100 Words to Describe Clothes - grammarhow.com "He was wearing a spandex tank top" is an improvement from just mentioning that your character's wearing a shirt; but consider adding the element of color: "He was wearing a black-and-yellow-striped spandex tank top.". 70s-inspired. Dragon scales, fiery furs and feathers and other elements can quickly turn a standard item into a fantasy one. I saw Jesus Christ Superstar a long time ago and Jesus was in a sharp black suit. What your character wears can tell us a lot about how they feel or how they want to feel. Thanks I will be following your blog from now one I just came across it today. Although such armor exists in fantasy worlds, its important to understand how things work in the real world, even at a basic level. (Huh.). Through fashion terms you can understand the fundamentals of the fashion industry. Now turn the edges a different color or make them light up and you immediately have a more futuristic looking suit. But if you do want some guidelines, inspiration or just help this guide'll hopefully provide it. Using the work of Alexander McQueen, this unit guides students through the analysis of a fashion collection, introducing them to the critical language and methodologies needed to evaluate fashion design and runway presentation. Think of other interesting combinations: A teacher who dresses provocatively; a beggar with an innate sense of style. Then this is their category. Heres how to describe clothing in writing to show your readers the world to which your character belongs. And if you were skilled at surviving and killing, it was a good way to make a living. Get it right, and you transport your readers to a vivid world. But status can be communicated in more subtle ways, too. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town. Plain: Ordinary clothes of one color like gray, beige, or black. In writing, the clothes kind of do make the (hu)man. I like the way you wrote this information. If you tell your readers about Nanettes light pink cardigan and string of pearls, you dont have to say much about the shoes and skirt and silk blouse. This is further influenced/confirmed by the show Forged in Fire where the judges were a half step from putting their heads in their hands when a smith put his hot blade in water instead of oil to cool it down. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Nov 1, 2019 - Explore Arisa Nightingale's board "Male Fantasy Outfit Concepts & Designs", followed by 456 people on Pinterest. It's also an indirect way to describe their physical appearance by examining how the clothes fit them. On the other hand you may wish to add layers for the same purpose. The answer to this question gives you a ton of clarity. You can also fulfil (or contradict) impressions your characters (or readers) form based on appearances. Once blue, it is quenched a second time, permanently fixing its hardness. Its a bit OCD of me. In some cases because they simply didn't have the technology for it, in others because it was too expensive and/or time consuming for the average person. The easy way to describe the setting is when the characters interact with it, e.g. Maybe a bracelet represents a character's relationship to her mother. In my case my character is new in town and this description of clothing doesnt come until hes getting ready for the party in chapter 4 and its in the context of getting dressed, there are reasons behind it, the party is a very big deal for him getting his foot in the door with other teens in town and he wants to be impressive or maybe wants lot of attention with all the sparklies. - Diagonal lines: Diagonal lines aren't all that common in historic clothing and they usually only came in the form of neck lines, the edges of unbuttoned jackets or from large pieces of fabric being held up (think ancient Rome). Well cover everything from helmets and plate armor to chainmail. Or is it really important for a reader to know the specific pattern? Impoverished with children to care for, she uses her last money to give her husband a dignified funeral. As with mail, steel was the best material due to its hardness, which was obtained by heating the steel to extreme temperatures and then submerging it into cold water, a process known as quenching. You can quickly convey a number of things about your characters based on the clothing they wear. And what does she put that cap on for? They were warriors first and foremost. Have fun with it. How to describe clothing in a story: Creating characters Thanks Chuck! What would high stakes clothing look like in your story? How do you describe this dress - Writing Forums For example, a meticulously dressed character who is discovered in a disheveled and poorly dressed state. A vintage polka dot dress with a sweetheart neckline. Your trust fund character might be completely confident showing up to a party in board shorts and flip-flops. How to Analyze a Fashion Collection - Bloomsbury Fashion Central Another similar and perhaps way more popular example of this is Steampunk. Struggling with describing clothes for a fantasy setting. : r/DnD - reddit We often express ourselves through our clothing, at least when we have the freedom to do so, so knowing who we're designing for is the first step in creating the perfect outfit for a character. The changes and improvements made by technology will often create new trends or alter old ones to the point you may as well consider them a new one, so depending on the technology available in your fictional universe you may wish to create a completely new trend. The fact Gem goes with jeans and a tee could suggest that she trusts her aunts advice. Also his mother was poor and anyone