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Image: Courtesy of Claire Hummel.

"It's not that I didn't want to do Mulan (she's fantastic so far as the Disney 'princesses' go), but pinning down her time period stopped being fun and rapidly became a headache — you have the original legend taking place in the Wei Dynasty, the Huns as an actual threat during the Western Han Dynasty, the Forbidden City of the Ming Dynasty...



On that note, I'll be the first to admit that this piece isn't tying Mulan down to a particular period, rather putting her in plausible historical textiles and hanfu. When I was asking around for references, most of the stuff sent my way was from Chinese period films or other modern recreations, so I just threw up my hands and decided to have fun with it.



It's based on Mulan's finale/epilogue costume at the end of the film; she never seemed at home in either the matchmaker costume or the armor, so this seemed like the best 'Mulan has come into her own' middle ground."