how to describe fantasy clothing

Lets talk about how to describe clothing in writing organically. I saw Jesus Christ Superstar a long time ago and Jesus was in a sharp black suit. Figurative language . 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. However, you can show and imply a characters intention without spelling it out: Theyd agreed to meet downtown at six. The easy way to describe the setting is when the characters interact with it, e.g. Would the fashion designers in your fantasy novel make use of dragon scales? The train hums and throbs in place as people rush to pile in.. That was the theory. As such, the contemporary tales that have followed, like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Dungeons and Dragons and everything in between, have paid homage to that era. Pre-empt this by illustrating everything in layers and completing each layer of clothing. Make them earn any sightof skin, Aunt P always said. Arrows will bounce off steel crafted in such a wayunless from close range, as we discussed, We mentioned gambesons above. A self-conscious kid tries to disappear inside their oversized sweatshirt. A four-layer, bubble-gum pink taffeta skirt. Clothing tells your reader a lot about your characters goals and motivations within a given scenario. Its okay if Todds checks his designer watch three pages after you mention his silk tie. Now, if you write historical fiction, its important to research the clothing of your chosen era. You may have seen steelworkers doing this after forging the likes of blades and horseshoes. Never hose for men and probably never puffy breeches. But I find looking back in time to the likes of the medieval period can provide some wonderful and unique ideas. Do your characters care deeply about looking respectable, or are they more afraid of putting on airs? There's a few other elements to keep in mind as well, but in most cases it's best not to worry at all, let your imagination go wild and simply create and enjoy what you want to create. Give your wealthy character a pair of Louboutins and dress your non-wealthy characters in hand-me-downs. Lets take a look at some ways you can develop those unique ideas: In this section, well take a look at some cool pieces of knight armor in fantasy that people have designed over the years, to give you even more inspiration for your own designs. - Convert future clothing to a historic version. But the definition of sneaky depends on your characters situation. Heres how to describe clothing in writing to show your readers the world to which your character belongs. Fantasy Armor - The Ultimate Guide - Richie Billing Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Yet Dr. Urbinos status as a respected doctor is earned he has nothing to prove by dressing smarter. Have fun with it. Sneak around? One thing Ive always wondered is if someone wearing plate could fall down just right in a muddy battlefield, and get stuck there in the same way a large flat rock gets stuck laying in mud. Otherwise they wont take you seriously as an artist.. Is your character trying to attract positive attention? Elsewhere, Mantels novel is full of descriptions of garments for specific, era-appropriate purposes: Riding cloaks, town coats, and other clothing people of means would have worn at this time. Okay, maybe not.Secrets in real life can be a little trickywe all have thembut they have a way of blowing up in our faces, depending on how big they are.Your characters are really no different. Vividly describing the colors of your character's clothing can enliven ordinary writing. These aren't the only elements either, pretty much every part of clothing changes with the times and depend heavily upon what's fashionable at the time. One reason clothing descriptions can start to feel like a tedious laundry list (see what I did there?) 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. To navigate your way through this guide, just click the links below. A simple t-shirt could be cut diagonally in the front, give both shoulder parts a different style from the arms, elongate one side and so on. Our wardrobes are influenced by our age, geography, culture, hobbies, and a million other aspects of our worlds. Not quite. That also will help readers really experience things through their eyes. It's something we have today as well, but they're oddly uncommon and work great for more futuristic looks. When you use clothing to define who your character is, remember that it can also clarify how they feel about themselves and how they fit into the world around them. Thank you for reading our blog! Whats the respected uniform, and does your character wear it? Not a Dabble user? On occasion, Abi pretends to be a poet. The rope belt is solely decorative and a status symbol. These shallow details help us go pretty deep on character. See more ideas about character description, fantasy fashion, fantasy clothing. Required fields are marked *. Maybe their goal is to entice a mate. How to Give Your Characters Style: Describing Clothing in Writing I'm sort of into historical armor so