An Ode to Disney Channel Stylists
In the early ‘00s, kids around the world were treated to verifiable visual feasts, courtesy of Disney Channel’s costume department. We idolized Disney girls and their overflowing closets of sequins, sparkles and low rise jeans. The ever elusive and constantly innovating Disney Stylists™ have taken us on many fashion journeys that made us laugh, think, and attempt to pull off far too many questionable looks. Let’s carefully remove our nostalgia glasses and take a closer look at the style icons of yesteryear:
Hilary Duff, Lizzie McGuire (2001-2004)
Is it too much of a stretch to say that the entire fashion industry is indebted to the Disney Stylists that brought Lizzie McGuire to life? Everything Lizzie stood for has skyrocketed back on trend in 2019: monochromatic looks, loud print mixing, PVC accessories, flares/ruffles, you name it. Rumor has it that she invented couture in the cinematic masterpiece The Lizzie McGuire Movie. She would, on occasion, stretch the imagination to its limits, such as wearing a total of five hair accessories at once or two different patterned, sequined separates. But Lizzie was bold, creative, and sang What Dreams Are Made Of… approved.
Raven-Symoné, That’s So Raven (2003-2007)
Raven’s Disney Stylists treated fashion as an art form. An aspiring fashion designer on the show, Raven gave us everything from CEO to New England prep school to fashion week. Raven had the flair of Lizzie before her, but with slightly more coherence and less nihilist 90s contrast. This was the start of the Stylists’ too-brief era of outfit unity. Her aptitude for color coordination and matchy-matchy fits that somehow always fell just on the right side of tacky was unbeatable.
Brenda Song, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (2005-2008)
“Yay her!” Brenda Song’s London Tipton, resident air-headed rich girl, reaches icon status on the basis of her absolutely insane diversity of outfits. From classy socialite to Vegas dancer to 00s pre-teen to NYC it girl, London covered all possible bases. Like Raven, her outfits always told a clear story. Her Disney Stylists get bonus points for her signature accessorizing tendencies—Blair Waldorf wishes she could pull off as many hair accessories as London did!
Ashley Tisdale, High School Musical series (2006-2008)
One word: fabulous. Sharpay Evans gave us bigger, better, and certainly best with her looks. Coordination and proportions are the biggest pluses in my book, and she excelled in both. Sharpay came up in the peak of the Disney Stylists’ outfit coordination era. Her accessories always so perfectly tied it all together in a big, sparkly bow. That Sherpa vest?? The hoop purse?? Bonus points for her very on-brand hot pink, vanity plated, monogramed convertible.
Jennifer Stone, Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-2012)
Selena Gomez, who? Her outfits on Wizards of Waverly Place were at best trendy and at worst basic. The true style star was undeniably her quirky best friend, Harper. The fact that Harper wasn’t invited to this years’ Met Gala to showcase her campy excellence is nothing short of criminal. Whether you’re into kitschy styles or you think these kinds of clothes belong only on absurdist runways (read: you’re boring), you have to respect the way the Disney Stylists spared no creativity with Harper. In this case, the pictures are worth more than I could ever say about them. The girl had a dress composed of hundreds of markers… case closed.
(Dis)Honorable Mention: Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana (2006-2011)
Finally, the rose colored glasses can come off, because as much as my childhood memories taint my feelings about the early 2000s, these eyes don’t lie. The greatest irony in all of history is how much hype the show put on her colossal closet… only to have her dress like that. Just because she had a gigantic, amazing closet doesn’t mean that she had to wear the entire contents of said closet every time she stepped outside. Subjectively, I love the aesthetic as a cultural relic. Objectively, looking at her outfits makes me dizzy. To be fair, Lizzie and Raven were both devout maximalists, and I had to dig deep to figure out what separated them from Hannah. It ultimately comes down to creativity. The Disney Stylists modeled Hannah Montana to be the ideal style representative of her time, but unlike Lizzie or Raven, they made the crucial error of going beyond era accuracy into total trend absorption. Hannah Montana’s style was ripped straight out of the windows of Justice and Limited Too. The aforementioned girls that are lauded as style icons were distinguished by their creativity and unique take on the trends of the time.
(Even More Dis)Honorable Mention: Bella Thorne & Zendaya, Shake It Up (2010-2013)
Shake It Up was Hannah Montana on steroids. Shake It Up was every single trend blended in a god-awful trend smoothie. The Disney Stylists who brought us Shake It Up’s looks are the only ones I deem to be a lost cause. Bella and Zendaya wore nothing short of 7 articles of clothing per outfit. But the deadliest of Shake It Up’s style sins was the utter homogeneity of the clothing. Though wildly uncoordinated and abrasively loud, each outfit had the same essential elements in terms of the layers, silhouettes, and a put-upon sense of wackiness. Perhaps connected to the hipster movement of its time, there was a crudely manufactured sense of attempting to seem ~different~ in each look that they all ended up so painfully monotonous.
In conclusion: I’d like to give a warm thank you to the brave Disney Stylists for introducing us to fashion as an art. Kid shows are so important because they are where we model much of our young personas from—their senses of humor, their friendships and certainly their taste in clothing impact what we think we should have or who we think we’re supposed to be. Creative styles of dressing encourage young people to take risks on their own visual expression (see: my middle school outfits that ranged from sporting a cropped red leather jacket to neon yellow jeans to graphic tees to crazy patterned leggings to blazers). Disney is the apex of young adult entertainment, a shared language across the world, and when the Disney Stylists treat TV show fashion as something worth innovating we all benefit from the diversity in style it can inspire.
Image via from The Cheetah Girls.
