At Disney theme parks, the employees are members of the cast putting on the show that guests visit Disney parks around the world to experience. Disney purposefully refers to the uniforms that cast members wear as “costumes” because it is one of the elements of the storytelling that puts on the show.
We recently went behind the scenes at Disney to their creative costuming facility to learn about the herculean effort to clothe the over 65,000 cast members at Walt Disney World. Disney leaders shared the unique role-specific choices that are made in designing costumes to help cast members be successful. Recently, we also reported that the president of Disneyland was thinking about ways to make costumes more “fashion forward” as they do in some of the international parks. Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including changes to one of Disney’s original cruise ships, and two Disneyland attraction closure end dates added to the calendar.
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Inside Disney Theme Park Costuming Operation
We stepped into the main building in charge of cast member creative costuming for Walt Disney World and supporting many of the cast member costuming services at the Disney parks around the world.
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Disney Costuming operates the largest working wardrobe in the world. The global costuming team is responsible for designing, producing, and delivering the costumes worn by cast members and performers across the parks. At Walt Disney World, there are 46 costuming locations with 1500 cast members working specifically on costuming. Within costuming, there are 50 unique employee jobs, from those designing the costumes to sourcing elements to physically stitching and sewing unique elements.
The scale of the operation is immense. There are over 900 unique cast member costume designs that are maintained at Walt Disney World and over 2.5 million garments in circulation. Across those designs, there are 746 unique styles of hats in use by cast.
Walking into the workshop, there are colors and unique costume pieces everywhere. Passing one room, I saw a machine actively stitching a Pixar “Incredibles” logo into a costume piece that looked to be for one of the Incredibles characters in the parks. There were also unique state-of-the-art machines here. For instance, one is like a reverse air hockey table that uses sucking air to keep fabric in one place while the fabric is cut.
On a wall was a collection of Pluto name tags from all his different holiday “outfits,” which just consist of some decoration on his collar because Pluto wears no clothes. There are also Audio-Animatronics costumes here, as this team is responsible for maintaining and designing costumes for characters in rides. Costumes from the Great Movie Ride were on mannequins across from a set of desks with designers hard at work.
After touring the facility, we settled into a presentation on how Disney is evolving cast member costumes today to better support cast members in their roles, while also telling an elevated story. They try to balance both cast member needs and storytelling with every decision to deliver for cast members and guests.
We heard from Bianca Cross, Manager, Costume Design & Development, and Michael Sendek, Senior Manager, Costume Design & Development, during our visit about how they are designing costumes for cast members.
They presented a set of recently changed cast member costumes and explained the reasoning and design choices for each one. “The work that we do is all tied to supporting the stories and themes of our theme parks and resorts, but ultimately the cast members who wear these costumes are our focus in supporting their comfort and overall functionality based on the roles that they are performing,” Sendek shared.
They actively solicit feedback from cast members while redesigning costumes. “Feedback starts and ends our process. When given the opportunity to redesign a costume, we start with conducting cast member roundtables. We want to talk to the cast members who are wearing the costumes today to learn about what their day-to-day is like. What works for them in the costumes that they are wearing today? What are the areas for improvement? Our cast members are not shy, but we love all the feedback that we get from them, because it is that feedback that gives us so much knowledge that maybe we didn’t have at the beginning of the process,” Sendek shared.
They have held 88 cast member feedback sessions and gone on 30 cast member role shadows to better understand how costumes are used in a day-to-day setting. The development team puts on the current costume, and they job shadow the current cast members working in the area. They learn even more from performing that same role. All the intel then starts the creative design process.
Sendek shared, “We want our cast to feel better about themselves when they are wearing these costumes because ultimately when the cast feel better in their costumes they bring that right back to our guests.”
Cross shared more details on the creative design process. “The costume designer and project team start ideating design for the cast members. We partner with Walt Disney Imagineering and the various lines of business to ensure we are delivering everything that we hold dear, which is cast comfort, functionality, and creating and bringing that story to life.” She shared that the needs for what functionality is included in a costume differs based on the needs of the specific role.
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Going through each of the individual costumes demonstrates the improvements they made for cast members and shows off some unique Easter Eggs that the cast member team was proud to have included.
Back Slots and Design Details
Across most of the new costumes for cast members who work in any outdoor conditions, costuming has been adding back vents to make the costume more breathable and provide ventilation. They have found ways to creatively add this popular feature to many costumes for cast members who are working outdoors. The above photo is the backside of the custodial cast member costume.
They also now design many costumes with the option in mind of allowing for the shirt to be tucked in or untucked. Cast members “are crouching down to talk to the youngest guests. The action that they are performing is causing their top to get untucked. This gives them the option to still look really polished even when it is untucked”, Sendek shared.
