HPOE32
Summary

• What is Dapper Day? 0:10
  • Dapper Day at Disneyland.
  • Step out in style.
  • Disneyland Dapper Day Expo

• Dressing for Dapper Day 5:23
  • Disney Bounding is when they use color blocking.
  • Choosing a theme.
  • The value of being complimented on Dapper Day.
  • Different elements of a Dapper Day outfit.
  • Think good and hard about footwear.

• Ariel and Stef’s Dapper Days of the Past 8:42
  • Ariel bought socks to wear with her heels due to the pain of walking all day.
  • Different park preparation from 20-year-old years to 30-year-old years.
  • Flamingo-themed dress, floral-themed dress, tiki-themed dress, and Moana-themed dress.
  • Tips for where to take pictures in the park.
  • A short girl solution to short girl problems.
  • The many theme ideas for Dapper Day.

• Ideas for Dapper Day 14:46
  • The Disney Dress Shop in Downtown Disneyland.
  • The difference between making costumes and curating an outfit.
  • Flexibility and intentionality are needed when deciding to go vintage or retro.
  • Embracing culture.
  • Filipino formal wear of The Barong Tagalog, The Terno, and The Maria Clara.

• On A Mission for Dapper Day Outfit Pieces 22:26
  • Searching Amazon for Dapper Day themed outfit ideas.
  • On a mission for the perfect pair of white boots.
  • Trying to attain that perfect look, even when it hurts.
• Ariel Does a Star Wars Disneybound for Spring Dapper Day 2023 30:09
  • The fine line between replica and upgraded outfit.
  • Wait, are they getting married?
• Dress To Your Comfort Level 34:58
  • Acknowledging the element of privilege in participating in Dapper Day.
Accepting the changes to your body.
  • Stepping out or staying in your comfort zone.
  • Attending the Expo instead of the Park to enjoy Dapper Day.
  • Catch Stef and Ariel at San Diego Comic-Con for three different panels.


Ariel Landrum 0:10
Hello, everyone, welcome to the Happiest Pod on Earth. I’m Ariel. I’m a licensed therapist who uses my clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma.

Stefanie Bautista 0:20
And I’m Stef, I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Ariel Landrum 0:26
And Happiest Pod is where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Stefanie Bautista 0:32
Why do we do this? Because we’re more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums that we consume, especially from Disney. So Ariel, what Disney experience are we discussing today?

Ariel Landrum 0:42
We’re gonna talk about Dapper Day.

Stefanie Bautista 0:47
It has been a minute since we’ve talked about anything. And right before we started recording this, I was 100% shocked that we haven’t talked about tougher day before, because it’s one of our annual traditions, I guess biannual because it happens twice a year, right? Yeah. And it’s one of the things that me and Ariel love doing at the parks. It’s one of the things that brought us together as best friends. And so I’m just like, “Why haven’t we talked about this befire?”

Ariel Landrum 1:14
Exactly! Stef, what is Dapper Day?

Stefanie Bautista 1:17
So Dapper Day. And this is open to interpretation, right? Everybody who’s listening, I know you guys have probably heard seen, or maybe even had friends who participated in Dapper Day, it’s a chance for everybody to come dressed at the park in their best outfits. So as you all know, Disneyland opened in 1955. And in 1955, the fashion was completely different. Everybody was in dresses, men wearing in suits. Even little kids didn’t wear athletic wear. They basically wore really cute things to the park, it was as if they were going out to a special event.

Ariel Landrum 1:51
And the park was more like a park, right? The rides were not as extreme as they are now.

Stefanie Bautista 1:58
It was more like going to a park that had amusement rides, much like a carousel at Griffith Park or pony ride or something like that. So basically, Dapper Day is a way for retro enthusiast, fashion enthusiast, and Disney fashion enthusiast to come together. It dressed up and their best in the park and basically takes a million pictures. Because you when you’re dressed up to the nines like that you’re not really wanting to you know, mess up your hair on Splash Mountain RIP. But you want to just show out and step out and I think the official theme is ‘Step Out in Style,’ right? So that is basically Dapper Day. It happens twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. And since then it’s expanded to different events either at museums or local gardens and they also now have Dapper Day at Epcot in Disney World and they also have it in Disneyland Paris as well.

Ariel Landrum 2:50
So started by the fans and now when we say if is it is it actually officially recognized by Disney or is it like unofficially officially because I remember when you introduced me to it this was back in like 2017 I believe it was like unofficially recognized by Disney in that Mickey would come out and like his like best dress and like his dapper wear on that day. So it was like a nod that they knew was Dapper Day, but it wasn’t featured on their website. It wasn’t acknowledged in the sense that it was an event sponsored, covered or approved by Disney.

