Princesses and Villains line from Black Milk Clothing

Disney's hot right now, ya'll.  From princess underwear at Hot Topic to pie-eyed Mickey socks at Urban Outfitters, every trendy retailer seems eager to hop on the bandwagon of endearing whimsy and delicious nostalgia.  Described by Bustle as an 'ultra-fandom-friendly fashion line', Black Milk Clothing is no exception.  On July 29th, the Princesses and Villains line will drop.  What I like most about the line is that many of the items explore Disney in an unexpected way. 

For example, the Ariel leggings are fish-scale print as opposed to being printed with a scene from the movie (as with Hot Topic's Disney legging line).

I want to wear these as part of an Ariel Disneybound!

Marie, an underrated and overlooked character (in this country at least!), is featured on more than one piece:

Meow! Marie's such a cutie!   

And this Snow White 'outfit'!:

All in all, it's a neat little showing from Black Milk Clothing and I can't wait to see more Disney in the fashion world.  Take a look at the collection and let me know which items you like best in the comments section!

Animator Grim Natwick's Snow White

A few weeks ago, I picked up The Fairest One of All from Locust Moon Comics, a really neat little shop in West Philly.  The book explores the making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves from start to finish in impressive detail and with great breadth.  It is chock full of concept art, model sheets, behind the scenes photographs, and much more, all of which I am excited about sharing with you!

When considering characters from the Disney lexicon, especially those so classic and iconic as Snow White, it is hard to imagine that the animators had anything else in mind but the final form.  The truth is that a given character is a result of months, even years, spent creating, shaping, erasing, redrawing, trashing and refining.

Below are some very early sketches of Snow by Grim Natwick, one of her key animators.  Natwick is best known for his creation of Fleicher Studios' superstar Betty Boop and was praised in the industry for his female characters.  Walt brought him in specifically to work on Snow White.  Notice how cartoony this iteration is!  This is symptomatic of the nature of animation at this point in history.  Although I'm glad that Snow's look eventually evolved towards realism (and caricature was reserved for the Dwarves) I love seeing these sketches as a means of understanding the processes involved in character development.