D23 interviewed Dancing with the Stars costume designers Steven Lee and Daniela Gschwendtner about the looks they designed for “Disney Night” 2026, including an exclusive look at some of their sketches.

Dancing with the Stars Costume Designers on “Disney Night” 2026

D23: Thanks so much for taking the time to chat! (Everyone must be so busy!!) We know you’ve both worked on the show for many years… what’s your favorite part about creating looks for this specific episode each season?

Steven Lee (SL): Well, it’s definitely different than other weeks—we have different characters; it’s fun for everyone to be a different personality on the show. And our audience is made up of a lot of Disney fans, who really enjoy it. So I think that’s what’s really fun about it—it’s good for the cast, but it’s also great for the fans too. The audience is always so full with everyone just wanting to see The Little Mermaid’s Ariel and Prince Eric, or Hercules do a dance…
Daniela Gschwendtner (DG): And it gives us a good guideline of what the look will be. Belle from Beauty and the Beast will pretty much always look a certain way; she won’t suddenly be in all black or something!

D23: So what can the fans expect from “Disney Night” this year?

SL: One thing that does make this year a little different is, of course we’re themed to Disney—but we’re doing Disney on Broadway. It’s all Disney musicals, so shows that have been on Broadway or the West End in London.
DG: And that’s something we’ve never done before…
SL: We have a big opening number [with music from] The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast and Newsies and The Greatest Showman…

D23: Is there a particular costume piece you can’t wait to see on the dance floor?

DG: Honestly, I’m excited about all of them! But what’s really fun is I think the opening number on this [episode], because we’re going to have like so many costumes… We have Belle [in the] Beauty and the Beast segment; we have Newsies; we’ve got The Greatest Showman; we got The Lion King in there. So it’s going to be super fun, visually. And you know for the girls to change from a waltz into a kind of “showgirl” look is really cool… And then in the individual dances—I mean, since we’re doing Broadway, the Princess dresses definitely have a little bit more “character.”
SL: I really like the boys’ costumes because they get to be “peacocks” now. Val [Chmerkovskiy] always looks amazing in period clothing—he’s going to be the Beast. And he just looks so elegant in that style of dress. And then Mark [Ballas] loves playing characters; he’s going to be Captain Hook—hopefully he’ll use his real hair for that vibe! I think the boys secretly love it because they actually get to be different personalities and characters and wear clothing and costumes that they never usually navigate towards.

D23: Is there a Disney character you haven’t gotten to design yet, in all these years with the show?

SL: We’ve done so many, and I think we probably have done most of them… A really fun one [last year] was a Space Mountain number with Alan [Bersten] and Elaine [Hendrix]—that was hilarious! Maybe we should do all Parks attractions one day… A Mr. Toads one; that would be cool!

D23: Is there anything else you’d like the readers of D23.com—many of whom are big Dancing with the Stars fans!—to know about your experience creating looks for this year’s “Disney Night,” our about what to expect?

DG: Every year, we try to give every costume a new spin. Even if we create Jasmine [from Aladdin] for maybe the third time, we don’t want to make it like last time—we have all new ideas; we use different fabrics. For example, this year with Ariel [from The Little Mermaid], we’re using fringe rather than fabric. We always try to mix it up. That’s the goal.

“Disney Night” will air Monday, November 2 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, simulcast live across ABC and Disney+ in local time zones and next day on Hulu. Broadway stars Michael James Scott and Heather Headley will perform while Cynthia Erivo joins the judges.

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