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y-rhywbeth2 · 13 days

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Clothes and Fashion

Link: Disclaimer regarding D&D "canon" & Index [tldr: D&D lore is a giant conflicting mess. Larian's lore is also a conflicting mess. There's a lot of lore; I don't know everything. You learn to take what you want and leave the rest, etc etc etc]

Clothes in general; underwear; not wasting trousers on children who'll only outgrow them within the week; pockets! Sparkly hats; the word for hair care products; etc.

Demihuman cultures might vary slightly from this, but will generally follow the gist of it and they're all noted to be far less fashion conscious than humans. Dwarves, gnomes and orcs as a norm like to dress practically is durable clothes. Halflings, goblins and kobolds will blend in quietly until special occasions, where they'll dress as brightly and colourfully as possibly. Elves have their own various culture-specific fashion trends, but mostly tend to wear whatever the hell they personally feel like wearing, be that human fashion, diaphanous gowns, or just living plants trained to be worn as garments with some jewellery.

Underwear:

Dethmas: '...a tight cloth breast-binding or sling (the equivalent of a modern sports bra, although instead of stretchy fabric covering a lot of skin, the Realms version is more like a trough or shelf of tightly-stretched cloth sewn to cords (precisely because elastic fabric is largely unknown in the Realms). The concept of wire for breast support and shaping is unknown in the Realms, but corsets (laced-up, tight boiled hide, not whalebone or any sort of stiffeners) and stomachers that cinch the waist tight are popular, and many of them have shaped panels for the hips and a top ‘shelf’ to thrust out and support the breasts.

Clouts: '...a very tight leather, cloth, or cord (listed here in descending order of perceived quality and durability) belt worn around the hips, and usually held tight by multiple hooks (like a modern bra) at the front. Then a long, diaper-like strip of rectangular cloth (usually cotton) is passed between the legs, up through the front of the belt to dangle down, and up through the back of the belt to dangle down. [...] In many cases, the dangling front and back ends are designed to be tied together, and the cloth may be folded in on itself for absorbency [menstruation] and padding [horse riding].' Clouts come in fancy lingerie styles and are easily available in cities. Those who menstruate place extra layers of thick red cloth in and change as necessary.

Codpieces are also normally worn.

Black - and especially red - are considered the 'sexy' colours, especially when applied to undergarments. I'm going to make a different post about dating and so on in Faerûn though, so I'll talk about dressing sexy there instead.

Children:

Nobody wastes money getting complicated clothes for growing children who are going to outgrow their garments in a matter of weeks or months. All children wear smocks, usually hand-me-downs, ‘with leggings or pull-on hose (long stockings tied to an underbelt to keep them from “riding down”) with boots, clogs, slippers for indoor wear, or bare feet.’

Nevertheless, customisation is common enough in children’s clothes. Things such as belts, scarves, deliberately arranging a too-big smock to bare one shoulder in a way that I do remember doing myself as a child, curiously.

General:

The majority of people in the Realms can afford a sizable wardrobe. Daily wear tends to be practical, but almost everyone has some kind of fine clothing they’ll bring out on special occasions. Noble and the wealthy women are often seen in fancy gowns, but will likely be wearing practical garb underneath and be prepared to pin up their hems if need be. Nobles also really like their cloaks

All cities and markets will have tailors and seamstresses for altering garments as necessary, whether as repairs and maintenance or for aesthetics like dyes and adornments. Almost all clothiers found in cities are prepared to do on-the-spot alterations. Enameled metals, coloured cut-glass and painted wire are popular amongst the working glass who want to look flashy but can’t afford genuine fancy stuff. Many outfits may be modified, so that armour such as breastplates and gorgets are disguised within fabric and bodices, or jerkins reinforced with armour plating.

Breeches and tunics, the former usually made of leather, are the most common garment on all genders in most of the continent. Skirts are rarely seen, though gowns are common enough. Bare arms, a low neckline that exposes a ‘little bosom’, and a hemline at the mid-calf or lower is considered dressing conservatively. 'Low-cut peasant blouses and even lace trimmings are widely used.'

The commons style of jerkin on Faerun is a heavy, fitted garment that goes down to the knees and fastens down the front or side by a sustem of toggles and loops. Shoulder padding and a stand-up collar are common, and they usually have pockets (internal or external)

Most people will be wearing belts and baldrics (belts that go diagonally across the chest, over the shoulder) for holding clothes up and carrying items.

A tammalar is a type of baldric with many pouches attached.

Bracelars are leather braces with pouches, popular with merchants.

