Summer Allen grew up around the theatre.
As a kid she loved fashion, dressing up, and creating things.
She started making costumes, based on characters from the movies she enjoyed, at a young age. She found that this creative activity allowed her a chance to briefly escape reality and have fun being someone new!
Summer has trained in all sorts of artistic forms over the years and learned new ways to create and bring designs to life.
During a visit to her local renaissance festival, in a dress she had made, Summer had such a fantastic and remarkable experience with the cast that she auditioned for the show the next year.
Summer is a talented actress and vocalist and was selected to play a princess on the Royal Court. She loved every minute of performing and interacting with the children who visited.
Summer continues to pursue a career entertaining and make magical memories for others.
Currently, her love of costuming has brought her to creating cosplays full time!
Summer thrives on finding characters that she identifies with and bringing them to life in new ways. She's been fortunate enough to compete all over the country, and many of her favorite moments are spending time with friends at conventions.
The collaborative energy and enthusiasm of a convention is positively thrilling for Summer!
Cosplay competitions also challenge her to learn lots of new techniques and styles of costuming and prop making.
Summer has loved the Swan Princess as long as she can remember. She had the VHS at home, growing up and she watched it constantly.
Odette was her absolute favorite princess as a little girl! When she was younger, Summer's favorite song was “This is My Idea”, since she could watch Odette grow up at the same time she was. The song that got stuck in her head the most, however, was “Practice, Practice, Practice”, probably because so much of Summer's time was spent at music lessons.
The reason why Odette was such an important character to Summer as a kid, was that she was a princess who actively stood up for herself; she makes sure that there is more to her life and relationships than just the superficial.
For Odette to ask Derek about what his actual feelings were instead of settling for being called beautiful, was something that Summer never knew you were allowed to ask before that. It encouraged her to find more than just the surface in others, and expect to be respected and loved for more than just looks in return.
Swan Princess normalized the idea of falling in love with someone who you know incredibly well and who could even be your best friend, instead of just meeting someone for the first time and assuming you’re in love.
The Swan Princess was absolutely honored to have had Summer participate in the 25th anniversary celebration pink carpet event in Los Angeles.
Summer collaborated with Swan Princess Character Creator, Steve Gordon, designing and making an official dress for the event.
She then wore the dress and embodied Princess Odette as an official representative of the event, along with Prince Derek. She presented awards on behalf of the film Producers, to some of her favorite and most admired creative artists
For the dress design, both Steve and Summer were inspired by Odette’s water transformation scene.
She found a patterned burn-away chiffon for the dress that looks like it came right out of the film. Steve used that exact pattern in his 25th anniversary commemorative animation piece. The bodice and skirt are covered in hand-cut and placed lace, which was hand painted, beaded, and covered in Swarovskis to make it sparkle like water.
Summer considers working on that costume and bringing Odette to life as some of the happiest work she has ever done.
Summer is such a fantastic Swan Princess fan and gifted artist. We are excited to watch her dreams become reality!
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Are you a Swan Princess fan? Would you like to be a Featured Fan? Let us know why we should choose you...email Odette@SwanPrincessSeries.com