Stefanie Bautista 3:23
Right. So here’s the thing. They hold the Dapper Day Expo, which is basically like they’re Dapper Day at Comic Con, have you, in the Disneyland Hotel and they have all these vendors and they sell dapper where they still have they get they do your hair, they sell shoes, all the things that you need to make up an outfit. They have performances, all that stuff, everything that’s like very retro. And they hold that at the Disneyland Hotel and they sell merchandise that says Disneyland Dapper Day or Disney Parks Dapper Day. When I visited Epcot last year. They even had a booth that was in Epcot right in front of I think where the America section was, and that booth had Dapper Day merchandise although we don’t see it on the parks and tickets. It’s not a ticketed event. So it’s not like it would be on the website as a ticketed event like Oogie Boogie Bash would be I feel like it’s recognized by the parks but I don’t think it’s owned by the parks if that makes sense.

Ariel Landrum 4:17
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 4:18
Yeah, correct me if I’m wrong everyone but I thought these are just my observations.

Ariel Landrum 4:22
Yes. And I haven’t seen anything like on the website I feel like we follow enough Disney influencers that if it became like an officially recognized like announced thing by Disney, we would have seen it all over Instagram as like “Breaking news!”

Stefanie Bautista 4:39
And to be quite honest with you, I don’t feel like that’s necessary because it is such a casual, casual but you’re not looking casual event where people just come dressed to the park. It’s not like you have character meet and greets. You don’t have like special theme food like they’re not going to serve your hot dog from the 1950s. But they have been incorporating some of those elements into everyday Park life. For example, you find the retro popcorn bucket in different places at the park in California Adventure, they have performances by a swing band, and they have, you know, things that called back to that era, but not necessarily needing to section out the whole day in order to have the event because it is so casual.

Ariel Landrum 5:24
Yes. And when it comes to dapper, it’s really what you define as dapper. So some people will pick an era like the 1950s, or 1960s, or 1970s. Some people will do a Disneybound. I talked about this in episode before. But if you don’t remember Disneybounding is when you use colorblocking to denote that you are representing a Disney character without actually having a costume. And so we’ll see a lot of people were like very fancy dresses that are red and blue and wait and be there Snow White, and sometimes the theme is just whatever you want. So my first like Dapper Day that I did matching a partner was I was lemons. And that was that was the theme was I had this dress that I bought from Unique Vintage that I’d owned for like two and a half years that I never worn. So and it had lemons on it.

Stefanie Bautista 6:13
And it was a hit. It was a whole hit. How many compliments did you get? I couldn’t even remember, you got so many everybody loved lemons, and they loved just the way you and your partner coordinated. It was very cute and very summery. And I think it was the spring one. So it was very well put together. Bravo, bravo.

Ariel Landrum 6:34
Thank you. Thank you.

Stefanie Bautista 6:35
And another thing you always kind of know, and this is like a side note that you did a good job when people compliment you at the park.

Ariel Landrum 6:42
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 6:43
It gives you a sense of like that you’re like, “Oh, yes, I did it.” If somebody recognize you as a character if you’re Disneybounding. Or if they say, “Oh my gosh, I love your hair or your shoes,” or whatever. People talk to each other at the parks all the time. But when they give specific compliments like that, I think that’s what’s special about Dapper Day is because you know you made an effort and for people recognizing that effort, it brings that sense of community to the event.

Ariel Landrum 7:04
Even with the Disney Bounding this Dapper Day, we met up with our friend who is a psychologist, Dr. Elizabeth Han and, and her husband, Benji Han, and they were Aladdin and Jasmine. And it was awesome, because all of the other crew that you would see in that movie. So we saw Jafar, we saw The Genie, they would run up to them and be like, “Can we take a picture with you?” And because they knew who you were, and you knew who they were.

Stefanie Bautista 7:32
Yeah. And shout out to Liz and Benji, they did such a great job on that Disneybound. Oh my gosh, perfect. And they look great throughout the day,

Ariel Landrum 7:40
Some people will just buy things and put things together. Some people will like go through their closet, Elizabeth, she dyed her gloves and like her scarf to match the specific color of Jasmine’s outfits. So go all out, go big. You know, keep it tiny, keep it close to your closet, whatever it is, ends up being just a lot of fun to step into Dapper Day.

Stefanie Bautista 8:01
Yeah, there’s different elements of putting your outfit together. And that is one of the parts of preparing for the parks that is a little bit different when it comes to Dapper Day. Of course, like as Ariel mentioned, it’s either you’re gonna go down the Disneybound route, or you’re just gonna go down the vintage route. Either one is fine. One of the lessons early on that both me and her found out was to really think good and hard about your footwear. Because if you’re planning to stay at the parks all day, if you don’t have the leisure of having a hotel nearby, you’re basically commuting over there and you’re gonna stay there the whole day until you feel like you’ve gotten the most out of your park day. But if you’re wearing heels, it will cut your day short as we have found out in the past, right?

Ariel Landrum 8:42
Yes, yes. I think this was the Dapper Day in 2018 maybe?

Stefanie Bautista 8:47
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 8:48
Oh, no wait, maybe it was 2016. Maybe we started going in 2016, not 17?

Stefanie Bautista 8:52
It was the first one that you and I have done together because I have done one before with my husband. But…

Ariel Landrum 8:57
He was deployed!

