New modern day costumes coming to American Adventure?

[Lucky]

Not sure how this will work. Because of globalization, modern-day food, dress, music etc. in the majority of WS countries is more alike every day.

 

[aladdin2007]

Cheaper than building a new ride in each pavilion to freshen them up!

And cheaper for the costume department in the long run most likely.

 

[aladdin2007]

Not sure how this will work. Because of globalization, modern-day food, dress, music etc. in the majority of WS countries is more alike every day.

No different than a food court in a mall eventually if they stay on this track.

 

[asianway]

Cheaper than building a new ride in each pavilion to freshen them up!

I'm sure the complaints all center around the AA pavilion too-not the 1970s movie three doors down

 

[kashmir]

Excellent point! This gets to the crux of the entire discussion. What boundaries do we use to determine what is “American”? We have geography and political affiliation but we also have time as you wisely pointed out. The term “American Experience” doesn’t mean very much.

PLEASE JUST STOP!

 

[alphac2005]

Please forgive me. I do tend to wander. My point here is that the colonial costumes used at the American Adventure are rather arbitrary. Colonial costumes are associated with the founding of the USA. Are the costumes worn by CM’s in the other world showcase pavilions associated with the founding of their respective countries? To my knowledge, they are not.

I think in each case the CM’s in each world showcase country are dressed in costumes that WDW thinks presents a positive imagine for that country. Clearly WDW attempts to imitate colonial Williamsburg. I think it has dawned upon them that they have not done a very good job in this regard. Anyone would has visited colonial Williamsburg knows that the WDW colonial costuming is poor by comparison.

WDW needs to drop the historic pretense. Perhaps they could have young people dressed in hip-hop outfits and other such fashions of current times in the USA.

I'm not sure that every Canadian likes to think that they're depicted as a lumberjack or German with their kitschy lederhosen.

 

[rioriz]

I will save my comments until I see them...I really don't see anything wrong with updating them to what the culture is wearing in todays world if it were an accurate description. I am sure the CM's there may be more relieved to wear newer style clothing.

 

[Yzma]

If ya'll are freaking out about these changes I'm petrified to see the response when other pavilions change theirs in a few weeks.

...

Before we start picking apart one costume choice make sure you have your cards in order.

So very true - not to mention, this change was announced nearly 6 months before it's going to happen! There are still many rounds of approval and production that have yet to start before anything is set in stone!

AA and Mexico are the first up.

There are a couple other pavilions that are changing first, AA was announced prematurely and then quickly pulled.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Exactly! World Showcase, as it is, is extremely clichéd and dated. Let's get some more appropriate, 2012 costumes. Given the costumes that have come out of WDI for the Fantasyland Expansion, I think we are in good hands. They've been putting out some great costumes of late that actually fit normal-sized humans. Plus World Showcase CMs tend to be some of the most attractive CMs at all of WDW, so it makes sense to put them in cleaner, more fitting costumes.

World Showcase is meant to be a permanent Worlds Fair. Not a boring museum. I miss the WDWMagic of yore when people didn't complain about every announcement...SOMETIMES, WDI still does good work.

 

[AmongMadPeople]

Do we have any idea of a time frame when these new costumes will be unveiled?

ETA - Yzma posted more details while I was reading & typing.

 

[Fe Maiden]

Walt Disney Imagineering.

Apparently guest feedback for the last few years is that World Showcase is dated, and that costumes are the main issue.

Out of all the things that have been causing WS to be dated, costumes are the main issue? It couldn't be that there hasn't been anything new of substance to any of the pavillions in 20 years. Okay, they freshened up Mexico a bit with Donald which I like and they updated the movie in Canada (haven't seen it). To be fair, they did replace Alfredo's, an Italian restaurant with another Italian restaurant.

"Hey kids I hear they're re-imagining all of WS, rumor has it everyone will be sporting new pleats in their slacks. Let's drive 1,000 miles and drop a couple grand to check it out."

 

[Tim Lohr]

Walt Disney Imagineering.

