Historian Fact Checks Aladdin's Wardrobe | Glamour

this is Aladdin this is jasmine and this is her dad and the Sultan you know them from Disney's Aladdin you know this outfit and this one and then there's this one but are they accurate we got this historian hi my name is Aisha Botticelli Bremer I'm a professor of Middle Eastern history at New York University today I will be talking about Disney's classic animated movie Aladdin released in 1992 to walk us through what the movie got right and what they got wrong about these looks first let's learn about the complex and intriguing origin story of where and when Disney's Aladdin takes place it's almost impossible to have an exact answer for where and when the movie takes place the movie Aladdin conflicts many and oftentimes contradictory details about the Middle East and Islam by perpetuating negative stereotypes and presenting basic factual mistakes and absurd characterizations from its opening song twists character formations the movie has drawn a lot of attention and criticism interestingly but not shockingly the protagonists Aladdin Princess Jasmine and the genie all have perfect American accents with more western features however most of the other characters especially the more villainous ones have strong middle-eastern accents I must find this warm this diamond in the rough the most direct inspiration for Disney's Aladdin came from the movie Thief of Bagdad filmed in 1940 that was Alexander Cora's oscar-winning British remake of the 1924 silent film of the same name according to the producers of the movie just like the chief of Baghdad Disney's Aladdin was meant to be said in Baghdad however this was exactly when the u.s. started bombing Iraq during the first Cold War and therefore Disney changed the setting to a fictional city to avoid negative connotations with the city of Baghdad or The Dictator rule in Iraq Saddam saying instead of fact that the name of the city in the movies Agra bus welcome to Agrabah which is not an actual place the imaginary city of Agrabah however includes most of the letters from the city of Baghdad regardless of the city his knees retelling of the story effectively links a lot into the Middle East with some obvious details from Iran in India as well the movie Aladdin takes inspiration from the famous collection of tales 1001 nights or is more commonly known in the West as the Arabian Nights when Ali Baba had m-43 Shahrazad he had a thousand tales Scheherazade is the main character in the 1001 nights stories although the story of Aladdin is interestingly one of the best-known stories in the collection it was not a part of the original Arabic text it was in fact added to the collection in the 18th century Bible on one second who is fond who immediately acquired detail from Assyrian Maronite storyteller he met named Anna dia the event that sparked arabian nights into a modern European phenomenon was its translation by the French author Antoine Galland into French from a 15th century Arabic man script so is Hana Diab the creator of the story of Aladdin an idea was born to a Maronite Christian family in Aleppo in modern-day Syria in the late 17th century which was under the Ottoman rule an empire that lasted over 600 years and ruled the Middle East North Africa southeastern Europe and Asia Minor the original setting of the up story is ancient China the Chinese setting up a Lardon may surprise many of you today but it is actually not that far-fetched many of the stories that are told in 1001 nights are not situated in the Middle East but further east somewhere in or around China most part in Central Asia looking back at the Disney film the Chinese or Central Asian Aladdin is to be unrecognizable aside from Aladdin showing juggling the world oh so magical this is partly due to a distant Hollywood practice to arabised everything about Islam or the Muslims which is the assumption that all Muslims are Arabs sidenote vast majority of Muslims today live outside of the Middle East mostly in Far East and Southeast Asia the Royal Palace in Aladdin seems like an exact replica of the Taj Mahal in Agra India built by the Muslim ruler of the time in the 17th century no references to India include elephant sculptures around the palace as well as the name of Jasmine's pet tiger Raja Raja was just playing with them weren't you Raja however the background scenes are also said to have been based on Persian miniatures as well as the photos of the Iranian city as fahan taken by the film's layouts provides a rasul-allah donnie an iranian animator at disney in namesake of rasoi agra bus captain of the guards okay so how should we analyze the outfits worn in Disney's Aladdin for the purposes of analyzation of Disney's a lot in I think the most likely option is that the story takes place during the lifetime of its creator an idea in the late 17th early 18th century and the Sultan in the story is simply the Ottoman Sultan who was at the time the ruler of the Middle East including Baghdad