Stefanie Bautista 8:57
Yeah, he was deployed at the time. So I picked a very simple dress. I think it just had flowers on I did my hair. But you had a beautiful green dress on.

Ariel Landrum 9:05
Yeah teal green. And it had little flowers around the waist and had a parasol.

Yes, yes. And you also I think there was elements of tulle? Tulle?

Yes, yes, there’s tulle on top and I even had like a tulle, tiny hat. But we took it off after a while because it was it was getting in the way. And then I wore these heeled shoes with like buttons on them. And three hours into the day my feet were hurting, but we were just we just kept going. We just kept going and then by the time it hit like actual dark because we got there at 10 I believe my feet were bleeding basically. And we had no band aids and we ended up going to the Disney store and I bought Ariel the mermaid socks because I happen to be similar color theme. And they were tall socks. And it looked like I was wearing stockings. So it was fine and that like really helped with my feet for the rest of the evening. But man, I don’t know who I thought I was I don’t ever wear heels like ever. So the fact that I thought I could flouts around for again Disneyland!

Stefanie Bautista 10:08
I think they were like Mary Janes. So the heel was maybe no more than two inches I think?

Ariel Landrum 10:14
Yeah, they were short.

Stefanie Bautista 10:15
However the terrain of Disneyland is still concrete. It’s like wood, it is stone. It is not pillows. So if you don’t have like an insole, or if you don’t have an extra pair of flats or like slippers or something, which now in our 30s, we have because we were in our 20s. And again, who did we think we were? Because I had shoes, and I stuck it out. I don’t know how I did that. And not only does the clover anything.

Ariel Landrum 10:49
You did really good.

Stefanie Bautista 10:50
I did. But I remember having blisters, like really bad blisters. And of course, this was 2016 or whatever. I was much lighter. I was probably a little bit more fit. So I could hold my strength a little longer, but…

Ariel Landrum 11:03
Pre pre kiddos.

Stefanie Bautista 11:04
Pre kiddos, all of that stuff. Now. Even if I have sneakers, my feet are dying. But yeah, like I think that’s one of the learning lessons. And even though we went through that experience, I think it made us want to improve the next time because the next time do you remember what your outfit was?

Ariel Landrum 11:24
I believe this next outfit was flamingos. My theme was flamingos. And I had flamingos all over my dress and a flamingo purse. Yes, yes. I don’t remember the shoes at all. But I don’t remember any pain that year. So they must not have been they must have been flats. I think this is I think from the room after that all of my shoes have been flats with the exception of this year.

Stefanie Bautista 11:46
I think I did flats too. That was the one where I did a tiki theme.

Yes. And I shoved you in a bush.

Yes, she shoved me in a bush. She actually likes doing it. You do show me the bush the first time also, but you shoved me in another bush this time.

Ariel Landrum 11:58
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 11:59
And it’s always the same bush. It’s the one right outside the Tiki.

Ariel Landrum 12:02
Yes. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. And this was before they expanded it with that outdoor eating area.

Stefanie Bautista 12:07
Yeah, yeah. So as we’re waiting for the Enchanted Tiki Room, which we always tend to do during Dapper Day. I don’t think we did that this past time. But yeah, like that bush is always like really good for pictures if you ever want to take really cool tropical pictures. That was a day that I think I wore flats too. And I think we came out on top that day.

Ariel Landrum 12:25
I even remember I had flip flops with me. So I remember because I can I can see in my mind’s eye now that they were these brown ones that I’ve gotten since rid of, but the dress was so long, you really couldn’t see my feet. It didn’t really matter what shoes I work.

Stefanie Bautista 12:38
You know what? That’s not Short Girl Problems. That’s Short Girl…

Ariel Landrum 12:42
Solutions!

Stefanie Bautista 12:43
Solutions! Exactly. Exactly.

Ariel Landrum 12:46
And your dress it was it was black. And it had floral theme, correct?

Stefanie Bautista 12:51
No, this one was actually the the other version of it. It was green and it had like tiki print on it. It was a skirt. And then I had a like cream colored blouse. And then we’re really big flower in my hair.

Ariel Landrum 13:04
You were you were Moana?

Stefanie Bautista 13:05
Not that year. That was a different year.

Ariel Landrum 13:08
That was another year?

Stefanie Bautista 13:09
That year AJ came back.

Ariel Landrum 13:10
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 13:10
So my husband came back from deployment. And then we were Moana and Maui. But this one was just like a tiki theme. It was the one that had like these 50s sunglasses, and then you shoved me in another bush. I’ll show you a picture later. But we will also in attachment to this when we post about this episode, we will have pictures of all of our Dapper Days of past because we’ve had quite a collection now.

Ariel Landrum 13:31
And because it happens twice a year, that’s the other component is it’s like “Oh, was this spring or fall?”