Apparently guest feedback for the last few years is that World Showcase is dated, and that costumes are the main issue. WDI was tasked with changing this, and the new costumes are being championed by them. They are aiming to make World Showcase a modern day version of the "world", not a time-capsule museum.

Just before anyone jumps on the current Epcot VP, this was long before her time.

AA and Mexico are the first up.

I'm looking forward to see what they come up with. Epcot does not need to be a museum.

http://www.wdwmagic.com/Attractions...oming-to-Epcot's-World-Showcase-pavilions.htm

I can kind of see this... the last time I was there I thought the AA staff seemed a little underdressed compared to the VoL singers, but I thought it was more the color schemes than the costumes. They've changes the colors of the Energy and Imagination pavilions several times over the years, but the AA staff are still wearing the same Brown and Burgundy from the late 70's, and don't CMs in Liberty Square wear Light Blue and Navy Blue, that's a little more flattering look than Brown and Burgundy.

But I don't know that throwing out the "idea" of historical costumes is the right solution though, like if you watch the 1960's movie version of "Spartacus" then watch the new TV version, you'll probably notice some differences in the costumes. I think the problem with the AA costumes is not that they look like they are from 1776, but that they are 1980's versions of 1776

 

[Yzma]

Did anyone notice that Italy Costumes already changed?

 

[ToTBellHop]

Out of all the things that have been causing WS to be dated, costumes are the main issue? It couldn't be that there hasn't been anything new of substance to any of the pavillions in 20 years. Okay, they freshened up Mexico a bit with Donald which I like and they updated the movie in Canada (haven't seen it). To be fair, they did replace Alfredo's, an Italian restaurant with another Italian restaurant.

"Hey kids I hear they're re-imagining all of WS, rumor has it everyone will be sporting new pleats in their slacks. Let's drive 1,000 miles and drop a couple grand to check it out."

And they built the gorgeous new Cantina/Hacienda de San Angel. And they built Via Napoli. And they just re did Tutto Italia. And they updated the China pavilion. And they are redoing the France restaurants. Re did all of the sit-downs in Japan and then the counter service.

To me, they've done quite a lot to World Showcase recently--just no rides.

And for the record, they've already started changing the costumes and no one seemed to notice on here (Italy). I guess they must be fine.

 

[McDubbs]

A change in costumes would be nice, but not necessarily towards modern! Something I have always wondered is why there isn't more historical information about each different country featured at their pavilion?

 

[ToTBellHop]

A change in costumes would be nice, but not necessarily towards modern! Something I have always wondered is why there isn't more historical information about each different country featured at their pavilion?

Because it's a permanent Worlds Fair. Each pavilion wants to convince you to book a flight to their home country--so I can see the appeal of presenting the modern-day country.

 

[LizC]

Did anyone notice that Italy Costumes already changed?

What do they look like?

 

[afar28]

That's exactly right. America is a continent. I think I said that (I made it bigger in my OP for ease of understanding). So are we talking about the adventure of a continent? No, the show talks about the founding of the United States of America.

Mexico is part of America.

That is right on the spot about America, as it should be renamed the United States of America if it were not to include other countries in North America (Greenland, Mexicio, Canada and all the Central American countries) and countries from South America.

 

[Yzma]

What do they look like?

Here's a couple images I found on Google of the Merch costume which changed within the last year (I could not find one of the males):

And of course, new costumes debuted with the reopening of Tutto Italia:

 

[Fe Maiden]

And they built the gorgeous new Cantina/Hacienda de San Angel. And they built Via Napoli. And they just re did Tutto Italia. And they updated the China pavilion. And they are redoing the France restaurants. Re did all of the sit-downs in Japan and then the counter service.

That's all well and good, I've enjoyed a lot of the new offerings, BUT......

To me, they've done quite a lot to World Showcase recently--just no rides.

Bingo! Add some attractions to get people excited again about exploring the pavilions. Now it's just an excercise in getting to an ADR in time.

My issue isn't that they're changing costumes, I probably wouldn't have noticed. My issue is that costumes are the main reason the place is dated. If that's from guest feedback than that's an indictment on the guests.