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. You can even use different pieces of clothing to cover up body parts differently. Strips of leather were boiled in water, though some sources record oil and wax being used, and even animal urine. Designing fantasy armor for your characters can be an awful lot of fun. For more information, please see our Use the Character section of the Idea Finder to develop quick story ideas and flesh out your storys cast. The important thing to remember is to remain in the character's point of view. By playing around with this you quickly create very subtle, but more unique fantasy-themed items. Details about fit, cut, and material go a long way when describing the clothing of a character who longs to attract. Your articles are always very informative. A jacket or coat of mail was usually worn with a hood, or coif, of the same material to protect the head and neck. At least in most cases. 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. Abi Wurdeman is the author of Cross-Section of a Human Heart: A Memoir of Early Adulthood, as well as the novella, Holiday Gifts for Insufferable People. Using this site means trees will be planted. They work, they're safe and in many cases have become a standard. Thats a good example of using clothing to reinforce the narrative of a characters arc. Showing what your characters are wearing can be a great way to show your readers what they might be up to that day without having to actually narrate anything. 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. One character might demonstrate their power by showing up to prom in a designer gown. Continued successes could see knights rise higher up the ranks. But put me in a job interview wearing the same outfit, and youd probably start making new guesses about my intentions. Maybe theyre wearing an article of clothing that once belonged to someone theyve lost. Choose A Chapter The Fantasy Genre And Medieval Armor Chain Mail Plated Armor Helmets Other Types Of Armor The Medieval Knight One does not refer to "a garb". I second the idea of describing the reactions of the characters to the city. Even the non-conformists are influenced by societal norms. Consider whether your characters attire might serve as a symbol, highlight a theme, or represent a conflict. Those of us who dont get all jazzed about writing clothing descriptions often fail to consider that a good wardrobe has layers. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e7bbcc198c936bc1af3fbda128514c44fcfc10f0513ea31cad7c21ae61ba0ab0.jpg. So we've covered ways to make clothing look both futuristic and historic, but these are all just guidelines and mostly based on what's been done before. is because we get stuck on what things look like. "White tunics" have been worn from 2016 to a good forty thousand years ago. From lowly serfs to great warriors, all could wear and fight effectively in chainmail. That works. Or is it really important for a reader to know the specific pattern? One easy way of creating a more customized look is to simply use cultural elements in the standard clothing. Chapters 1 and 2 were pretty decent and I started chapter 4 with him dressing for the party. I have a hard time describing my thoughts on content, but I really felt I should here. Love this topic!! Id be willing to bet each of these items immediately brought to mind a semi-clear character. Another important function of clothing description in stories is to create an authentic sense of time and place. Here are some classic characteristics you can draw out through clothing description. Richard the Lionheart, for instance, was celebrated amongst his peers for his ability to chop his enemys skulls down to the teeth. For fantasy stories to be more believable, we need to understand how it interacts with our characters, especially if theyre enchanted. Impress someone with my indifference? With all that armor, its often assumed the medieval knight was immobile. Finally there's all the little things that can make an outfit look more futuristic. That cloth ribbon tied around their waist? Like Borges would say, The more people that join this thriving group the better it becomes. The fact the clothes seem to stand by themselves indicates just how heavy they are with jewels and embroidery. Think of other interesting combinations: A teacher who dresses provocatively; a beggar with an innate sense of style. 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. Thanks, Teresa, and for sharing that great example from the stage. Since it's a friends' get-together, let's wear casual attire. Adding them with intention can help increase tension, make twists hit that much harder, and keep your reader engaged., How to Describe Clothing in Writing Without Boring Everybody, Tertiary Characters: Giving Your Background Players Life, Sidekicks: The Loyal Companion Your Hero Needs. Well, mostly. His writing offers a masterclass in how to describe clothing in stories. Excuse the on hold background music. Required fields are marked *. Slog through another meaningless day in a world where nothing matters? The description will describe a lot of clothing pieces, some of which you may not need depending on where your character lives. The train hums and throbs in place as people rush to pile in.. Thus his plain dress is, ironically, indicative of higher status. Lets take a look at how clothing description indicates your characters identity, goals, and culture. Are the characters of your dystopian novel forced to make do with burlap and mud? I dont mean camisoles and cardigans. They could withstand high-velocity strikes from a javelin or lance, driven home by somebody charging forwards on horseback. Theyre the kind of thing that often happen organically, but you can actually make use of character secrets to make your stories better. Maybe your character is snuggled up in their fleece pajamas while the blizzard rages outside. 