who knew that might wonder how he could afford such clothing so it hints at the actual story. The more people that join this thriving group the better it becomes. In this section, Ive included some more guides on creating fantasy armor designs that you may find useful. Some wore a trapper a covering of full chain mailand down the line, some horses even had their own plated armor. Adding these other bits of lesser-known fantasy armor to your stories can really add extra depth to your worldbuilding. (Would people living in this area have access to leather goods? Mail was one of the first types of metal armor developed, arguably by the Celts, though other sources say its origins came from Eastern Europe. Is your central conflict a life-or-death situation? If done right you could even use these elements alone with clothing of today to sell a futuristic look. So let's delve deeper into the details of how to actually figure out what your character wears. But the definition of sneaky depends on your characters situation. They can be important too.If you want to breathe life into your stories, it's time to give tertiary characters a little love. In reality, a medieval lord could pretty much do what they liked. Fashion trends come and go and they often return later, albeit in a slightly different form. An anxious college student buys a flower crown in the hopes of feeling young and free at Coachella. Adorable. Before I delve into the more detailed aspects of creating clothing there's one final thing to keep in mind and that is that fashion repeats itself. I mean what your character wears provides a clue to how they see themselves, how they want to be seen, and even how others see them. Cookie Notice If youre good at talking clothes, you can sit this one out. Ready to sketch vivid characters for your novel? Designing fantasy armor for your characters can be an awful lot of fun. Who is your character at the beginning of the story, and how can you dress them to establish their normal? How to Give Your Characters Style: Describing Clothing in Writing In both of these it was mostly the rich who had the extravagant clothing, which brings back the earlier point of how culture influences what a character might wear. The jacket has a narrow, rectangular neckline which reveals part of the fancy shirt worn below it and is worn with a light rope belt, which is held together by a simple knot. A common (wood) elvish theme is to have lots of green tints, flowery elements and intricate embroidery. The senses were deadened: sight limited, sound muffled, breathing stifled (depending on the type of helmet). The image you create has to play a role in the narrative.Consider the character arc. Who doesnt like being comfortable when killing? Hello, I am attempting to write my first fantasy novel (and my first novel), and I'm having difficulty visualizing what kind of clothes my characters should be wearing. Or are you writing a spy character who dons Lululemon to infiltrate an upscale yoga studio? It's part of culture, so it's definitely something to keep in mind since your fictional universes will have some form of culture as well. The padded material could absorb blows from blunt, A Guide To Writing Stories That Genuinely Helps, "Helped me land my first book deal" - Jack Shannon, Author, Get More Writing Support From Fellow Fantasy Writers, A complete guide to worldbuilding, with a template. Another type of cheap armor, one up from gambesons, was boiled leather, also known as cuir bouilli. These are deep questions. What I would like to ask is how you would go about describing very specific details on more complex clothing? In Dostoyevskys Crime and Punishment, the poor, Tuberculosis-stricken Katerina Ivanovnas husband is trampled to death by a horse-drawn cart. If you look at popular works of fiction you'll find two trends, one is the simplistic and often tight-fit look and the other is the more over the top and extravagant look. The pieces around the vital organsthe chest and headwere thicker and heavier than those on the arms and legs to try and reduce weight as much as possible. Or it could be that they want to be charmed by their own image when they look in the mirror. Consider this example from Hard Times. Maybe your character is snuggled up in their fleece pajamas while the blizzard rages outside. From lowly serfs to great warriors, all could wear and fight effectively in chainmail. Beyond medieval Europe, you have the Far East, the Romans, Viking Before you know it youll have designed a full set of fantasy roman or viking armor. If all else fails use Google images and find some visual aids and inspiration sources, they can work wonders. I tried to add as much variety as possible, but without turning the whole description into a mess. But it makes a good story. Normally I dont dress characters with such complex clothing that takes more than a few sentences to describe but the vest was inspired by a picture I saw and it took at least a paragraph to describe. Do they need a ghillie suit to blend into the natural environment? Again, I don't mean make your character walk around naked, but add elements of covering up or exposing certain areas of the body. 04. So sometimes all it takes to create futuristic clothing is to take a trend that has passed, alter it slightly and you're done. You can keep track of your characters signature style, upload photos, note how their style evolves, and keep these ideas right at your fingertips as you write. is because we get stuck on what things look like. A knight, by definition, was a lord. Our wardrobes are influenced by our age, geography, culture, hobbies, and a million other aspects of our worlds. Follow edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:43. Would the fashion designers in your fantasy novel make use of dragon scales? The last minute change suggests an indecisive nature. Shoes made with bendable displays already exist, allowing you to change your shoe's design on the fly. Thanks Liv, Im glad you found this helpful. One specific form of descriptive writing that particularly affects setting and characterization is the portrayal of characters' clothing. A scarf for example might be too hot for some areas, but it's obviously easy to leave those out. Arrows will bounce off steel crafted in such a wayunless from close range, as we discussed, We mentioned gambesons above. It can genuinely be tough to come up with cool ideas for epic fantasy armor without drifting back to things that weve seen in the likes of Dungeons and Dragons, The Elder Scrolls and movies like Lord of the Rings. 50+ Fashion Terms: Fundamental Words Related to Style Much of the clothing we wear today were either rare or completely nonexistent a hundred years ago. Your main character just put on some makeup and changed into a fancy dress, complete with heels and a tiny handbag. How do they change, and how does their clothing reflect that change? To make it futuristic you could change where the buttons are, they're normally quite low and form a v-neck line when buttoned up, how about moving them to the top and creating an upside down V shape at the bottom. Does your character need to hide? In most cases simply copying the style of whichever era you've based your story on is enough, but it can be fun to create your own styles and in some cases it'd make sense to have your own styles as well. The more outlandish the fantasy species your character is the more outlandish you can usually be with clothing, but familiarity is usually still a solid ground for a realistic feel, even if the universe and the creatures are completely unrealistic. Theyll see it automatically. We have all sorts of headphone designs to reflect our clothing styles and just wearing or not wearing a headphone will completely change how a character is often perceived. Some materials are used more than others, some colors are more desirable than others and some accessories are more desirable than others and these all changed throughout time. Vision in such helmets was extremely limited, but this was the cost of added protection. Note that with the camouflage patterns it's best to use this style, but make them less randomized to avoid the military look, unless that's what you're going for of course. Embarrassed by her own inability to dress in finery for the occasion (and by being upstaged), Katerina resorts to scathing mockery of Amalia. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e7bbcc198c936bc1af3fbda128514c44fcfc10f0513ea31cad7c21ae61ba0ab0.jpg. As soon as the actor enters stage right or left, we have an inkling of whether theyre a wealthy landowner or peasant, an elegant heiress or humble flower-seller. Subtle clothing changes can signal character development quite effectively in some scenarios. All this to say: there is substantial storytelling power in a coral Life is Good t-shirt. So here are some more ways to alter a design while sticking with familiarity and a more historic feel: I didnt even know how to begin describing this piece of clothing. It really doesnt take much. When shes not writing, Abi is most likely hiking, reading, or texting her mother pictures of her houseplants to ask why they look like that. Either way, their goal is to be desirable, whatever desirable means in this situation. Continued successes could see knights rise higher up the ranks. It took leaving the Midwest to recognize it. Such coats were made from brass or iron, though steel was deemed best due to its toughness. ^.^ Sci-fi and fantasy don't necessarily have to be futuristic and historic respectively, but they're commonly associated as such, so for the sake of simplicity that's what I'm going with for the purposes of this guide. Some had pointed snouts, the purpose of which was to deflect arrows when walking into arrow storms. One way to deal with clothing is to not try to be unique. Sweaters or jumpers? Do not describe a character's clothing except as that point of view character would do so. )Secrets might not be something youve specifically thought about when youre drafting a story. The aim is to arm you with what you need to enrich your tales with brilliant detail. For more information, please see our To discover more awesome ideas, head over to Pinterest and just search for female fantasy armor. Lets talk about how to use clothing description as a storytelling tool, how to dress your character for their personality and setting, and how to make clothes interesting to anyone. Even things like tattoos, hair colors, eye colors and so on can help with this. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. So this really reaffirmed that approach for me. Also, don't feel like you have to include every point I've made. Its fun to play with power in clothing, because it's a relative concept. Chest plates had grand etchings. Be specific and accurate. I sincerely hope youve found some inspiration for your fantasy medieval armor. Knights werent as immobile as people assum, though I can imagine in a quagmire itd be tricky to get up. Characters can also comment on or react to one anothers clothing, as long as the exchange reveals something about the world or relationship. Because like all other character details, its not enough to paint a picture. This is less important for non-visual arts as clothing isn't always described in writing, but it can still be incredibly helpful to have a fully detailed character in