Stefanie Bautista 13:39
As like, “Did I bring a jacket or did I not bring a jacket?” In spring, it gets pretty hot. Like I know we’ve had a very late winter this year. So it did get pretty cold like both in the morning and in the evening. But before it used to get really hot and so you’d be sweating, your hair would be melting. And you always just admire the ladies who just like have helmets on like they basically hairspray the crap out of your head. And it just stays perfect until like the end. I don’t know how they do that.

Ariel Landrum 14:10
I’ve seen the most elaborate hats. One specifically sticks out one year where somebody’s theme was they were the tiki room. And their hat was a headpiece that had one of the birds inside a cage. And I was just like, what, how do you do this and it all handmade. And this is around the time where you introduced me the actual Expo that they were having. And I started going there and you could buy pieces at the Expo. And a lot. It seems like a lot of people who are vendors or have relationship with the vendors, they tend to make more of their outfits. They aren’t piecing things together that they found they’re creating things.

Stefanie Bautista 14:46
When you’re thinking about putting your outfits together you are thinking like “Am I going to theme this?” If you are Disneybounding you’re going to theme it after movie. You can theme it after a ride you can theme it after the whole Disneyland park you can be with after California Adventure if you want and I think people who have been putting these outfits together have done such a great job. And with the help of social media Dapper Day, the hashtag of Dapper Day, if you just look it up, it has a million ideas. Now Disney has caught on with the idea of not just letting the fans find these pieces, but actually marketing and making these pieces. Hence the opening of the dress shop that you see in Downtown Disney. When you go inside the parks, you’re gonna see 50s 60s themed clothes, whole dresses that have different elements of them popping up. I remember the first time that they tried doing this was the tiki room.

Ariel Landrum 14:48
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 15:11
And like legit, everybody has this damn dress.

Ariel Landrum 15:38
Everyone was wearing this Tiki Room dress made by a Disney officially sold and made by Disney.

Stefanie Bautista 15:43
Great effort Disney in trying to relate. But when it becomes sort of a uniform, it kind of loses its pizzazz a little bit. So I feel like now they’ve like offered different like varieties of what they have at the dress shop. It is at a higher price point. I know if you like just go vintage shopping or if you you know do the extra work kind of like when you’re doing cosplay, right? There’s a difference between getting a costume that’s made for Halloween and using that for Comic Con or whatever, comic book convention. And there’s a difference between putting everything together curating it, finding those pieces and then kind of making it your own. So depends on whichever route you want to take. But there is flexibility but also know that Disney is trying to capitalize a little bit on it.

Ariel Landrum 16:26
Yes, yes. And then if you’re trying to instead replicate like an era and do something more vintage or even retro, that is a little bit trickier if you are buying replicated pieces because you already know the replicated and if you are trying to go actual vintage, there’s the expense portion but there’s also will it last?

Stefanie Bautista 16:48
Or really fit? women’s bodies now are so different from they were before when I used to have illegal vintage shopping I had to really consciously think about my body and how women’s bodies were thought of back then and how they fit into me now so it wasn’t like if I found a piece that was like a large it’s not like saying I was had gained weight or whatever because I normally wear a medium. It’s really because the idea and the concept of size was so different decades ago.

Ariel Landrum 17:15
I’ve noticed even with the size I’m top heavy, there’s just like not a lot of vintage outfits that I can buy that will fit me up where my chest is. So I tend to more buy vintage pieces like earrings, hats, bracelets, necklaces, glasses, things that are an accessory purses a lot a lot of purses. Unless something that I’m gonna wear that might wear out or that I might want to cherish later that might wear out.

Stefanie Bautista 17:43
I’m telling you Ariel one of these days we’re just going to buy those like Tiki momos and it’s gonna be like the most comfortable Dapper Day ever.

Ariel Landrum 17:50
Yeah!

Stefanie Bautista 17:51
They’re coming back into style and they are gorgeous.

Ariel Landrum 17:56
We could definitely buy some authentic ones. So…

Stefanie Bautista 17:58
Yeah. Oh yeah. I feel like…

Ariel Landrum 18:00
Filipino ones.

Stefanie Bautista 18:00
Yeah, for sure. And yeah, there’s that cultural element to it too. As…

Ariel Landrum 18:05
Yeah! Share your your cultural piece that was a huge hit the shocked you!

Stefanie Bautista 18:09
Oh my gosh, super shocked me so we so I am my heritage my I identify as Filipino American. And so in the Philippines there. Instead of wearing suits and dresses, we have two different kinds of outfits that you would wear to either a formal event or to a someone who’s a business event really just any kind of formal event. For the men’s it’s called the Barong Tagalog which is basically a bamboo woven blouse. And it’s very breathable, you normally wear just like a white shirt inside. And it is like a high collar you can even you can either have like Chinese style collar where the it doesn’t like come out on the sides or like a Western style collar that kind of comes out on the sides like you would normally see a dress shirt as. And it has very intricate patterns on it that are woven in. Very beautiful. We will show of course examples on this when we post about it, but my husband has one for every formal event that we go to. And then for women, you have a couple of different options, but they all are very similar to each other. One of them is called the terno, which is basically a blouse that has really big butterfly sleeves on the sides. Not puffy, kind of like Alice in Wonderland but more structured. So it’s very high, very flat on each side, but it has a low neck. And it also could either be a dress, which is called a Maria Clara, and there’s different versions of it. But lately over the years, people have been selling them more because people Filipino Americans and people who are you know getting married to Filipinos they are wanting to incorporate more cultural wear into their formal events. So I thought to myself, I might as well buy one because you know why? I have had like an event coming up my grandma’s 80th birthday. And so we all decided to wear our Filipino outfits. And I had bought a little bronc that I loved for my son at the time. And so we’re like, let’s just wear this a Dapper Day, because it’s coming up, I have major FOMO if I miss a day, every day, I’m like, “Oh my God, I wish I was there.”

