In 1950, Walt Disney Productions released the famous Cinderella. This Disney classic ultimately ended up saving the Disney company from closing its doors. One of the most recognizable scenes from the animation is when Cinderella is turned into a princess with a blue dress. But wait, is the globally recognizable blue dress ACTUALLY blue?  Cinderella’s dress is blue commercially, in her cameo in Wreck it Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet, and in the live-action 2015 Cinderella. However, was Cinderella’s dress originally blue? 

Every few years, The Walt Disney Company refurbishes and re-tints their movies to fix the quality.  As for Cinderella, they have also tried to tint her dress more blue. In the original Cinderella transformation scene, the Fairy Godmother sports a cloak that is a mix between blue and purple, and the background of the scene is filled with different shades of blue. The horses, the carriage, and the footmen are all either blue or wearing blue. Cinderella’s dress against all of these shades of blue clearly seems more white and silver than a light blue shade. ModernGurlz on Youtube points out: 

“Her [The fairy Godmother’s] white hair is actually the most similar in color to the dress.” 

Cinderella’s eyes are also blue, so when they are compared to her magical dress, her dress likewise seems to be very white and silver.

In Cinderella’s transformation scene, the Fairy Godmother turns her pink rags into a magical dress using her magic. Her pixie dust is clearly a sparkly silver color.  Furthermore, it would make sense for Cinderella’s dress to also be this silvery color since her dress still glimmers with the pixie dust.  In the movie, the dress seems to identically match the dust that flies from the Fairy Godmother’s wand. 

Cinderella’s dress most likely appears as a light blue color because of the blue tint and background of the whole scene, which make the scene seem to take place at night time. 

When Cinderella arrives at the ball and dances with the prince, they both dance in shade and not in light, making both of their outfits seem blue.  In animation, they chose to use blue to portray a shadow effect. However, Prince Charming’s shirt is really white, as you can see when he is in artificial light. If they both appear similar shades of blue in the shade, wouldn’t Cinderella’s dress also truly be a whitish silver as well?

Cinderella’s dress has been and will remain known as blue because of how Disney has changed and commercially produced it as blue. However, the animators originally most likely produced her dress as silver.  Do you believe her dress was originally silver?

Abbie Lindblad ’24, Contributing Writer

24alindblad@montroseschool.org