would get a kick out of finding an excuse to talk about vambraces/rerebraces, spaulders, etc. Nudity was often either a complete taboo or just common place in many cultures throughout history, so by changing these taboos (and others) you immediately create a fictional piece. Thanks I will be following your blog from now one I just came across it today. We all love a character with a cool set of fantasy armor: the baresark Rek from David Gemmells Legend with his enchanted coat of bronze, or Tomas from Raymond Feists Riftwar Cycle with his gleaming white dragon plate which gifted him incredible power. Whenever other races or species are involved, like elves and trolls, it's often best to give them clothing that differs from whatever humans (and other races) wear, even if those differences are subtle. Similarly, show how different characters personalities are through apt clothing description. Clean, powerful strikes were needed to disable a foe wearing mail. Theyre just too important defensively. Thus, "a dress" is inappropriate for a (male) prince, unless he is pretending to be a woman. Excuse the on hold background music. Well, mostly. They looked something like this: One of the main defensive strengths of plated armor came from its curved design, which deflected both blades and arrows. Medieval clothing description generator - Fantasy name generators Heres a video showing the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of leather armor against arrows. How do they change, and how does their clothing reflect that change? Subtle clothing changes can signal character development quite effectively in some scenarios. - As far as colors go they often seem to be either toned down or bright and happy (or even over the top), depending on the style. Non-visual senses are big, too. Embarrassed by her own inability to dress in finery for the occasion (and by being upstaged), Katerina resorts to scathing mockery of Amalia. and our Without decriptions of the clothing it's a bit boring, the novel becomes a list of people the reader can't imagine doing things. In pre-thermometer times this was difficult as you can imagine, so instead, armorers observed the colour of the heated steel. This article has compiled 100 different words you can use to describe clothes, and below the main list of 100 words we've explained our reasoning for a lot of the top picks from that very list, for your personal enjoyment. If your protagonist is donning a tri-cornered hat, loosening a corset, or strutting through town in a new toga, your reader has a good sense of time period. If a knight fell from a horse, he could quite easily pick himself up, not stuck on the ground like a tortoise knocked on its shell. Much of the clothing we wear today were either rare or completely nonexistent a hundred years ago. - Use nudity. One way to deal with clothing is to not try to be unique. This is a fun one. Nov 1, 2019 - Explore Arisa Nightingale's board "Male Fantasy Outfit Concepts & Designs", followed by 456 people on Pinterest. Just click this link and dont even think about touching your wallet. What is a good way to do Show not tell in a first person POV state? Something like this: As you can see, a knights armor is made up of a lot of different pieces. What your character wears can tell us a lot about how they feel or how they want to feel. The important thing to remember is to remain in the character's point of view. Get free books, an invite to my exclusive writing group, writing tools and guides and much more when you join my community. And right at the heart of it were the leaders of societythe medieval lords. Stockings, long gloves, scarves or separate layers of clothing make a huge difference. Since it's a friends' get-together, let's wear casual attire. There's also the element of technology that has to be taken into account. Knights were, indeed, hard to defeat in battle. Not to pile on, but dont forget to make sure you know which materials wereand werentavailable in the world of your novel. This may seem like a tricky thing to do as there's so much out there already, but it can often be as simple as simply changing a texture, the patterns used or the amount of fabric. They can be important too.If you want to breathe life into your stories, it's time to give tertiary characters a little love. Baggy. The appearance of armor was a big deal for knights. You can weave clothing description into your process when using our story planner for writers. You dont need it to sign up. 