Ariel Landrum 20:16
And you didn’t have a lot of time to get the pieces together. So this was part of like, looking at what you have, and just anything that might be missing versus starting from scratch.

Stefanie Bautista 20:24
Exactly. And it was a spring Dapper Day, so I knew it was gonna be hot. And we normally do the California Food and Wine Festival at California Adventure. So I knew it was gonna be walking around. And my shirt came with a just kind of like a silk wraparound skirt. And I was postpartum a little bit still. And I needed something that I could be comfortable in. So I wore that I think it were flats that year, too. And we went into the park, and oh my god, the amount of people are like, “Oh my God, we love your outfits. And we love your Barong Tagalog like, I can’t believe you have a small one for your son.” And even though it wasn’t like anything tied to Disney, or it wasn’t tied to, like an era, because this is something that you can modernly wear, like any sort of formal event either here in the Philippines, you caught the attention of Filipinos who worked at the park. Number one, they were like, “I don’t even think of that.” And also you caught the attention of other people who didn’t know what you were wearing, they asked questions about and they’re like, “Oh, you know, like, is this, like from your culture? Is this from a specific thing?” But really, like, I forgot how many Filipinos actually worked at the park? But that day I was holy reminded about, you know, the demographic of Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, and the surrounding areas of Anaheim. Because yes, there are a lot of us around here. I think the next year afterwards, I saw more people embracing their cultural heritage. For example, I saw this beautiful Vietnamese couple wearing the like a bright red, like just I don’t know the name of it. I’ll look it up in a little bit. But with the really large, beautiful hat, oh, my God, they look gorgeous. And so I think people are starting to lean towards their culture a little bit. And I’m glad that I kind of decided to do that. And it wasn’t even intentional. But I have been wearing that outfit again for more dapper days. And I think I would probably expand upon that maybe and try to Disneybound with it. So I encourage you guys to do that as well.

Ariel Landrum 22:26
And the most recent Dapper Day that we had the theme of was a Disneybound and it was going to be Star Wars and the only reason I did that was because Dapper Day has become more and more popular and you can follow the hashtags. I typed in Dapper Day in Amazon. I just typed that. And then there were all these individuals who were I guess you’d call them Amazon influencers? I’m not I’m not 100% sure, because they have their own little like influencer website on Amazon. But they all posted images of their outfits and what pieces they bought on Amazon to make those outfits and there was one that you can get in white or black. And I was trying to decide if it Star Wars do I want to be Princess Leia or do I want to be Vader? Like “What do I want to do with this?” This outfit had these long sleeves that emulated like a cape. And so that’s that’s why it could have been either or, and in talking with my partner who knew that he was going to be able to attend Dapper Day this year, we decided I’ll be Leia and he’ll be Han. Now I remember. I need to wear good footwear. But I also wanted something that might be like kinda fun and make the outfit edgy. And I was talking to Stef about it. And I was like, “I’ve been looking for white boots and for like three days straight.” I’m going to the mall looking for white boots because I thought you know, “Go go boots are back, I should be able to find them.” Could not find white boots. There were cream boots. There were boots that were white and black, but nothing that was just white boots.

Stefanie Bautista 23:50
And that set me on a mission, “Girl, I’m gonna find you these white boots.” And I think, um it was again a coincidence that I had seen this because I think me and my husband just got out of the theater ever had it been what we watched. We watched John Wick, which by the way, amazing movie and then we went downstairs and they had just opened up a Nordstrom Rack and I was like, “Oh yeah, Nordstrom Rack!” Like, I love me a Nordstrom Rack so I go inside. And then I think Ariel you had texted me like, “I still can’t find the boots!” And I was just like “Bitch I’mma find them!| Sorry, pardon my language, but I go in there and because everything is all new, they just had like, so much selection. So luckily, because Ariel is such a petite size. Not a lot of people get things in that size, which kind of works out because you are able to find really good quality things if you aren’t besides that normally more or regular people are I’m a size seven, seven and a half and my section is always sold out like it’s really irritating. So I go over there. And then I see the most perfect pair of white Doc Martens like they could not be more perfect for Princess Leia. They were edgy. They were not laced. So they were just pull ons and they were her size. I have a couple Doc Martens and the only caveat to having them is you got to break them in. So I’m like, “Okay, I’m gonna get these for you.” They were the perfect size like the heavens shown above me just opened up like pathway for her to do this Disneybound. And I’m like, “I’m gonna get them, but you kind of break them in some way somehow.”