Cairo and Aleppo while the time frame in the region is very broad we understand that Disney's Aladdin is a hodgepodge of cultural influences okay now that we have a time and place to analyze let's look at the looks first up Aladdin a Lardon signature outfit in the movies a pair of loose baggy pants a small vest that he put on his naked upper body and a small fast on his head let's draw a Latins outfit from the undergarments up starting with the undergarments I assume he will be underwear but I'm not sure all right so maybe he did maybe he didn't moving on to the pants these loose pants are mostly cold shall Wars a Persian word for trousers these are loose pajama like trousers the legs are wide at the top and narrow at the ankle the main purpose is to provide freedom of movement and transferred in hot and all humid climates next up his vest although Aladdin's religion and region is not specified it is highly unlikely that a similar character will have worn a vest on an exit upper body a lot in Israel in the film can be considered a typical attire of mystics who historically isolated themselves from society and its richest practicing self severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence typically but not always for religious reasons a lardons vest isn't wholly inaccurate but it is likely he would have worn short or long sleeved cotton or linen top of a door without a vest on top moving up to his head wear now let's take a look at Aladdin's head what his Varon in is called Fez or fast in Turkish or tarbush in Arabic a conventional Fez is a felled headpiece in the shape of a short cylindrical pea CLIs hat and is usually red sometimes with a tassel attached to the top its name comes from the Moroccan City Fez the city that historically produced to die made from crimson berries to color the head in the middle Jeanie tells a lobbyist that Fez and best combo is much too 3rd century based on this line one would think that the little reddish hat face that Aladdin is wearing is an old-fashioned one however the Fez always much of its popularity to the 19th century Istanbul the capital of the Ottoman Empire when it was introduced by the ottoman sultan muhammad ii as an extension of the modernization and Europeanisation efforts in the early 19th century Ottoman Sultan Muhammad the seconds main goal was to modernize the military by adopting western-style uniforms with the addition of the Fez as a headpiece in 1829 the Sultan ordered his civil officials to wear the plane fast and banned the wearing of turbans although some men rejected the Fez it soon became a symbol of modernity throughout the Middle East long story short a lot in wooden wear offense but instead he would wear a traditional headpiece called turbo let's take a look at his Footwear or lack thereof it's also interesting to see that Aladdin is always barefooted in the movie even though there were shoes worn even by the poor it's actually more likely that allowing would've worn some type of issue in terms of Aladdin's clothing there are some accuracies but also many many inaccuracies so here's what Aladdin's outfit would have looked I'd given our possible time period and setting know its move on to Princess Jasmine if I do marry I want it to be for love Princess Jasmine is the first non-european princess Disney introduces first and foremost her outfit is too revealing what Princess Jasmine is wearing in the movie is a straight take from European Orientalist painters imaginations that dominated the art scene in Europe in the 18th and the 19th centuries let's learn about what Princess Jasmine would have worn from the undergarments up while conventional woman's underwear panties and bras did not become common practice until the late 19th century the corset was part of the Imperial woman's clothing in the Middle East I know it seems quick but let's move on to the pants you'll find out why actually her pens are mostly occurred they are just missing some other pieces the classical dressing for an elite woman the consisted of a pair of loose pants led you to be the one-piece elegant dress and a belt so the pants are somewhat accurate let's move on to what Jasmine's dressed with looked like depending on the social status of the woman as well as the season these dresses were made of fabrics ranging from cheap linen to pure silk and velvet red and green were the most popular colors for a high-end women's clothing due to the hardship of creating those colors and also the fact that they were the Imperial colors let's move on to the accessories also in addition to the belt other pieces of jewelry including necklaces bracelets and tiaras were worn oftentimes to symbolize the power and prestige of the family lineage and the dynasty particularly for the Imperial woman let's move on to head where you could say that Jasmine's tiara is a nod accuracy a detail shawl to cover most not all of the hair was usually accompanied with additional layers of embroidered Toula when this woman were out in