Eldritch Costume
About the clothes and ornaments of the Eldritch. Because of the conservative nature of the Eldritch culture, fashion has changed very little since colonization of the world. Most of the differences involve materials, given the change in world and eventually the opening of limited trade with the Alliance.
Costume
All noble Eldritch are dressed by body-servants, despite the strictures against touch, and noble Eldritch clothing is difficult to don without assistance. Body-servants are highly trained and paid well; it is the best profession for a non-noble to enter, presuming that the necessary training isn't prohibitively expensive.[1]
Male Noble
- Many fussy buttons[1]
- Embroidery[1]
- Hook-and-eye closures[1]
- Gemstones or pearls braided in hair[1]
- Gloves (naturally) with pearl fasteners[1]
- Lace on the cuffs, long enough to fall over the palm[1]
- Blouses, with and without ruffles[1]
- Boots, laced up the front or back[1]
- Laces used as closures, on both shirts and trousers[2]
Female Noble
Male Tenant
Female Tenant
Special Fabrics
Meander
Meander was developed in the latter part of Jerisa's reign: a high nap fabric like velvet with channels left naked in it, in patterns specific to different designers. These channels are then stitched with a contrasting thread color, almost invariably metallic. It reached its heyday in the middle of Maraesa's reign and has since been in decline as meander-weavers have died. Since the creation of meander is a laborious process, it has run out of people to produce it, and those few who do take much longer to create it without the workshops of apprentices and craftspeople to take on the secondary phase of creation.
(Meander pattern styles are passed down along families, and are related to the original experience of the Eldritch settlers in their ships, when using the slides: they saw patterns that didn't exist during transit, and those inspired the abstract designs that would later become regularized by specific families.)
Hair Styles
Because of the limited genetic pool, Eldritch hair is very similar in texture from individual to individual, and identical in color. It's all straight, relatively coarse, though some individuals are described as having more silky hair, and pale/white. There is the occasional individual with a slight wave, but they are surpassingly rare. It has not yet been fashionable to dye the hair any bright color, though there have been occasional "wash" fads where someone tinted their hair with a translucent shade of some light color, like pink or gold.
Male
Noblemen among the Eldritch are expected never to cut their hair once they've reached adulthood, and fashion has always dictated they wear it loose (subject to personal vagaries/variations: Jahir wears his hair only to his ribcage, and both Valthial and Hirianthial wear their hair shorter). The occasional ornament is allowed to keep it out of the face (ferronieres, dangles, narrow braids, circlets, etc). Modern noblemen often choose a length and keep their hair trimmed there, but it is invariably below the ribcage.
Commoners tend to ignore this rule and cut their hair above the ribcage, though it's rare to see it above the chin. Clubbed and/or braided is common.
Braids
Hair jewels are typically worn before the ears by unmarried men and behind them when married. [3]
Female
Women among the Eldritch are expected to have their hair bound, either in braids or buns or a combination of the two. Hair can be covered for decorative purposes (by a caul or crespine), and is usually threaded through with ribbons, flowers, or jewelry. Length is variable but usually below the waist.
Female tenant/servants wear their hair shorter, often braided into a tail that falls down their backs.
Jewelry
- Hair dangles here
- Signet rings, also called House rings. Large rings (Jahir Seni Galare's nearly spanned the space from his knuckle to his first finger-joint), with a stone in the House colors, carved with the sign of the House--a unicorn on blue for Jahir[4], a striking drake on red for Lisinthir Nase Galare[5]
- House medallions
- Amulets rampant
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Even the Wingless, Part One
- ↑ Even the Wingless, Part Two
- ↑ A Rose Point Holiday, Chapter 4
- ↑ Mindtouch, Chapter 5
- ↑ Even the Wingles, Part Two