Ariel Landrum 25:21
So we could never meet up to pick up these shoes from each other so I had to wear them day of. We met at the Dapper Day Expo the day before the official Dapper Day event. Dapper Day Expo is essentially three days and the actual Dapper Day at the park is Sunday. So when you’re going to dress up at the park, it’s Sunday, however, some people will dress up the whole weekend. So we met on Saturday at the Expo. Here I am being gifted these boots that I haven’t even tried them on. And so we’re in the middle of the floor of the Dapper Day Expo…

Stefanie Bautista 25:54
There’s litterally vendors going like around those. There’s link a beautiful like swing band, big band, everyone’s dancing…

Ariel Landrum 26:01
And so we’re sitting on the floor. And I cannot put these boots on for the life of me. And it took a lot of wiggling my feet around like these are my perfect size. I don’t understand maybe maybe I’m just a different size Doc Martens. Again, I’m on and they fit comfortably now that I’ve actually slipped my foot in, they fit comfortably.

Stefanie Bautista 26:20
Slip is a very like, general term, we kind of had to ganker in there to the point where I think one of the Dapper Day workers were like, “Do you want me to get you a chair?” She was so sweet. And then like me and your partner were just like trying to like hoist them into link your foot into there. It was quite a scene.

Ariel Landrum 26:38
It was. And then it was even worse of a scene to take them off. It got to the point where I was afraid we were gonna have to cut these off of my feet. I was pulling and tugging and twisting and another like vendor came by and they’re like, “Do you need some help? Do you want do you need…” Like the everyone was it was worried about me. They were they were concerned about these boots.

Stefanie Bautista 27:00
There were two categories of people one category that was concerned about your health and safety in these shoes. And the other was “Where did you get them? Did you buy them here?”

Ariel Landrum 27:10
Yes, I kept getting asked, I asked “Where did you get these boots,” as I’m trying to like take them off or put them on. The problem was I had just been at Disney all day. And I was wearing sandals I had no socks on and my feet were essentially a little bit more swollen from the fact that I’ve been walking around. So we went and looked around and bought socks. I put the socks on the boots fit beautifully. Once I had socks, I was like, “Okay, I’m gonna have to find a way to wear socks tomorrow with these boots.” I was gonna have hideaway socks is what I thought I was going to do. But even in trying to get them up my my leg I need tall socks, we bought some extra ones at the Dapper Day Exo to make it happen.

Stefanie Bautista 27:49
That were like probably a little bit more than I know you were comfortable with paying but at that point you were like, “Eff it,. I just need this to work!” Because we know the potential of what it was gonna look like and we knew it was going to be perfect. So in trying to attain that perfect look, we were willing to do anything. And like you know, buy, whatever it took for you to get into those boots. I don’t know why we thought it was a good idea for you to slip them on without socks. I always wear socks with mine.

Ariel Landrum 28:18
The excitement?

Stefanie Bautista 28:19
I think it was the excitement. I truly think you’re just so hype on these boots because A. found them B. I got them at a deal. Even when I wear them with dresses, I wear stockings, or I wear some sort of like leggings or something. So I don’t know why I thought that was gonna work without all of that. And especially after you were walking at the park all day.

Ariel Landrum 28:34
It was hilarious and humbling. The next day, I have the socks on I fold them a little bit. I wear the boots all day, I feel great, my feet, my legs, everything feels great. The boots are a little heavy. So that’s the only thing is I had to get used to the weight of them. But we were pretty much there till dark, I get home and I take the boots and socks off. And wow, I had so many cuts and blisters and bruises up and down my leg where different parts of the boot was pressing. And it was about two months before like all of those scabs had essentially fully healed. And so even though I didn’t repeat the wearing of the heels I still got very blistered up and that’s because these were brand new shoes. So lesson learned there I don’t know. Again I don’t know who I think I am but I thought that this was going to be possible I should have just come over in the middle of the night and had you leave the boots on the door and like me grab ’em.

It’s not like we live that far from me.

No, no.

Stefanie Bautista 28:37
I think if you wear them now they will be the most comfortable things ever you could dance or whatever have you in them and they will be true to you. So what I love about getting a piece like that for costume or a cosplay is you can wear it over and over again. So it’s not something that was just specific to your Princess Leia outfit you can wear them just as a fashion piece and I think if you are looking to maximize what you wear, because you know, you don’t want to just throw away an outfit. That’s one of those things where you find pieces that you can reuse over and over again.