public historical sources tell us that the woman did not cover their head when they were in the confines of their homes without any strangers as you can see here when Jasmine goes into town she's coloring her hair when Jasmine was in her Palace without any strangers she would have covered hair so that is accurate and down to the shoes Jasmine's shoes a new movie closely resemble what was called paw pooch or Chuck and these are what both men and woman would have worn now for the makeup it is historically accurate that different types of eyeliners were popular in the Middle East both for men and women in many cases these liners were made with coal dust so here's what princess Jasmine's outfit would have looked like given our possible time period in setting let's move on to the sultan Jasmine's father has the most realistic art for the moment characters that I discussed so far pick some lacking details why don't we draw the Sultan's outfit from the undergarments up it's hurting with the undersurface we do see Raja take a bite out of the back of the pants of a suitor for purses jasmine and this is an imperial men these boxers with hard pants four at a time not accurate next the pants these loose pants are mostly cold shall Wars let's look at the next player in scoffs Angelou generally worn on top another layer called and Toddie while the Atari was also intricately made to the level of detail on an entire II wouldn't be as intricate as the caftan itself these will be at least two possibly more depending on the weather moving on the belt that the Sultan is wearing is accurate but probably will have been more embellished and now let's look at the next layer the Sultan will wear a long robe or they destroy ditional a cold caftan however unlike the one the Jasmine's father is wearing in the movie a Sultan's caftan will be embellished with details these details would mostly vibrant colored embroidery or intricate jewelry Sultan's captain's will serve as an indication of their power and authority and for the treason it was a meticulous job to make them and carry them wear them and store them min Sultan's therefore had specific people whose main duty was to make sure the customs were well stored well picked for special occasions and preserved in many cases these caftans were exchanged as gifts between two ruling empires showing each side's commitment to foster in a positive relationship recently in the rest the caftan has become a fashion statement for a woman the popularity of the caftan increased significantly after Jessica Simpson was photographed wearing them during her pregnancy in 2011 now through the head where here you can see how the Sultan's turban from the movies showing some similarities with the turbans of the most famous Ottoman Sultans magnetic Conqueror or Suleiman the Magnificent of his father selling the green you can see the Sultan's worldwide - turbans turbans usually were a long piece of cloth wrapped in different ways rather than being one single piece now down to the shoes the something is also wearing shoes that closely resemble what was called puppet or cherub and these are again accurate so here's what the Sultan's outfit would have looked like given our possible time period in setting as we have seen Disney's Aladdin follows a trend that clumps together different and many times contradicting details about Islam as a religion and the Middle East as a region this could happen because of two possible reasons first it could be a simple ignorance of Hollywood about the two the second possible reason for the difficulty in pinpointing a time frame and a region is that the creators of the movie Aladdin did not want to sing a lot one place one culture one ethnicity or one period of time an intentionally kept things vague in the hope of making the movie more relatable to a broader audience for the 2019 remake of the movie Aladdin Disney hired a committee consisting of experts and scholars of the Middle East and Islam as a religion I guess they are learning from their past mistakes well there are some accurate depictions of the clothing in the characters of the movie such as the Sultan Jasmine's and a Laden's clothing have many inaccuracies so here's what the characters in Aladdin would've worn if they had lived in history during the time period that we have analyzed this film [Music]

Channel: Glamour

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Keywords: fashion expert, fashion fact check, would they wear that, princess jasmine, would they wear that disney, disney wardrobe, aladdin clothes, princess jasmine clothes, aladdin influences, 1001 nights, historical accuracy aladdin, aladdin controversy, arabian nights story, thief of bagdad, agraba, is agraba real, sharazad tales, story of aladdin, is aladdin in the middle east, sultan aladdin clothes, aladdin inaccuracies, ottoman empire aladdin, glamour, glamour magazine

Id: 4CUg424lmG4

Length: 16min 42sec (1002 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 10 2019