Disney Mulan 2020 from Fashion Design to Portrait Photography

As a portrait photographer and fashion designer, I celebrated what I find most inspiring about the Mulan story by recreating her red battle outfit and doing a photoshoot in my portrait studio in Gilbert, Arizona. Now, I know Disney’s Mulan live-action movie has received mixed reviews but I was very impressed with the gorgeous cinematography, elaborate costumes and beautiful music score.

In this video I take you behind-the-scenes to how I planned, designed and constructed Mulan’s red battle outfit, found the perfect kung fu athlete to portray Mulan, created 3 different set-ups for the photoshoot and the exciting final portrait reveal.

To make Mulan’s red robe, blouse and pants, I went to my local Goodwill and purchased red and cream-colored bed sheets to use as fabric. I ordered supplies for Mulan’s hip armor from Amazon including silver metallice card stock paper, red shoe laces and a replica of Mulan’s sword.

For Mulan’s hair comb, I designed my own version of her comb in Adobe Illustrator, imported it to Adobe Photoshop and created a 3D model. I exported my file and sent it to Kurt Bevin of 3D Creatables to have it printed 3D printed.

I believe the ancestors were smiling down on me and helped me find the perfect young lady to portray Mulan in my photoshoot. Master Dabiao Meng founded the Shaolin Temple Cultural Center of Arizona for martial arts in Chandler, Arizona. He and his wife Brenda Battaglia live in my community. When Brenda heard about my project she suggested one of their top Shaolin kung fu students Anica Wang to be Mulan. She turned out to be the perfect choice and we had so much fun together creating these portraits.

I hope you enjoy this behind the scenes look at my creative process from idea, to sketch, to construction to portrait photoshoot. I have many more cuts of fabric and ideas for future projects. Let me know if you enjoyed seeing this process and would like to see more by clicking the Like and Subscribe buttons. Thank you!

This outfit and hundreds more are part of my studio wardrobe and available to my clients for beauty portraits, headshots, mother and daughter portraits and senior portraits. Every outfit I make or purchase has flexibility in mind. Women come in all shapes and sizes and there is no ideal shape. My outfits are designed to be the most flattering on the widest variety of women. I want women to not only look fabulous but feel fabulous in what they’re wearing. I am located in South Gilbert, Arizona and operate out of the comfort and convenience of a home portrait studio. You can learn more about me, my contemporary portrait experience and browse my gallery at my website… http://nicolebonillaportrait.com/

Mulan's 3D hair comb printer... https://www.3dcreatables.com/
Shaolin Temple Cultural Center of Arizona... https://www.azshaolin.com/

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