Ariel Landrum 30:09
The outfit we got for my partner Han is basically you know, a vest and white shirt. I couldn’t find any pants with red stripes on them. So he just wore pants. And then he decided to tie a belt around that kind of was supposed to look like the holster and we were going back and forth on the different pieces he was starting to add to his outfit because it was getting more towards cosplay. That is the component of Dapper Day where there’s a fine line between you replicating an outfit and you trying to upgrade that outfit in dapper s stylish, fanciful, whatever you want to put it, where it’s a nod to that character. It isn’t an exact replica. And so I think it was a good thing that we didn’t end up finding pants with the red stripe or it would have started looking more like a costume. That being said, even though the we went to boot to and took a picture with literally the Millennium Falcon behind us, I don’t know how much more like evident it was. People saw me posing with my partner in a white dress and thought we had eloped. And so I consistently kept getting messages of “Married question mark?” “When did you get married Question mark?” “Such a beautiful wedding photo!”

Stefanie Bautista 31:23
This is news to me. I did not know this. I am dying.

Ariel Landrum 31:26
It was nonstop for like two or three days even from like his family where they’re like, “Oh, is this a wedding photo? Is this a sneak peek? Is this an engagement photo?”

Stefanie Bautista 31:38
I think it’s because it’s so on, brand for you to do something like that. And I think the universe just wants it for you?

Ariel Landrum 31:45
I guess. And like everyone saw a white dress with like a flowy cape.

Stefanie Bautista 31:52
They did not, “Oh, no Princess Leia at Dapper Day. She’s gotten married.”

Ariel Landrum 31:57
And a part of it was I saw this picture on Amazon if someone else who did a Dapper Day of Princess Leia where they were their hair down. And then they wore actual ears that they made with buns on them. So the buns were on the ears. And I was like, “Oh, that is so adorable. I’m gonna do that.”

Stefanie Bautista 32:13
Because really, it is hard to do just buns and you’ve done it before. And to make them last is like there’s a science to it.

Ariel Landrum 32:19
It was gonna fall I knew that it was going to fall. So I was like, I will do that. So I was even wearing Mickey ears. But I think what people saw was a bow and my hair down. And so if they didn’t understand that it was Dapper Day and that I was Disneybounding it had to mean that we had somehow eloped at Disneyland.

Stefanie Bautista 32:38
Which you know, that is okay. I subscribe to this.

Ariel Landrum 32:45
Add to cart.

Stefanie Bautista 32:47
Add to cart and hey if it ever happens, you already have a dress sis.

Ariel Landrum 32:51
Yo, I have watched those Disney weddings on the Disney+ that ish is expensive.

Stefanie Bautista 32:58
It is unattainable. That’s how you do it in times like this. And they just called eloping at Disneyland in the open without them knowing. We are talking about budgeting at Disneyland not just for Dapper Day outfits, but also for life events. So I think that’s really funny how people interpret just by what you were

Ariel Landrum 33:19
I was surprised I was genuinely truly surprised that that was the reaction. And maybe it was like because on Instagram you can put up the 10 photos. But the first one is usually what people see and people hadn’t swiped through and seen like all of us together hadn’t seen other people in they’re dapper.

Stefanie Bautista 33:35
And you looked gorgeous.

Ariel Landrum 33:36
Thank you. It was the boots the boots made it. I think when it comes to trying to find the appropriate outfit for you, you know whether you are going cultural, whether you’re picking a specific theme, whether you’re picking a specific character do this more often, you start to get used to how you want to conceptualize your outfit. I had taken a little bit of a risk with this outfit because it was shorter than I normally go I usually do a long dress and it was a little bit tighter than what I normally do. So I was wanting to step out into something different. And a part of it had to be again, that body piece that we talked about. I want my body’s changed a lot it’s gotten a lot bigger in various areas and I wanted to embrace that and not try and like hide it or shame it and it was fine. Like I don’t know what it was what worry I thought I would have in this dress. I didn’t think people think I was my marriage dress but it it really felt good to have people at the park recognize me as Leia people wanting to take pictures with me that were other Star Wars characters. There was a lot of Rays I saw and lots of Kylo Rens. Another way to be able to embrace the like the park experience and connect with your fellow Park attendees because people who don’t even know about Dapper Day they’re just like, “What is going on? Why is everybody’s like so dressed up and it’s fun to be able to like share that with them and hope that inspires them to join like the next year.

