Chihuahua Fashion Moment: Licensed Disney Tinkerbell Costume

I found this licensed Disney Tinkerbell costume in a local store three years ago, before Disney bought Star Wars and Princess Leia became a Disney Princess. There was a Snow White dress that I felt was much more recognizable, but alas they did not have in Ru-size.

Photo by Erin Koski

The costume included a removable set of fairy wings, a pair of legwarmers, and the dress itself. It's not a faithful rendition of the movie character's outfit, but the same is true for most Disney Princess costumes. The major difference here is that Ru's dress doesn't include a little cameo with a picture of Tinkerbell on the front. The little legwarmers are a nice touch, they like a bit like Tinkerbell's green shoes with the white pompoms.

Photo by Erin Koski

I'm not sure exactly what type of dog the designer of this costume had in mind, but I'm pretty sure it was a pug. The dress is very short and almost too small for Ru, but the legwarmers are much, much too big. Even though they have a very wide strip of velcro down the back to allow for a range of different-sized legs, they are still about twice as big around as Ru's legs.

Photo by Erin Koski

This year it looks like Petsmart has all the licensed Disney costumes for dogs. Princesses and fairies aren't in vogue though, it looks like Winnie the Pooh and the Muppets are the only options for aspiring Disney dogs.

Disney Exclusive Licensed Mickey Mouse Leather Collar

Licensed Disney merchandise for pets can be tough to find, as far as I am aware it has largely been available at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. During the pet boutique craze of a decade ago, I got a set of Mickey Mouse ears, some dog bowls and squeaky toys, a Cruella de Vil chew toy, and a Mickey Mouse ID tag for Briz.

Photo by Erin Koski

Pet stuff has oddly never really been available at Disneyland or any of the Disney Stores I have visited. There might be an occasional chew toy, but the big displays with assorted collars, bowls, and toys featuring Pluto and the other canine Disney characters are limited to one or two locations at Disney World.

Four years ago, after scouring every store in the park, I found this gorgeous leather collar with Mickey Mouse studs. It reminded me of our Hot Dogs collars, but the quality seems to be lacking. Instead of enameled pewter decorations, these are laminated stickers.

I think I have an overly idealized impression of Disney and their products, because I expected this collar to hold up better. I have plenty of collars that look amazing years later, but the Mickies on this one started looking terrible within a few months. The leather still looks fabulous, I've considered painting the Mickies or pulling them off and replacing them with something else. I haven't found any other collars yet that have this design flaw, obviously Disney doesn't specialize in dog collars.

I still put it on Briz all the time though, it's a nice souvenir from a fun trip.