nobility/royalty material! Ice harvesters like Kristoff would not be able to afford to buy that for their wives! Where did Oaken get the money to buy it, or acquire the goods to trade for it??

No, Anna's "winter department" ensemble is both too richly decorated and too iconic to be counted as a "peasant dress." Her dress at the end credits might not be technically a peasant dress either, but at least it's more simple and modest in the design.

SO: I love Anna's light green three-quarter sleeved dress at the end. It looks very warm and comfortable and easy to move in, it has a very pretty overall shape, good sleeve and skirt length, great collar, has really nice colors, and has pretty but simple patterns.

All right, next one:

4) Tiana



I think I mentioned before that I adore dresses with v-cute necklines, three-quarter/roll-up sleeves, tea length skirts, skirts with a little pleating and thus volume to them, and so on. Tiana's waitress dress looks very comfortable (in material as well as cut), very practical, very easy to move in, and so forth. (Honestly, the only reason it's not higher is because of the bright yellow color.)

If I could add Tiana's green coat and hat to the ensemble, it would be that much better!



3) Ariel



Whatever my thoughts of the character, I love her town dress.

The reason I include this one and not the sail/rope "dress" is because that's not a dress. That's not clothing. That's not something humans wear. That's what a mermaid washed up on shore with no working knowledge of the human world scrambles together until she can get her hands on real-people clothes. Which is what she did.

Anyway, I love this thing. Love the colors (actually, methinks Anna copied these colors for her winter dress the same way Carlotta copied Cinderella's dress...), the general cut, the material, the sleeve and skirt length, etc. It also looks - you guessed it - warm, comfortable, and easy to move in. What really ties it all together is that adorable blue bow in her hair that matches her dress. I would so love to dance in this thing!

2) Merida



Second favorite dress. I adore this dress. I love the color, the cut, the sleeve-length, and the skirt-length. I love the material, the way the dress fans out near the bottom, the way it flows in the wind. I love how warm and comfortable and easy to move it seems. I live the chemise under it, and the way it parts at the shoulder and elbow so she can move her arms easily, yet they're tied together to keep from coming off. Everything.

I love this dress so much I keep seriously considering paying my Ren Faire friends to make it for me since they make all their Renaissance royalty and nobility dresses anyway. The only dress I like more is...

1) Aurora



Surprised? This thing is widely adored. Great colors, great general cut, great material, great sleeve-length, great skirt-length and level of pleated glory (so the skirt fans out beautifully while she dances). It's definitely a little dated from the style of the time it was made in (the 1950's), but has enough fairy tale flare that it looks dreamy and timeless.

I love this dress, and seriously consider getting one made very often.

All right, well, that's all for now. Thank you for reading.