Slave Jasmine

Last weekend I heard the news that Disney was moving forward with their live-action Aladdin, although I admit it doesn't hold much interest to me - my heart will always belong to the original!  Still, that got me in the mood to draw Aladdin fanart, and as sort of a spin-off of my Historically Accurate series I thought I'd revisit the medieval Arab setting of the Disney version and draw historic designs of some of the other costumes in the movie.  It's too bad most "historic" movies set in the Middle East go the fantasy route when it comes to costume design...in my opinion the accurate clothing is pretty interesting in its own right!

For my version of Jasmine's notorious "slave" costume, I wanted to exchange the stereotypical harem girl look (which actually developed from the repressed men of Victorian England) for something much more human.  I decided to reference the clothing of the medieval dancers of the Abbasid Sultanate in the 13th century (more about the time period here), as the dancing girls would have worn the most provocative clothing of the era.  Along with a sheer, cinched version of the typical medieval tunic dress, I drew Jasmine with her hair in the common 4-locks style and gave her henna-painted feet often shown in period art.  Dancing girls were also often depicted with the scarves they use in their dances, so I drew the blue one that appears for a moment in the movie.  Although it might not be obvious at first glance, the fact that Jasmine is bareheaded, barefoot, and unveiled would have been considered shameless for any woman, and especially one of her royal stature.  I think Jafar would be very pleased with his work!

As far as the art itself, since the clothing is so different than the costumes depicted in the movie, I ended up sampling straight from the screencaps to regain some of the "feel" of the original cartoon.  In the next week or so I hope to upload a happier sequel to this particular historically accurate costume - until then you can check out my other historically accurate Aladdin drawings from my original series here!