Aladdin Jr. Costumes

This spring, my high school decided to put on a production of Aladdin Jr. I was placed in charge of costumes and makeup. It was a lot of hard work and seeing it all come together in the end was really exciting and fulfilling. With the show over now, I thought it would be nice to share some of the costume and how I created them.

For Razoul and the guards, I chose beaded sweaters. Razoul wears a red one to distinguish him and the others wear black with gold beads. They are all wearing black harem pants and gold sashes to hold their swords. I also put black turbans on them and decorated Razoul's with red feathers and a gold medallion.

In Aladdin Jr. the Palace Girls replace Jasmine's tiger. They are her friends and confidante. these costumes were rented but I did get to have a lot of fun with their makeup and hair. Some hairstyles I picked up were a boho hairstyle rolled into headband, a high ponytail divided into sections like Jasmine's, and a braided back half ponytail. For their makeup, I created a smoky eye to match the color of their dresses. I topped it off with thick winged black eyeliner and a gold sparkle eyeliner on top of the black.

The narrator costumes were also rented for the show. We rented jewel-tone traditional Arabian dresses. In the script, the narrators overlook the story. Since they weren't really supposed to be seen by the characters, I created a corner of the stage for them. Covering crates with a jewel-tone colored quilt and sparkly pillows created sort of a lounge for them. To decorate, I added a folding screen covered with beads and tassels along with a beautiful chandelier.

Friend Like Me is a fun song based around the Genie. In the movie, Aladdin, during the song a bunch of versions of Genie appear. To recreate this on stage, I dressed everyone in blue. I kept the characters divided into their groups by dressing them in different types of blue outfits. The palace girls wore blue gowns, the narrators wore short blue dresses with sparkling sheer along the bottom and leggings, the boys were dressed in white with red bowties and blue sequin fedoras, and lastly, the chorus girls were dressed as waiters with red sashes and blue hats.

For the song, Prince Ali, I dressed  everyone in white. Everyone wore something different in white that fit their characters personality.


The first thing I did was to do some research on Arabian styles and clothing. Watching the movie Aladdin also helped with my research and ideas although not all ideas could be recreated in reality.
Some of the major styles I created for many of the characters were:

• Harem pants
• These were simple pants to create that could work for both guys and girls. I did not create them from scratch though, I merely found normal pants that fit all the characters and put elastic in the hem to create a balloon look on the pants.
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• Sashes
• A distinguishing characteristic of Arabian style is that most of the time there is a sash to gather the otherwise flowy outfit and define the waist. For the sashes, I measured the characters waists and cut a rectangle of that length and about 6 inches wide. To fasten the sashes, I sewed Velcro in the back.
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• Scarves
• Scarves are often wore around the head or the waist. I found a bunch of silk scarves at the thrift store to use for this production.
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• Tunics
• Long tunics are often wore over the harem pants for the guys. For the tunics, I simply found dresses and cut them a little bit shorter.
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• Vests
• Another popular thing for the boys were vests. To make these, I simply sewed two pieces of fabric together and cut out a neck, armholes, and up the center front for an opening.
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