With the major shapes in the thumbnails defined, choose the one that best exemplifies the feeling you're looking for. However, you can tell your reader interesting things through a mismatch: A wealthy character might show off their expensive clothing. Clothing description also presents an opportunity to play with different points of view. Share. Fancy dresses. 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. And here are some great concepts for female fantasy armor. These are deep questions. Does your character need to hide? Give your wealthy character a pair of Louboutins and dress your non-wealthy characters in hand-me-downs. So have fun with that. Blend in? How do they change, and how does their clothing reflect that change? Lets delve further into these ideas about describing characters dress: Think of your characters clothing like an actors costume in a play. Here are some classic characteristics you can draw out through clothing description. Not a Dabble user? Conveniently, a lot of high status positions come with outfits or accessories that telegraph a persons position in the hierarchy. 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Military service was always well-rewarded and violence applauded. When describing clothing in writing, consider: You can also use this aspect of clothing description to paint a vivid picture of the world you imagined. Katerina is affronted by Amalias fine dress because it is new and shows pride. In Dostoyevskys Crime and Punishment, the poor, Tuberculosis-stricken Katerina Ivanovnas husband is trampled to death by a horse-drawn cart. They should be doing that. Your email address will not be published. The details create an authentic sense of a prominentcardinals dressin the 1500s. The last minute change suggests an indecisive nature. It's easy to try this out too, at least the simple line version. For a bigger image, just click on the link above. You dont need it to sign up. Helpful links to blog posts, articles, videos and guides are shared every day. Or they could be frantically running errands in leggings and a t-shirt. How long do they need their clothes to last? 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. Also, don't feel like you have to include every point I've made. We'll also take a look at female fantasy armor and those used by knights, potential designs, and ways to help you find inspiration for creating your own. That decorative belt? You can also check out some of my other guides too, like: If you have any questions about this guide on fantasy armor, please get in touch. It would have been extremely warm too. In 2021 his debut novel, Pariah's Lament, an epic fantasy, was published by Of Metal and Magic. or the world theyre desperately resisting. Yet Dr. Urbinos status as a respected doctor is earned he has nothing to prove by dressing smarter. Its okay if Todds checks his designer watch three pages after you mention his silk tie. The more people that join this thriving group the better it becomes. But the biggest challenge can sometimes be simply making something look futuristic or historic fantasy-ish, which is the main focus of this guide. Describe these in passing to add visual colour and authenticity to your character descriptions. These were worn on their own by those wanting greater speed and flexibility, but also by those unable to afford stronger armor. Have fun with it. - Break up clothing into more separate pieces and give them their own styles. Tell us how the wool of your protagonists sheath dress scratches the skin on the underside of her arm. Maybe their goal is to entice a mate. Clothes can betray our greatest joys and our deepest insecurities. The good news is that attire is not only important, its also kind of fun when you start digging into it. The surrounding culture dictates what they cant wear if they want to be seen as free-thinking individuals. So below, well take a look at the relationship between the genre of fantasy and medieval armor. There are some elements which are common among most works of fiction when it comes to clothing, with these elements in mind it becomes a lot easier to turn the clothing we wear today or wore throughout history into a futuristic or more fantasy oriented equivalent. Fashionably elegant and sophisticated. Not really. [Find more articles on character description in our complete guide to character creation.]. Now on the other end of the spectrum we have fantasy clothing and more history based clothing. Using this site means trees will be planted. In pre-thermometer times this was difficult as you can imagine, so instead, armorers observed the colour of the heated steel. By using fur for decoration you quickly create fictional pieces in no time. Like Borges would say, 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. Borrowed armor wouldnt fit as well as a suit made for the wearer and wouldnt be as well balanced, so someone in borrowed armor would be more likely to have problems moving in his armor. Maybe your character is snuggled up in their fleece pajamas while the blizzard rages outside. A warrior had to fight the enemy, and to fight his armor as well would be too distracting. Great idea. But put me in a job interview wearing the same outfit, and youd probably start making new guesses about my intentions. 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. 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. clothed and we should definitely be using them to portray our characters personalities. 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. One character might demonstrate their power by showing up to prom in a designer gown. Ready to sketch vivid characters for your novel? The time period of your story. Great points. The fact that Dostoyevsky describes how Katerinas landlady, Amalia Ivanovna, dresses for the funeral: the table was properly laid at the time and fixed, and Amalia Ivanovna, feeling she had done her work well, had put on a black silk dress and a cap with new mourning ribbons and met the returning party with some pride. I thought if I did that at the beginning of a chapter it would be better but I worry it will turn readers off. It took a while to get ready, with the help of somebody else needed, usually squires, who began with the feet and worked up from there. )Secrets might not be something youve specifically thought about when youre drafting a story. Earlier I mentioned how it's important to try and keep a feel of unfamiliarity to futuristic clothing. Use your first-person narrators senses sight, hearing, touch, etc. Technology goes beyond simply what kind of clothes could be made though, it also relates to how technology is incorporated into style in general. Whats the respected uniform, and does your character wear it? 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. The tragedy of Azincourt, for example, occurred because of a poorly-chosen battleground that had flooded. That would depend on a few things. Youre not infodumping. To illustrate this in a way we did with the futuristic shirt example let's take a standard medieval tunic and turn it into a fantasy-themed version. If your character comes home and immediately sheds three layers of down and fleece, Im going to assume theyre not in San Antonio, Texas. You can weave clothing description into your process when using our story planner for writers. Dont worry, thats not a trick question. Baggy jeans. For example, if a character is going on a date, you could write: Gem wanted to look sexy for her date downtown (but not easy), so she changed into more comfortable clothes. - Mix cultures. Is this purely for cinematic effect or would some leaders remove their helmets to show their faces to their soldiers? Think of the process like dressing a doll: start at the beginning and up build the layers. 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. I love the way clothes can describe a character. 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. The important thing to remember is to remain in the character's point of view. Some had pointed snouts, the purpose of which was to deflect arrows when walking into arrow storms. Because like all other character details, its not enough to paint a picture. 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. The only cloak in the world made with silk spun by the cat-sized spiders that live in the forbidden mountains. Blunt, Once quenched, the steel was re-heated to make it more resilient. 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. Knights were, indeed, hard to defeat in battle. Why this arguably works better is the details of getting dressed tell us multiple details about Gem. That works. Its a bit OCD of me. I would be great to expand it with armor from other areas, Samurai armor, for example. One major element that makes creating more futuristic clothing easier is to make sure it doesn't look familiar, to make sure it doesn't look like something you'd come across today. 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. I'm sort of into historical armor so would get a kick out of finding an excuse to talk about vambraces/rerebraces, spaulders, etc. This idea of knights becoming lords was introduced in England by William the Conqueror. For more information, please see our Your article is really great. Select the most striking details and move on. A jacket or coat of mail was usually worn with a hood, or coif, of the same material to protect the head and neck. But it provided an odd sense of security. - Use nudity. Leonidas in 300, for instance, almost certainly wore a helmet in the battle with the Persians!