In the new costume designs, they are focused on bringing in specific, requested technology. They are now introducing breathable four-way-stretch fabrics, sun protection for cast members who work outdoors, adjustable cuffs, pant legs, and waistbands, and more pockets. The changes are meant to accommodate more body types and provide cast member comfort.
New Main Entrance Cast Member costume
We got a look at the new Magic Kingdom main entrance cast member costume. They pointed out specific details like sparkling pixie dust embossed into the shirt pattern and the original turret blue colors from “Cinderella Castle”.
They maintained period styling, but Sendek shared, “One thing that was important was not having multiple layers, nothing that would keep heat in or add weight. So, the accessories are actually connected to the top. There are no secondary pieces.”
The necktie that appears to be tied around the cast member’s neck here is also attached to the costume. Note the snap button for it to wrap around.
Main Street merchandise cast member costumes
Disney shared a very cute detail for new merchandise costumes being worn on Main Street. In addition to showing off the back slot for the air ventilation, they also shared the backstory behind the skirt on the costume.
The skirt looks like a classic wallpaper design that you might find on Main Street with flowers on the Victorian backdrop. The flowers are actually the state flower of California in honor of Disneyland, the state flower of Florida for Walt Disney World, and the state flower of Missouri in honor of Marceline, Missouri, where Walt Disney spent his formative years.
Favorite new restaurant server costumes
They then showed off a costume worn by the waiters at one of my favorite new restaurants with a great fireworks view. This Wailulu Bar & Grill costume is inspired by the design of the new hotel lobby. The design is meant to evoke water, driftwood, and sand. The bottoms are meant to be sand colored.
The shirt has the breathable back slots and deep apron pockets for easy access during shifts, which are largely outdoors.
EPCOT’s New Lounge Server Costume
Next was the server costume for the new GEO-82 lounge. The costume includes a necktie printed with a gold version of the EPCOT Spaceship Earth dome. The costume takes inspiration from early EPCOT concept artwork where the dome was depicted in gold.
Cross shared that this is the same costume for the bartender, but the bartender wears the same print in a bow tie and vest “in order to make sure they are not getting this tie in the way as they are making drinks and if there is any spillage the vest will catch it.”
Test Track costume – seen above
When Test Track was reimagined, they also reimagined the Test Track costumes. They leaned into the sporty, performance aesthetic of the new version of the attraction. The top is meant to be inspired by the attraction, and they brought the citron color into the stitching and the zipper to pull in the dotted line of a roadway coloring.
The outfit is a sports mesh fabric that allows for breathability throughout the entire garment when they are indoors and outdoors.
Voices of Liberty
The entertainment costumes that they showed off for us were from the popular Voices of Liberty group that performs at the American Adventure in EPCOT. The group originally started performing songs from the 1700s, and their costumes reflected that.
Now, they have changed their selection of songs to include American music from all eras. The costumes have now been updated to still be elegant, but fresher. The costumes are now meant to represent the “continuum of American fashion,” according to Sendek.
Beauty and the Beast pink dress
The cast members spotlighted the efforts to improve the functionality of costumes even for cast members in entertainment. They used Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage at Hollywood Studios as an example. Previously, the pink ball gown used hoops to keep the shape. These add weight and bulkiness that the performers had to deal with.
Designers found a way to get rid of the hoops while maintaining the same shape and look, and in doing so reduced the weight of the costume for the performer dramatically.
When they make changes like this one or the change to the Voices of Liberty costume, the specific show lights and performance settings are used to evaluate the look.
Jungle Cruise Skipper costume change
Disney shared that they purposefully didn’t change the aesthetic of the Jungle Cruise skipper costume, but based on cast member feedback, they made process improvements in how it is constructed and fits.
Previously, the Jungle Cruise skipper costume had this same back vent in the costume, but it would sometimes get caught on the wheel while the cast member was turned giving the ride spiel to guests.
One of the development managers working on the new design had actually worked on the Jungle Cruise and had experienced this issue firsthand. So, when she was redesigning the costume, she suggested making the vent vertical instead of horizontal to prevent the issue. It gave them the same result of breathability, but reduced the hazard.
The team balanced keeping the costume in the same iconic look while bringing in improvements from firsthand cast member experience.
Parking cast member costume
They used a vibrant green to ensure that they are very visible in the roadway and bright to welcome guests because they are often the first cast member the guests will interact with. They brought in the Mickey icon from the original Walt Disney World logo.
Disney made sure to make the transportation parking lot cast member costume very bright and added epaulets for cast members to be able to carry their radios.
The designer brought some fun Easter Eggs into this transportation cast member costume. On the shirt are outlines of a TRON Light Cycle, Vanellope von Schweetz’s Wreck-it-Ralph car, a Safari jeep from Animal Kingdom, Cruella de Vil’s Panther De Ville, and Susie the Little Blue Coupe from a classic animated short.
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