'...and the scrip, which in recent centuries has come to mean a large piece of leather or cloth with sewn-on ties or thongs, and sewn-on loop or sleeves for those ties to go through. It is gathered up (around goods, to form a carrysack) into a bundle, and kept that way by threading ties through the sleeves (and a user’s belt, to carry it at the hip or hanging from the rear waist).'

Typical shoes are either boots or open-toed sandals.

Hat fashions come and go rapidly. A ‘fancy-me’ or ‘dee’ is a hat that’s been augmented with several feathers, gauze, gemstones and various sparkly things, usually worn by those concerned with fashion.

Outdoors wear:

Weathercloaks are ankle-length cloaks made from a light material held together by a brooch. They’re noted to not be much use at keeping the cold out, but are better than nothing. Those with more coin can afford leather longcoats that keep the rain off and greatcloaks for the cold.

Piercings:

Ear piercings and naval piercings are common, but other piercings are much more rarely seen outside of some priests who have ritual piercings for religious reasons. In the Western Heartlands (including the Gate) piercing your nostrils is also normal.

Hair:

Thurdrixes are hair products that work as dyes or to encourage hair growth (up to several inches a day). These treatments are also expensive, and may not be widely trusted due to being arcane magic. These products usually have long, fanciful sounding names.

Barbers and trained hairdressers aren't much of a thing, though they do exist. Usually you ask a family member to cut it for you, so there's not much call for professionals in the market

Plucking and shaving body hair is a fashion in the Southern hemisphere, but not really present in the rest of Faerûn (so not common in Baldur's Gate).

The fashion for men in the Heartlands is to have facial hair, though no particular style is more popular than others. Illuskans favour long beards, provided that they're not too impractical. Calishite fashion involves oils and perfumes to keep lice out, and a popular fashion in the South is for bare chins and long moustaches and sideburns which may well be seen further north due to trade and migration.

#lore stuff #Elminster's Forgotten Realms is just like browsing ye olde Candlekeep archives but with less talk of sex

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olderthannetfic · 9 months

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I don't know beans about traditional Chinese clothing and I'm not in any fandom where characters were hanfu, but I'm finding the conversation about it really interesting by analogy to something I am familiar with, Highland dress. I wear a kilt maybe about once a week, and the historical and cultural significance is important to me.

The full outfit one traditionally wears with a kilt has a gazillion pieces, and each pice has at least two names, was probably invented a few hundred years later than you think it was, and almost certainly is at the center of at least one political issue in the 18th or 19th century.

The thing you think of as a kilt is also called a small kilt, or a philabeg (a loan word from Gaelic, also spelled filibeg or phillibeg), and is technically half of the great kilt (aka philamor, also with spelling variations). It may or may not have been invented by an Englishman.

The Jacobite shirt is a recent invention. The wide belt with a huge buckle comes from military dress. Tartan is technically the name of the cloth, and a plaid is a sort of mini cloak you wear on your shoulder. Kilt pins only go through the top layer of fabric and don't pin the kilt together, and are a Victorian invention. Tartan patterns only gained close and official identities with specific clans or families or groups in the Victorian era. Some modern Tartans are under copyright and you need permission from the designer to weave or sell them, others are public domain and literally anyone can wear them, despite affiliation.

I could go on....

Or you can wear a kilt with stompy goth boots and a band tshirt, or with hiking boots and a polo shirt, that's fine too (and how I wear mine, more often than not).

It's not hard for me to see that hanfu is just as complex and has just as much historical and cultural significance as the traditional cultural clothing I'm more familiar with, and getting it wrong in a fic would look just as silly.

But you don't have to actually do this much research and know everything I know about Scottish history to write a character who wears a kilt, whether it's in a historical, present day, or fantasy setting.

You probably want to have an OK grasp of what Highland dress means to your character and why they wear it, and you want to acutally know what a kilt even is in the first place (it's a little more specific than just a skirt), but that's all you really need.

If a Chinese fanfic author wanted to write Outlander fic, and didn't want to do the in depth research to get the clothing terminology exactly right for the time period, that's fine. Just put the pleats in back and call it a kilt instead of a skirt and that's good enough.

