Minnie Mouse's Iconic Style

I came across this image of Minnie Mouse, as soon as I saw it I immediately thought "How iconic are the ears of Minnie/Mickey Mouse?". You could put those ears on anyone/anything anywhere across the globe and your immediate reaction would be to think of Minnie & Mickey.


Minnie Mouse first joined Mickey and appeared on our screens in 1928;

Minnie, then, was designed in the fashion of a 'flapper' girl. 'Flapper' is the term applied to women that wore short skirts, bobbed their hair & listened to jazz music. Typically, they wore excessive make up, drank a lot, smoked & treated sex in a casual manner.

Minnie's style has somewhat changed over the years, when she first appeared on our screens, she was usually seen in her bowler hat that had a daisy sticking out of it, white gloves & a short dress. She was seen to like the colour red which was probably intended to appeal to her audience which was a trend in the then modern youth culture. It was revealed in a later cartoon that she wears black stockings. It has been suggested that her oversized heeled pumps were her most distinctive item of clothing. Another article of clothing was her oversized knickers that were visible under her short dress.

She was redesigned in the 1940's as the 'flapper' girl had gone out of fashion, her hat was replaced with a large bow & bows were added to her shoes aswel. More detail was added to her eyes also. Throughout the 40's & 50's her look and personality became more conservative as the culture of the USA became more conservative. 

I think that Minnie Mouse is a strong iconic image to re-style as there is a lot of key items in her characters style that could easily be adapted whilst keeping the original features in the image.

(Kirsty)