Dressed to the nines
I have spent a majority of my life in clothes.
Yes, I am one of those freaks that clads my body in all manner of fibers, the naked years behind me once I hit one year old. Now I am shackled to this life of jeans and comfortable cotton t-shirts. It is the cross I have to bear.
This leads me to thinking about the clothes my characters don. I think about it a lot. Not like “Charles Dickens” a lot, but enough to know that clothes in my writing become either part of a character, or a character in and of itself.
Take Benjamin, the studious young paladin that doesn’t wear platemail like his two brothers. The long coat he wears, lined with metal plates and pockets for his notebooks, is an ever present part of his wardrobe. When you think about Benjamin, you think about his long coat and vice versa.
Then you have characters like Sands and her hopper outfit. The outfit and its abilities are paramount to your understanding about who Sands is, but at the end of the day if that suit was on any other person, the details wouldn’t change too much.
Knowing these two situations leads me to think about the little details in the outfits worn. And this is where I believe too many authors fail.
I want to clarify real quick. To “fail” in this position is not intrinsically bad. Authors may have “failed” because the outfit doesn’t matter at all. The character never interacts with these clothes in a manner that needs to be described, the clothes could fit so many different eras, any details about the clothes gives away something or takes away from something else.
Now, if the clothes are important, describing them is a balancing act. You can go too far, see my Charles Dickens reference earlier. or you can leave out key details that lead your readers to wonder “how” something could be. Such as, “He had a rubber chicken… in chapter 20, where was he keeping a rubber chicken?”
Here are some known, and lesser known, areas that should be thought about with clothes.
Weight: How does the weight of the outfit affect the character? Is your knight in full plate armor? Is he just as fast as someone in leather armor? Is there a reason he is still fast even with full plate?
Pockets: Where are your people carrying their things? How deep are these pockets? Too often pockets in both pants and backpacks are like the "‘bag of holding’ and used as a Deus Ex Machina to get a main character out of trouble.
New or old: Are the clothes well taken care of, or ratty, barely held together? Do the clothes show that this warrior had seen many battles, or has never once sent his foot in an arena? Does the t-shirt show ironing lines because the character is super concerned with appearances?
Colors: Colors can have a character stick out like a sore thumb, or blend in with their background. It is very important for the color to match what the character is doing or how they are living.
Territory based clothing: Some lands may have a manner of dress that distinguishes them from others. Why do they wear those? It wouldn’t make sense for a person in a tropical environment to wear a parka, or a man in the desert to wear dark clothing.
Accessories - What bauble or thingamajig makes this character pop? What is the purpose of the accessory? Is it sentimental? A status Symbol? An item that holds a hidden power?
What your character wears can set a tone that is rarely explored, but is noticed when missing. It also helps build a character in the minds of your reader. As an author, you don’t need to constantly remind the reader what the clothes look like, but do describe if there is a change. Did it rip? Did they lose their hat? Did a battle scare an otherwise unmarred shield? Are the clothes now soaked in blood? (Don’t forget about things like this. Tell your reader when they change or clean out the stains.)
Clothes: The readers know your characters are wearing them, might as well let them know what you envisioned.