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. A few easy changes are to make one side longer than the other, so basically creating a diagonal cut instead of the standard horizontal one. As knights became fully armored, so did their mounts. When heated, steel turns from yellow, to brown, to blue, to red. As well see below, one of the best things about using medieval armor in a fantasy story is the freedom to elevate it in some way. This includes items like steel-toed boots, heavy denim, or tech-forward, snag-resistant superhero spandex. - Christine, on How to describe clothing in a story (with examples), 8 story hook examples (how to grab attention), Story structure examples: How to create payoffs for readers, How to describe to immerse readers (complete guide), How to write deep POV: 8 tips and examples, 9 exposition examples: How to write clear introductions, How to make a plot captivating: 7 strategies, Writing great characters: 5 lessons from modern novels. Its not an aspect of character design that bubbles up naturally from the depths of my creative soul. 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. Mail was lightweight and flexible. So why not join the gang? - Geometry. Now turn the edges a different color or make them light up and you immediately have a more futuristic looking suit. If you arent keeping at least a few secrets from your friends and loved ones, are you really living? And as a reader, nothing bores me like an entire paragraph of detailed clothing description. Who's your rebel, and how does their clothing reflect their defiant spirit? Why this arguably works better is the details of getting dressed tell us multiple details about Gem. They mixed more traditional Asian styles with the more Western Industrial Revolution period styles. Like Dostoyevsky, think how something as small as a characters change of clothing can affecttheir own or others behaviour. Particularly in genres such as historical fiction and fantasy, clothing can help to create other worlds (or a long gone era of our own). 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. The rope belt is solely decorative and a status symbol. Wearing a suit of armor was like being in your own private world. And medieval warfare was a bloody affair. A band t-shirt. Perhaps its because the genre was born out of stories that emerged from the Middle Ages like Beowulf and King Arthur (around the 10th-11th century). (Has denim been invented yet? 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. Good for the mobile knight. The front part of helmets, or the visors, were there to raise or open so the wearer could breathe during taxing hand-to-hand combat or scan around the battlefield. Is your central conflict a life-or-death situation? Think touchable fabrics and the light scent of lavender soap. The eye slits were narrow to prevent all sizes of arrowheads from finding their way through. In reality, a medieval lord could pretty much do what they liked. But I find looking back in time to the likes of the medieval period can provide some wonderful and unique ideas. Every time we got separated in a public space, I discovered myself in a sea of mature women with the same haircut and pastel tops. Finally there's the aspect of fashion to take into account. 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. This idea of knights becoming lords was introduced in England by William the Conqueror. ), The geographical location of your story. These were worn on their own by those wanting greater speed and flexibility, but also by those unable to afford stronger armor. 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. They are more common around the chest and torso in Asian cultures though, so keep that in mind when adding diagonal lines. Some had pointed snouts, the purpose of which was to deflect arrows when walking into arrow storms. Vision in such helmets was extremely limited, but this was the cost of added protection. - Make things look glossy, smooth and clean. That decorative belt? Even things like tattoos, hair colors, eye colors and so on can help with this. See how Dickens contrasts the fact-obsessed, overbearingteacher Thomas Gradgrind and his wifes personalities through (among other details) their clothing description. We therefore see in the fantasy genre characters equipped with grand helmets and beautiful pieces of plate armor. You can also fulfil (or contradict) impressions your characters (or readers) form based on appearances. ^.^ For example, a shy person will often wear 'regular' clothing, clothing that isn't too bright or outgoing in both design and colors. The senses were deadened: sight limited, sound muffled, breathing stifled (depending on the type of helmet). As far as guidelines go this is the first to be broken though, consider this one more of a starting point rather than something to necessarily end on. 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. Is your character trying to attract positive attention? Similar to how pixelated designs tend to look more futuristic so do designs full of geometrical shapes. In this scene, Gradgrind returns home to find his children playing outside: A space of stunted grass and dry rubbish being between him and the young rabble, he took his eyeglass out of his waistcoat to look for any child he knew by name, and might order off. 