-- Same anon who just sent the ask about Highland dress. I can see where the "it's not a robe" anons are coming from. To me, the word "robe" covers a huge variety of unrelated garments, including bathrobes and wizard robes and hanfu and kimono and togas and the sack-like things graduates wear and the things Medieval European kings wear. But if someone called a great kilt a robe, I think I'd have a fit. Yes, just like the other examples, it's a large flowing piece of cloth worn around the body in a certain style, but it's more specific than that. I most likely feel this way because I'm more familiar with great kilts than I am with the other examples. The others are all just different kinds of robes to me, but a great kilt is something specific that I know a lot about. If you described a great kilt to someone who didn't know anything about it as a type of robe, I would consider that accurate, but if you said of an Outlander character "he put on his robe", I would be like "excuse me???? that's a great kilt". That's probably how the "hanfu ≠ robe" anons are thinking.

For me, as a novelist, the calculation is simple:

When I'm writing in third person limited (as I usually do), how would the character be thinking about this clothing? That's what the argument boils down to.

On one side, we have "This word is more Chinese, so it feels more like it's honoring that these are Chinese canons".

On the other side, we have the equivalent of "Your Scottish guy from 1350 is not going around thinking 'He was clad in Scottish dress' about his bros who are just wearing normal clothing."

No one is confused about the two sides of the argument. They just disagree about whether 'hanfu' is anachronistic and exoticizing.

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scm-introtowearables · 9 months

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Assignment & Reading #1

Activity: Observations

Think about how you exist in the world today. Consider the various settings you enter and how those environments and people have had an impact on your presentation.

Journal your observations of the following:

How do you communicate to those around you using head and face adornments?

A very large part of my everyday appearance is my glasses and to a slightly lesser extent my hair. I've worn glasses since I was about five years old so it's sort of become a very permanent/integral part of how I present myself. The frames have changed A LOT throughout the years as my style and tastes have evolved. Its really important to me to pick glasses that can kind of go with anything I decide to wear so it's always a big decision when I pick out new frames. I'm not entirely sure what it would communicate to those around me other than the fact that I can't see very well (or that I'm very smart to those who believe in stereotypes!) There are a lot of assumptions that can be made about people who wear glasses so they can communicate different things to different people. I also have bangs and have had bangs since I've had my first haircut (so practically my entire life). I feel like it also says something about my personality to an extent. I'm naturally fairly shy and in someways glasses and bangs sort of conceal me a little bit from everyone else.

Are there certain items that are worn in specific settings?

I think I have certain little things I wear/alter in specific settings. When I'm around people I'm comfortable with I'll wear my hair differently (usually up in braids or pigtails) but typically I just wear it down. Weather affects what items I wear too, such as hats and scarves when it's cold!

What items communicate to the masses and what communicate to individuals?

I think that it really depends! Sometimes many garments do both! An example being pins/buttons. Sometimes they can have niche images/sayings on them that maybe only the person wearing it will understand but other times they can be used to indicate pronouns/identity and communicate to everyone around the person something important about them. I think the same sort of thing can be said about most other garments.

How do you communicate using gestures/movement involving the head, neck and face?

I think a lot of communication comes from facial gestures such as smiling, laughing, crying, coughing/sneezing, etc! I feel like for the most part there is almost a universal language within facial emotions.

What are those gestures? What are you communicating?

I sort of mentioned it above but something like smiling could communicate happiness, laughing can communicate amusement, crying sadness, coughing sickness, etc...

Who are you speaking to?

Everyone around me! Sometimes just to myself too.

Include descriptions (or documentation) of any sounds, colors, textures, shapes, or even text that you consider:

What might you be communicating that you were not aware of?

I suppose everyone has different experiences and upbringings so something I wear could mean one thing to me and something completely different to someone else.

What adornments and/or gestures were intentional?

What's usually intentional is each piece of outerwear I put on. I like to make sure textures, patterns, colors, etc. match up in my outfits/i like to wear specific color palettes (most of the time). I also wear pins very often that often have bands/movies/other art I like on them and the selection of what pins I wear is also usually very intentional.

What was unintentional?

I'm not entirely sure! I guess that's part of the unintentional thing. Sometimes my hair gets messed up or I'll zone out and make a distressed face when I don't mean to.

Reading #1

Link to resources that you want to explore and incorporate into your work.

Readability is something I really want to incorporate into my work because it is something that I sometimes struggle with. Certain fonts are much easier on the eyes/less distractable.

I feel like Google Slides are also really important tools that I use to present projects I've made/topics I am interested in. Communication is the main goal with everything I do (as I'm sure it is for most people) and I think it is important that I am able to connect with everyone and that everyone is able to comprehend and understand my thoughts/ideas clearly.

I think in the future, I want to think more about language and how I can express ideas beyond the use of english words.

What did you know think about before? What did you already know?

I think I've always thought about vision/visuals just naturally as someone with impaired vision, making sure that everything is as recognize-able as possible.

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