Frozen: Elsa's Clothes are her Expression

     In Disney's newest movies, Frozen, loosely based off of the Hans Christian Anderson, Elsa's clothes show a lot of her personality. At the beginning of the movie she accidentally ingress her sister, Anna, with her ice powers and because of that, she locks everyone out. Her father tries to help her control her powers by wearing gloves. You'll also note that throughout the beginning of the movie, Elsa is always fully covered up - long sleeves, gloves, etc. She hides behind her clothes hoping that as long as she keeps covered no one will be hurt by her power. When she removes her gloves to hold items, her fear overwhelms her and she starts to cover the objects in ice. By putting her gloves back on she is able to feel safe again, that no one is in danger to her powers. Then when her powers are revealed to the kingdom, she runs off, her magic turning the kingdom's summer into winter. When we see her again, walking up a mountain during a snow storm, she begins to sing the popular song Let It Go.
     This is the pivotal moment in the movie for Elsa as she lets go of her fears and her worries now that she is alone and in a secluded area where she can be herself and not worry about hurting others. In this scene she first removes the gloves which have kept her power hidden. Then she removes this large purple cape/train that looks to be made by heavy fabric into her snow storm. The cape is what she wore for her coronation and be releasing herself from that, she is freeing herself from the obligation of being the queen, of being what others expect her to be. Then she throws away her crown which was given to her during the coronation, another symbol of expectations she no longer has to meet. The final transformation is from her coronation dress into the dress she wears throughout the movie. The dress she wore for her coronation covered up all of her skin, including her neck. The dress she transforms into is a lot more flashier than the previous dress due to the sequenced top and brighter blue color, whereas the other dress had no sparker and was darker colors. It also showed a lot more skin and had no gloves.

     After she completes this total transformation, Elsa is a new person. She is now a woman who is comfortable in her own skin and is feed from the expectations she felt she needed to meet. This relates to many women everywhere because in today's society, women feel as though they have come along way, and they certainly have, but they also feel that if they don't dress conservatively, than people won't take them seriously. By dressing like Elsa at the beginning of the movie, they are trying to be the woman everyone expects them to be and to fit that jobs role. Because they are trying to fill someone else's expectations, they are not dressing for themselves. They go so conservative that they end up hiding their real selves behind their clothes instead of dressing how they really want to dress - instead of being their real selves.

     Not only this, but Elsa is such a strong and empowering character that she breaks many of the traditional Disney Princess roles. She does not have a love interest at all and she even scoffs at the idea of love at first sight. Elsa plays the role model that many young girls and women need. They need to see that being who they are is never a bad thing and that people accept you for being different. Elsa shows you that there is nothing wrong with being who you are and dressing how you want to as long as it makes you feel good about yourself. In the end, the only people who should matter to you are the ones who love and support you won't judge you, be respect you for your choices. Elsa's confidence came from letting go of everything that tied her down - the expectations and the fear. Clothes represent us and who we are. When she let go of her coronation outfit, she let go of her past.

      Letting go of our past is something we struggle with every day. I know I constantly find myself wishing I had done something different, wishing I had acted or hadn't said what I did. We are constantly second guessing ourselves and we loose so much confidence that we. We don't believe in ourselves or our choices because we want to impress others and have them see us as how we want to be seen. Once we let go of that, we not only gain so much more confidence, but we also learn who our real friends our, the ones that will love you unconditionally no matter as to who you really are. Much like Anna loves Elsa once she knows the real her - the sister she never got to know.
     I saw a post on Tumblr about prior to Elsa's transformation that she shared the characteristics of a person her suffered from depression. In the article "Fashion, Lifestyle, and Psychiatry" by Raphael M. Bonelli he says that "we find increasing interest in fashion in our depressed patients at the moment when depression wanes and people start to participate in society again" (159). By wearing clothes that she feels comfortable in, Elsa no longer carries hold on to the characteristics of a person with depression. She is truly happy with herself.
     Don't let clothes be a way of hiding who you really are because you'll never know if people really accept you for who you are or aren't.