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. Read these tips on how (and why) to describe clothes with examples from well-known novels: 1: Use clothing to show status and position 2: Build (or thwart) character expectations with clothing descriptions 3: Describe clothing to contrast characters' personalities 4: Show clothing to avoid over-relying on telling Most picture the knight when we talk about plated armorrigid tin men that can withstand all manner of blows. The same goes for other types of technology that could realistically be incorporated into the design of your character's clothing. (Huh.). Great idea. 2012 - Not really. But even regular elements can help with this. Costume is a large part of a character. And if you were skilled at surviving and killing, it was a good way to make a living. You can try all Dabbles premium features for free for fourteen days. Youre already obsessing over hat styles and what the undergarment situation was at the time of your story. Hopefully, you now have more wardrobe ideas for your characters than just red shirt, blue pants. But what about the process of actually sharing these details in your novel? Lots of gear would have been looted. Just click the button below to find out more. As a quick question, in film you see a lot of heroes and leaders not wearing helmets. The appearance of armor was a big deal for knights. It's easy to try this out too, at least the simple line version. Its okay if Todds checks his designer watch three pages after you mention his silk tie. Any suggestions on how to properly do this? clothed and we should definitely be using them to portray our characters personalities. I once wrote about imbuing everyday objects with meaning because talisman create great opportunities for symbolism! Helmets were arguably the most distinctive feature of an armored knight. Im writing a little in the Epic Fantasy genre and there were quite a few useful notes I wasnt aware of here. All this to say: there is substantial storytelling power in a coral Life is Good t-shirt. Achieving glory in battle was one way of earning a knighthood. It may be apocryphal, but Harold Godwinson is said to have done just that at the battle of Hastings in 1066. That fancy Ming dynasty dress looks completely different with exposed shoulders and that medieval set of pants look completely different if you turn them into shorts with exposed legs. Who is your character at the beginning of the story, and how can you dress them to establish their normal? 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. To illustrate this let's take a standard men's suit as an example. Something like this: As you can see, a knights armor is made up of a lot of different pieces. A self-conscious kid tries to disappear inside their oversized sweatshirt. Glasses, headsets, lenses, jewelry, belts and so on can all help sell the futuristic look. Trendy: Modern, fashionable, and up-to-date outfits. 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 the historical fiction books Ive read, none of the heroes took off their helmets unless they were knocked off, or bashed in. - Use nudity. Were trying to avoid, Isabell gazed out the window, and by the way, she was wearing a white terry cloth robe.. 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. - Mix cultures. This is a heavy generalization of course and entirely based on Western culture of today, but these rules may not apply at all in a fictional universe, no matter if it's futuristic or based on a historic setting. A velvet scrunchie. Pingback: The Life of the Medieval Lord - Richie Billing, Pingback: How To Create Your Very Own Living Breathing Fantasy World - Richie Billing, Pingback: Fantasy Races - The Ultimate Guide To Elves, Orcs and Dwarves | Richie Billing, Pingback: Killer Diseases of the Middle Ages | Richie Billing, Pingback: Medieval Cannons: The Essential Guide | Richie Billing, Pingback: On Writing: Fantasy Without Magic Of Metal and Magic Publishing, Pingback: The Lives Of Medieval Peasants - Richie Billing. Just click this link and dont even think about touching your wallet. 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. 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. Non-visual senses are big, too. What are the rules of your characters world? 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. In fact, you should be putting lots of thought and development into protagonists because thats who the story is about.But how much thought have you given to your tertiary characters? An owl in new ribbons, ha-ha-ha! We naturally link clothing and identity, which is why wardrobe is such an effective tool for building a vivid character. With these two changes alone you already have an item that didn't exist in medieval times, but is familiar enough to work in a fantasy setting. Heres how to describe clothing in writing to show your readers the world to which your character belongs. Another type of cheap armor, one up from gambesons, was boiled leather, also known as cuir bouilli. Its a bit OCD of me. Fancy dresses. 