One Month of Disneybounding

I'm a HUGE Disney fan - at any given moment I'm probably wearing at least one Disney-themed item, I've been to the parks more times than I can remember, and I live and breathe Disney song lyrics. As you may or may not know, Disney Parks don't let adults wear costumes, so this lovely Canadian Blogger, Leslie Kay, came up with Disneybound, which basically makes outfits that pay an homage to a character or movie, which allows the wearer to dress up, without necessarily being super in your face about it, and without breaking any rules. Plus, you can do it away from the Parks, adding some Disney magic to your hometown. 😜

In March, she does a challenge, where she comes up with a different theme for each day. I decided that I needed to participate, and I learned quite a few things along the way. Check out the calendar below (or go to my Instagram, @katcamilli) to see how I interpreted each day. Below it are my discoveries.

			1 ×	2 ×	3 ×	4 ×
5 ×	6 ×	7 ×	8 ×	9 ×	10 ×	11 ×
12 ×	13 ×	14 ×	15 ×	16 ×	17 ×	18 ×
19 ×	20 ×	21 ×	22 ×	23 ×	24 ×	25 ×
26 ×	27 ×	28 ×	29 ×	30 ×	31 ×

1. Like a stereotypical female, I’ve got a fairly large collection of clothes, but I don’t wear most of it. I already knew this, I suppose, but digging through my closets each morning to try to find something that fit the day’s theme had me looking at neglected items day after day. I did end up pulling out a handful of pieces that hadn’t seen daylight in a while, which was exiting, but it made me think about how these clothes would be so much better used if I found more ways to wear them, or if I donated them.
2. I don’t have a lot of color versatility. I have a ton of pink and some red/purple/blue, but beyond that, it’s pretty monochromatic black and gray. I have zero orange, and only one yellow skirt that I made a while back for a Pooh costume. And maybe two green things? What little choice I was left with made me feel like I was re-wearing pieces for several different Disneybounds, which isn’t inherently bad, but I was wishing for super simple solid colored shirts/skirts/jeans, because certain characters were just out of the question based on my color choices. I think I’m going to keep my eyes open when I go shopping so I can find inexpensive ways to add pops of color in.
3. Piggy-backing on that thought, I feel like my wardrobe lacks basic pieces that would have gone well with multiple outfits, like said solid colored shirts, jeans, cardigans, etc. I think I need a Disneybound focused wardrobe overhaul. Hubby will be thrilled 😉
4. There were a couple days where I would put an outfit together, take a picture, then tweak it a little (or a lot) for work. Sometimes it is because the weather did not match the amount of skin an outfit showed. Other times it was because the outfit was far too formal for my work environment - I typically go with a bit of an athlesiure style, sometimes wearing super stretchy jeans rather than yoga pants. I like to be comfy at my desk.
5. I’m not very adventurous with my jewelry and accessories. If you go to the Disneybound website, a lot of the outfits come together with small accessories. While I like the jewelry I have, not a whole lot of it is quirky or that versatile in color. Another thing to keep my eye out for when I’m shopping. I wouldn’t buy anything that would break the bank, but maybe I’ll find some fun stuff at odd shops and thrift stores.
6. I went to Target for ONE THING about halfway through March, and I ended up buying 5 pieces of clothing, too. However, my mindset when browsing was geared a bit toward Disneybounding, and I ended up wearing them all in outfits for the challenge! That was kind of fun. While I know I don’t need to go shopping that much, thinking of uses like this could be a fun way to challenge myself when I do shop. Oh - I also bought a clear dome umbrella for my Enchanted Rose 🙈
7. A lot of my clothing doesn’t fit me like I want it to/like I think it should. Part of it may be that it never did - I think we’re all guilty of buying something because we liked the idea of it - and part of it is that I’ve had a pretty big body transformation in the past couple years, so things end up fitting differently than when I bought them. Sometimes it’s better, which is always a pleasant surprise, but other times they just don’t do me justice anymore. Unfortunately, I’m a bit of a pack-rat, and even when I don’t like the way something looks on me, I find it very difficult to actually get rid of it.
8. I need all my clothes in one place. Before we bought our house, we shared a MASSIVE walk in closet, and all of my clothing was in one place (and all outerwear was near the front door). Now, because our house was built in the 1950s, each bedroom has small closets that don’t really work great for me, so my clothes are split between the bedroom and my craft room, while outerwear and shoes are in multiple other places, too. With all my stuff in so many places, it can be hard to find specific things I’m thinking of, and it makes it harder to improvise an outfit since I can’t see everything in front of me at the same time. So, adding to my massive to-do list, I am going to re-organize my clothes somehow so I can see everything in one place. I even want to come up with some way to display all my scarves!
9. Disneybounding is a good conversation starter! A handful of people asked “What’s this Disney thing you’re doing?” and a couple have even told me they looked forward to seeing what I did each day. My cousin told me she was going to be sad once March was over! 😂
10. The social media aspect is really interesting. The hashtags helped some of the posts be my most liked in a while (I don’t really get that many likes, so it’s not that hard to do 😜), and it was interesting to see which outfits did the best. By far my most popular was a throwback to my Mary Poppins Jolly Holiday costume (part 1, part 2, part 3), but Snow White was a close second, while the Haunted Mansion, Zenon, Flower, Jack Sparrow and Eeyore were a bit farther behind. I was surprised my Enchanted Rose didn’t fare better, and one of my favorites, Walt Disney, too. Instagram is weird lol. And on Twitter, I found that @thedisneybound herself was very good at liking tweets she’s tagged in - it’s cool to be that interactive with your audience. She also retweeted a couple of my outfits which was exciting! Social media also helped me find a few more Disneybounders to follow, which adds some pixie dust to my feed ☺️

While I would say that Disneybounding everyday isn’t something I’d be totally up for (I’m feeling a little drained because I’m a perfectionist and I also want to somehow be unique in my interpretations), adding a bit more into my life sounds really fun. I look forward to diversifying the color palate of my closet, to making more pieces (good challenges for sewing and crafting!), and to being inspired by others in this fun, nerdy community. 💜