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. Chain mail is a great piece of fantasy armor to use in your stories purely because of its flexibility. Another important function of clothing description in stories is to create an authentic sense of time and place. But thats the case wherever you go. Fully geared up, you were a walking fortress. If its 1st person you'll describe things from the POV of your character, and I find that that's different than if you're in, for example, 3rd person. Compare this, then, to Dickens description of Gradgrinds wife in the following chapter (Gradgrinds wealthy but poverty-claiming friend has just told Mrs. Gradgrind he was born in a ditch): Mrs. Gradgrind, a little, thin, white, pink-eyed bundle of shawls, of surpassing feebleness, mental and bodily; who was always taking physic without any effect, and who, whenever she showed a symptom of coming to life, was invariably stunned by some weighty piece of fact tumbling on her; Mrs. Gradgrind hoped it was a dry ditch? Need help with clothing description in Fantasy | Royal Road Or else that she feels shamed by her Aunt and thus decides to be good. Such simple things, but the clothes really helped show Jesus plight. "White tunics" have been worn from 2016 to a good forty thousand years ago. Heres a great visual guide on female fantasy armor by YouTuber Shadiversity. Consider whether your characters attire might serve as a symbol, highlight a theme, or represent a conflict. It's easy to try this out too, at least the simple line version. Heating to the perfect temperature was key. How to Describe Clothing in a Story (with Examples) | Now Novel With all that armor, its often assumed the medieval knight was immobile. - Another way to use color is to make things seem like they're glowing even if they're not and to use gradients. Helmets were arguably the most distinctive feature of an armored knight. Imagine your own armored knights storming through the battlefield like iron giants. Arrows will bounce off steel crafted in such a wayunless from close range, as we discussed last week. 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. Although such armor exists in fantasy worlds, its important to understand how things work in the real world, even at a basic level. These detail could suggest that your character is miserly or down-to-earth despite their wealth. Other clothing pieces could be various types of hats and scarves, (trench) coats and even something as simple as pockets or buttons used for fastening rather than as decoration to name just a few. The aim was not to cause any impediment to movement. Its all in the craft.Its good that youre here to learn how to describe clothing in writing, because its a powerful tool. Look at this picture, is it insane for an author to try to describe this on a character? Consider this example from Hard Times. Clothing is one of the easiest and most immediate ways to establish an historical setting. 50+ Fashion Terms: Fundamental Words Related to Style https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e7bbcc198c936bc1af3fbda128514c44fcfc10f0513ea31cad7c21ae61ba0ab0.jpg. A band t-shirt. Thanks Benjamin! As knights became fully armored, so did their mounts. Pingback: A fantasy writers guide to Castles and Keeps: part one Richie Billing. Only in certain situations is a description even needed. One character might demonstrate their power by showing up to prom in a designer gown. Changes in characters clothing can help revealcharacter development. 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. One way is to avoid what we call filter words. More on that in a bit. Im struggling to properly figure out how to describe clothing for a fantasy setting Im trying to create. - Taboos and nudity. Clothing description in a story is useful because it often gives additional information about a character that you might otherwise tell. What your character wears reveals where they come from, how they rank in society, how they want to be perceived, and even how they feel about themselves. Another type of cheap armor, one up from gambesons, was boiled leather, also known as cuir bouilli. Baggy jeans. In other words, research. The clothes a person wears tellsus many things: their status in life, for example, or their cultural affiliation or identity. The complete opposite is true for fantasy and historic clothing. Here are five examples: 1. Like Dostoyevsky, think how something as small as a characters change of clothing can affecttheir own or others behaviour. For fantasy stories to be more believable, we need to understand how it interacts with our characters, especially if theyre enchanted. Richard the Lionheart, for instance, was celebrated amongst his peers for his ability to chop his enemys skulls down to the teeth. A vintage polka dot dress with a sweetheart neckline. 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. 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. clothed and we should definitely be using them to portray our characters personalities. This is often enough to make something look more futuristic, especially if used on something that looks glossy, shiny and/or smooth. Your email address will not be published. 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. Here are some classic characteristics you can draw out through clothing description. But they are a common element used in fantasy clothing in all sorts of works of fiction. A lowly one at that, but one very much capable of climbing the ladder. That would depend on a few things. We therefore see in the fantasy genre characters equipped with grand helmets and beautiful pieces of plate armor. Well cover everything from helmets and plate armor to chainmail. Clothes that are suitable for everyday wear rather than formal occasions. In a fantasy setting, you may be trying to conjure up a certain feel right off the bat based on how you describe a character's clothing (and the words you use to describe them). ), The geographical location of your story. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. 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. How to describe scenery ? : r/fantasywriters - reddit.com A warrior had to fight the enemy, and to fight his armor as well would be too distracting. You can try all Dabbles premium features for free for fourteen days. But it makes a good story. Nylon and polyester fabrics weren't invented until almost the mid 20th century for example. Chest plates had grand etchings. Who is your character at the beginning of the story, and how can you dress them to establish their normal? (Has denim been invented yet? Those outfits can become iconic. Do they strive to be humble before their god or do they want to spend this one and only life as their bold, ostentatious selves? You really can tell a lot about a person by what they wear, or what they dont wear. Im writing a little in the Epic Fantasy genre and there were quite a few useful notes I wasnt aware of here. - Change lengths. When youre shopping for yourself, you know what you like but you dont know how to describe it. Plain: Ordinary clothes of one color like gray, beige, or black. Amalias dress thus comes across as insensitive to her; malicious even. - Gadgets, hair styles and accessories. Our characters are always (mostly!) The answer to this question gives you a ton of clarity. What your character wears can tell us a lot about how they feel or how they want to feel. Use fashion and clothing history archives if necessary. With historical fiction one interesting aspect is to bring back the reader to that time period. Clothes can betray our greatest joys and our deepest insecurities. Some helmets had chain attached which hung around and protected the neck, called an aventail, and most were padded inside, for added comfort. How do you describe this dress - Writing Forums An anxious college student buys a flower crown in the hopes of feeling young and free at Coachella. Describing clothes : writing - reddit What Clothes Say About Your Characters - The Write Practice Again, I don't mean make your character walk around naked, but add elements of covering up or exposing certain areas of the body. 2023 NOW NOVEL CC. Do they need a ghillie suit to blend into the natural environment? Using this site means trees will be planted. The good news is that attire is not only important, its also kind of fun when you start digging into it. Like Borges would say, Dragon scales, fiery furs and feathers and other elements can quickly turn a standard item into a fantasy one. 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. Other elements you could include are mood-based changes (exists today), clothing that uses lights or glowing elements (exists today), clothing that can be repaired or changed on the go (exists today), smart technology woven into the fabric of clothing (exists today), changing colors (think chameleons) whenever you feel like it (exists today, kind of). Heating to the perfect temperature was key. Really like your article. Improve this answer. The eye slits were narrow to prevent all sizes of arrowheads from finding their way through. The more you know about real clothing and armor, the more tools in your bag of tricks for describing awesome fantasy pieces. In this section, Ive included some more guides on creating fantasy armor designs that you may find useful. Instead of saying, for example I saw that the station gate was coming down and the last train was about to leave, you could say The station gate is already screeching closed. But they could also dress in modest, inexpensive-looking clothes. This usually involves dresses from some time pre-renaissance and a tunic or shirt paired with trousers for men and women who are doing warrior stuff. If done right you could even use these elements alone with clothing of today to sell a futuristic look. Allrightsreserved, create an authentic sense of time and place, Use fashion and clothing history archives, https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e7bbcc198c936bc1af3fbda128514c44fcfc10f0513ea31cad7c21ae61ba0ab0.jpg, 1: Use clothing to show status and position, 2: Build (or thwart) expectations using clothing descriptions, 3: Describe clothing to contrastcharacters personalities, 4: Show clothing to avoid over-relying on telling, 5: Change characters clothing to highlight character development, 6: Use clothing details to recreate authentic setting, Build (or thwart) expectations using clothing descriptions, Describe clothing to contrast character personalities, Show clothing to avoid over-relying on telling, Change clothing to highlight character development, Use clothing details to create authentic setting. (Find out more). How to Describe Clothes in English - ESL Advice