your head or written down somewhere for reference and just to make everything feel more real and alive. But thats the case wherever you go. Clothing is one of the easiest and most immediate ways to establish an historical setting. Nylon and polyester fabrics weren't invented until almost the mid 20th century for example. One of the first things I learned when I moved to L.A. is that writers do not dress professionally for big meetings in Hollywood. What matters more to them: fashion or function? For a bigger image, just click on the link above. Each suit was tailored to the individual. The time period of your story. The description will describe a lot of clothing pieces, some of which you may not need depending on where your character lives. I don't mean make your characters walk around naked, but exposing (or covering) body parts in ways we don't today helps make ordinary clothing look different, which in turn helps sell the idea of it being futuristic. Finally there's the aspect of fashion to take into account. The geographical setting might suggest that your characters are expected to abide by strict rules for modesty or are celebrated for being wild and free. Are the characters of your dystopian novel forced to make do with burlap and mud? See how Dickens contrasts the fact-obsessed, overbearingteacher Thomas Gradgrind and his wifes personalities through (among other details) their clothing description. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. The tragedy of Azincourt, for example, occurred because of a poorly-chosen battleground that had flooded. Stylish. Creating new clothing styles for fictional worlds can be a daunting task, there's just so much out there already and so many elements to play around with to create a fun and unique style, no matter whether the art form is visual or not. And as a reader, nothing bores me like an entire paragraph of detailed clothing description. Get free books, an invite to my exclusive writing group, writing tools and guides and much more when you join my community. He took off his helmet and a Norman archer made a lucky shot that put out Harolds eye and ended the battle.It should be noted that, with the helmets of the time, it wasnt necessary for Harold to take off his helmet, either to be seen or to get his eye shot out. Pfoo, the owl! But you may run into difficulties when it comes to the practicalities. They work, they're safe and in many cases have become a standard. The surrounding culture dictates what they cant wear if they want to be seen as free-thinking individuals. Just click the button below to find out more. Id be willing to bet each of these items immediately brought to mind a semi-clear character. From time to time we may use affiliate links to help with the costs of running the site. Not all trends return and fashion isn't perfectly cyclical. You suddenly know which details to include, which to leave out, and whether to call it a blood-red cloak or a goji berry wrap. Similar to how pixelated designs tend to look more futuristic so do designs full of geometrical shapes. He's had over a dozen short stories published in various magazines and journals, with one adapted for BBC radio. The fact the clothes seem to stand by themselves indicates just how heavy they are with jewels and embroidery. - Change lengths. The rope belt is solely decorative and a status symbol. 2023 NOW NOVEL CC. Mantel creates a vivid sense of the wealth that the church amassed in these times. Slog through another meaningless day in a world where nothing matters? Now add a thick, layered scarf or attach a hood to this tunic and you're already well on your way to a customized look. This includes things like a pilots uniform, a tiara, or a Pink Ladies jacket. Its hard to really appreciate just how sickeningly awful medieval warfare would have been. And ninety-nine percent of the clothing descriptions in your first draft are just jeans. I get it. One character might demonstrate their power by showing up to prom in a designer gown. This is often enough to make something look more futuristic, especially if used on something that looks glossy, shiny and/or smooth. 60s-inspired. But they could also dress in modest, inexpensive-looking clothes. Medieval clothing description generator - Fantasy name generators Join Kickstart your Novel and get professional feedback on your first three chapters and story synopsis, plus workbooks and videos. An owl, a real owl! I thought if I did that at the beginning of a chapter it would be better but I worry it will turn readers off. Whereas a more confident or attention seeking person might seek out the edges of what's socially acceptable more or just wear more stylish and potentially more colorful or flamboyant clothing. For instance, if I'm reading a story and the narrative mentions jeans right off, I'm thinking mid twentieth century or later (while dungarees would be late nineteenth . So have fun with that. What is the prevailing value in the society of your story? A man's padded undercoat worn under a doublet and over a shirt; a woman's (often padded) under-tunic or the skirt of her riding habit. As time marched on, small plates of leather or iron were added to the mail to protect key areas, such as vital organs. Blunt weapons were effective, causing haemorrhaging and concussion, so padded garments known as a doublet or gambeson were worn underneath to provide added protection. Not quite. There's also the element of technology that has to be taken into account. In other words take what exists and apply it differently. Share. Do all your characters embrace it? In battle, you are trying to strike a moving target, so mail was sufficient as most blows were glancing ones.