Hello there, lovelies!
I am going to talk about something fun today: aesthetic!
This is one of my favourite parts about character creation, because not only does it cement how I am going to imagine this character in my head as I am writing, but it's possibly one of the most informative tool to showcase background, personality, social status, and preferred form of expression all in one.
Assuming you have already chosen your setting, time period, and/or style in your world building process, there are a few things you can use to describe your characters through their clothing, and decide what they will be wearing.
Colour scheme:
One of the ways you can help your reader distinguish each character in an easier way, is by showing them the colours that character prefers to dress in.
This both helps in stabilising their imagined version of what the character looks like, and can help communicate how what this person is like/wants to be seen, specifically in terms of temperament.
A few general examples: If you have a character who likes to dress in soft pastels, it can communicate traits like fragility, elegance, calmness, innocence, or a combination of those.
However, more vibrant colours can communicate someone who is highly animated, child-like, or likes attention.
Darker colours can show elegance as well, but in a much more serious, mature way. However, it can also show not wanting to be noticed, or a sense of solitude.
Muted or earthy colours, such as grey and brown, can show a simple, grounded nature, an unremarkable life, or just wanting to be seen as ordinary.
In my own novel, I used colour schemes exactly to show the personalities of the girls in the Girl House. This was highly necessary, since I would be introducing one every new chapter, in order for the story to be seen from her perspective.
Example:
"She then stretched up and straightened her shoulders, before smoothing down the light blue wool of her dress where the jar had pressed, her hands rubbing over the sown-in belt of the same fabric, hugging the midriff of her soft, hourglass figure."
-Chapter 9. Gathering Frankincense
I gave the character of Hanna, who the reader follows in chapter 9, a colour scheme of pale blue in this scene, because of her delicate nature, in combination with her personal, nature-based power in related to the moon.
On top of that, Hanna has a very pale complexion and light-coloured hair, so her looking somewhat lunar was also a deliberate choice.
Social role and Status:
Clothing is one of the ways a character will be judged on where they fit in society. This can either be through the material, the specific items this person is wearing, or any decorations the clothing may have.
While in terms of concrete social status, such as the hierarchy in a court setting, the difference in clothing should be made apparent, it can be used in more subtler scenarios as well.
Example:
"Meanwhile, Laura continued smiling at her, almost dancing on the balls of her feet, as her eyes travelled once again over the dark brown, tartan-patterned dress and the black, woollen shirt sticking out of the arm holes.
"Isn't that my dress?" she asked with a laugh, watching Emmy fill the kettle with water and placing it on one of the smaller, iron lids. "And my shirt?""
-Chapter 1. Morning Cinnamon
In this scene, Laura, one of the girls' caretakers, notices the eldest of her charges, Emmy, is wearing clothing that used to belong to her. The colours are dark and earthy, meaning that is not only shows Emmy as a mature, young woman, but through them being Laura's original clothes, I was able to show that Emmy has somewhat taken over the role of a caretaker as well. At the same time, it shows that clothing items are limited in this household, displaying their financial situation.
Uniforms are also a way of displaying a person's position in society, not only in terms of a profession, but also affiliations.
Tribes or clans having a certain set of clothing, decorative items, and/or colour schemes can help separate characters in the eyes of the reader, while also showing them which side the character is on/wants to be seen affiliated with.
If you choose to do this, make sure you still show the individuality of the characters in some way. You can do this by showing how a character wears the uniform, or adding a personal item, such as a piece of jewellery.
The state of clothing items can also inform the reader about how much a character either has access to luxury and utilities, or how much they care about their appearance. If they have neat, clean clothes, they are most likely to care about how they present themselves, and have access to regular cleaning supplies. If they have torn, worn, or dirty clothes, they either have no access to regular, or they simply don't care.
Body type and Items:
The shape of a character's body is going to heavily influence the clothing items you pick for them, for obvious reasons. Different clothing items are going to look differently on various body types.
An example for is, is a big sweater. If the character wearing it is large and muscular, they will most likely fill the sweater better, and it will look fairly normal. However, if the character is small and skinny, the sweater is going to swallow them up, which can either make it look rather clunky and awkward, or even quite adorable. It depends on what you go with.
Another example is a tight T-shirt. Any tight-fitting clothes are going to heavily accentuate that character's body type, and a T-shirt can especially help with that. It can highlight just how skinny or muscled someone is, while also indicating the shape of their waist and the broadness in their shoulders. A reader is more likely to imagine the upper body of a character more than the lower body, because that's not where the face is. So, be aware of that when describing them.
The more a character's clothing fits or flatters their figure, the more confident and attractive they will most likely appear to other characters around them. The more their clothing doesn't flatter them, the more other characters will probably not take them as seriously or assume them to be less confident.
Ill-fitting clothes can also indicate a person has less access to new clothes on a regular basis, so it can say something about their social status as well.
So, go forth and dress your characters for their appropriate role in your story!
Goodbye, my lovelies!
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