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. Maybe their goal is to entice a mate. Look at this picture, is it insane for an author to try to describe this on a character? It would have been extremely warm too. Youll be blown away by the number of awesome things on there. We already have spray on clothing technology. I love the way clothes can describe a character. This pride, though justifiable, displeased Katerina Ivanovna for some reason. Once quenched, the steel was re-heated to make it more resilient. If youre trying to learn how to describe clothing in writing, youre probably like me: Youve only pretended to know what organza is. I'll allow my fangirl side to shine for a second and use the Legend of Korra as an example of how mixing styles can work amazingly well. Either way, their goal is to be desirable, whatever desirable means in this situation. But they are a common element used in fantasy clothing in all sorts of works of fiction. There is simply more characterization, not only of Gem but the other characters, too. Some wore a trapper a covering of full chain mailand down the line, some horses even had their own plated armor. - Furs and other animal parts: A quick and obvious way of making something look more fantasy-themed is by simply adding elements of fantasy creatures. Here, for example, Hilary Mantel describes a Cardinals residence being plundered by the Kings men in 1529 England, in her historical novel Wolf Hall. Like all forms of exposition, your goal is to deliver this information without pulling the reader out of the story. I'll make a separate point for sci-fi/futuristic clothing and fantasy/historic clothing. Help your readers feel the relaxed, organic cotton or the memory foam slipper, and theyll feel your characters priorities deep in their own souls. 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. This is mostly something to keep in mind when designing for characters living in the future, but it could work for alternative historic universes as well. Fully geared up, you were a walking fortress. Not a Dabble user? Blunt, Once quenched, the steel was re-heated to make it more resilient. But it makes a good story. Adding these other bits of lesser-known fantasy armor to your stories can really add extra depth to your worldbuilding. - "Digital look". Another quick way of making standard clothing fantasy themed is by converting clothes form the relative future to one that could be created in whichever time period your universe falls under. 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. Thanks I will be following your blog from now one I just came across it today. By using fur for decoration you quickly create fictional pieces in no time. Clothing is one of the easiest and most immediate ways to establish an historical setting. 70s-inspired. 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. But they could also dress in modest, inexpensive-looking clothes. These small but mighty players can add depth, complexity, and a fresh perspective to your plot. Our characters are always (mostly!) or the world theyre desperately resisting. These are deep questions. A few small details of clothing may distinguish your characters from each other, highlighting their personalities. Baggy. In Gabriel Garcia Marquezs Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), we learn of a doctors status through his being the only person at an event who is not smartly dressed: Although it was not customary for invitations to request special attire, least of all for a luncheon in the country, the women wore evening gowns and precious jewels and most of the men were dressed in dinner jackets with black ties, and some even wore frock coats. In one single piece of clothing description (a pink-eyed bundle of shawls), Dickens conveys how timid and ailing Mrs. Gradgrind is in contrast to her bullish, overbearing husband. 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. Select the most striking details and move on. Casual. What backstory or character motivations could combinations of appearance and reality suggest? A coat of mail was a complex web of metal rings, each locked with an iron rivet. What does your character wear to feel safer in their world or in their own skin? Similarly, find out (or, if youre creating a fantasy world, create) the garments your characters would wear in a particular time and place. A knight, by definition, was a lord. Obviously clothing is extremely varied, especially dresses. What I would like to ask is how you would go about describing very specific details on more complex clothing? And of course, location provides a clue for what it takes to be comfortable in the world of your story. Your main character just put on some makeup and changed into a fancy dress, complete with heels and a tiny handbag. For example, the corset wasn't popular until the 16th century and while earlier versions can be found incredibly early they weren't common place. 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? Who doesnt like being comfortable when killing? Delighted to hear youre finding this useful. He is old but stylish. Sneak around? 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 exactly are you trying to communicate about the character, setting, or situation? Ideas are forever being shared and discussed. An owl, a real owl! It illustrates brilliantly the differences between fantasy armor and the boring armor of reality, in this case, Gothic armor. That said, once you describe how a person dresses you shouldn't really keep doing it unless it is relevant to the plot. Or are you writing a spy character who dons Lululemon to infiltrate an upscale yoga studio? I love to wear baggy trousers in summer. But the biggest challenge can sometimes be simply making something look futuristic or historic fantasy-ish, which is the main focus of this guide. 80s-inspired. 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. Like say a vest with mirrored sequins and rhinestones, but they all go in a pattern and you feel the need to describe the pattern line by line? Heres a great visual guide on female fantasy armor by YouTuber Shadiversity.