Stefanie Bautista 34:58
Yeah, and it’s not even an element of like, “Oh, I know about this and you don’t.” It’s more of like, “Hey, I will explain to you and I’m more than happy to share with you what this is, so that you can participate next time.” Because I think on the other side, there’s some people who, you know, aren’t a huge fan of the event just because it’s like, there’s an element of privilege because you knew about the event. And, you know, you were able to put this outfit together. But I think over the years, it hasn’t been like that, or, I remember in the early years, there was a little bit of that, but as its expanded to, you know, include Disneybounding, and including, you know, families and things like that. It’s an overall really positive experience for you know, dressing up without actually wearing a costume. I didn’t really have an outfit, but I had, you know, a dress that I was gonna wear for my baby shower that I didn’t. And it ended up having had like, really big, puffy sleeves, and I knew that that was in and it’s very, you know, Disneyland like, it was blue and I knew that my daughter had a really cute Alice outfit. Kids can get away with almost wearing the costume because you know, who’s gonna knock on a kid for like, dressing exactly like. It was an official Disney, you know, bought Alice in Wonderland outfit, so she wore that. And I wore my dress, which was a very similar blue, and I tried to kind of be like a bigger version of Alice, but because I didn’t have an apron, everyone thought it was Wendy. And I’m like, “Do you see Peter Pan around me anywhere?” Like, “I’m not Wendy me but okay.” But again, I wear that dress because it was comfortable. I felt confident in it. My body has changed after two kids. And so I just wanted to, I knew I was gonna be pushing a stroller around. It’s like it was to be carrying just the purse. My purse has expanded now to a large stroller with you know many intricate pieces. And, you know, knowing it was gonna be hot, I wanted something flowy. And yeah, it really worked out. I do love that you stepped out of your comfort zone, because I think the form fitting dress really complimented your curves. And also, yeah, I mean, it was great. It made me want to be like, “I should wear something like that.” And not something so large, because that’s kind of what, that’s what we default to most days. But it really worked out especially for your concept. So I encourage everybody, if it’s your first time, this is your second time, if you’ve had friends participate, like do what’s comfortable for you. And you know, I think don’t be so hard on yourself if you don’t find the right elements, because I don’t think this is an event that’s going to go away anytime soon. If anything, it’s going to just continue and grow because like I said, they have these Dapper Day events at LACMA. They have them at the Huntington Library in Pasadena. More and more events where it’s not just restricted to the vintage community, because this is going to be for another podcast, I’m sure but there are people who feel some sort of way about, you know, being in the vintage community. And that goes for, you know, other fandoms.They don’t feel necessarily as comfortable. And I think this is one of the ways that for me and Ariel as vintage enthusiast but not like really serious about it, to be able to participate in it in a way that’s comfortable for us.

Ariel Landrum 38:11
as inclusive for us as possible. Because like we mentioned, there’s no way that we would be able to fit any actual vintage outfits. Given our curvy size and even height. I think being shorter Filipino women as you start to do Dapper Day more, it is a lot more comfortable and more accepting and that you get more joy out of experimenting. That’s when you can take you know a few risks. Like I wasn’t gonna get snares. I wasn’t gonna get people looking at me sideways. The things that I feared that I would get when I thought that I wouldn’t make an outfit look, you know, right, so to speak. There is a layer of privilege if you are going into the park because you’re spending a lot of the day taking pictures. If you are making an outfit that isn’t going to last a ride, you might feel like you’ve wasted a day if you’re not an annual Park holder. So this could be a component where you go to The Expo. So maybe you’re not in the park but there are a lot of people who actually just spend their whole day in The Expo.

Stefanie Bautista 39:06
And I’ve done that before and it makes me feel like I’m participating without actually being in the park.

Ariel Landrum 39:11
Like you said they have a swing bands so you can dance. They have raffles you can get to know the vendors it means that you wouldn’t be buying a park ticket which may not be feasible but you could still participate in the event.

Stefanie Bautista 39:23
Over the years it’s grown so much where you know it’s a multi day event so you don’t necessarily have to go into the park to appreciate it. And then you can explore the hotel you can explore like the places to eat there. I know last time when we went we ate at Tangaroa terrace, which is right next to Trader Sam’s and it was it’s great like. You could also take beautiful pictures around the hotel floor that if you haven’t you know been able to the hotel grounds are open even though you are not a you know a guest to the hotel. I think that’s a really good way if you don’t have the capacity to get into the parks because we all know that the prices are going up. That’s a great way to just get introduced to it or attend one of the off site events. And you know, see how you like it there.

Ariel Landrum 40:06
So if you are going to be attending the fall Dapper Day that’s in November, let us know, tweet us or message us DM us on Instagram. And let us know if you’re gonna go, what you’re going to wear. And if you want to meet up and take some pictures together, our Twitter is @HappiestPodGT, and our Instagram is @HappiestPodGT.

Stefanie Bautista 40:30
And we do have a lot of really exciting things coming up this summer. So in addition to planning for our Dapper Day outfits, which I feel like that seems like a lifetime away right now, we will be attending other events. So I’ll be hopefully we will see you all there very soon.

Ariel Landrum 40:43
Including San Diego Comic-Con where we will be hosting three different panels. So come check those out. We will give you more information about that. So make sure that you follow us on Twitter and on Instagram.

Stefanie Bautista 40:55
As always, thank you so much for listening in and we will see you all next time.

Ariel Landrum 40:59
Bye!

Stefanie Bautista 40:59
Bye!

• Princess Leia
• Moana and Maui
• Kylo Ren
• Ray
• Jasmine
• Aladdin
• Snow White

• Expectations
• HAES (Healthy At Every Size)
• Vintage
• Retro
• Fashion
• Dapper Day
• Disneybounding
• Dapper Day Expo
• Disneyland Hotel
• Self Acceptance
• Comfort Zone