The role of fashion in science fiction and fantasy

I think of Miranda Keisley’s monologue to Andy Sachs in the film adaptation. The devil wears Prada Funny moments, especially when I’m hunting around the “sad corner”, debating the difference between turquoise and cerulean.

Fashion, whether we have that aspirational “taste” or “Frenchwoman charm” or not, we live by what we wear as an expression of who we are. Choosing not to worry about what you wear is also a fashion statement. You are still saying something about yourself and in turn telling the world what to think about you.

Fictional authors use fashion to indicate what their characters stand for in the story world. There is direct symbolism of the peasants wearing cloths that reflect their socio-economic status. There is also the use of different colors to convey emotions such as gold for wealth or white for purity. And how many stories use a jewel to remember or remember? In less than a sentence, a fashion statement can tell readers everything they need to know about a character.

In real life it’s easy to just use your eyes and see how fashion speaks about a person… and social media can help. Emma Chamberlain looked like she was wearing this year’s Met Gala look… except she chose to wear a necklace stolen from an Indian king. So now her fashion choices don’t convey the wealth, status, influence and western glamor she wants to convey. Instead, her fashion choices became a powerful symbol that the insidious nature of European colonialism was living history, not the past.

I say this because a fantasy author’s fashion choices, or even lack of fashion choices, are still a statement to readers. The intended effect is the predicted effect or unintended effect in the hands of the readers.

Interestingly, in letter number 211, JRR Tolkien wrote, “I don’t know the dress code. I visualize things with great clarity and detail and ‘natural’ things, but not artefacts. I personally believe that Tolkien’s preoccupation with fashion was more focused on the historical details and spiritual motifs loaded into his stories. But fashion still made his story popular with millions of fans; Actually, Peter Jackson had a different idea about film adaptations The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Jackson needed to convey Tolkien’s historical details and spiritual metaphors visually without using words, and fashion was the answer. This is why we see Galadriel dressed in pure white like an angel when we first see her in Lothelorin. Now this is reasonable, because we know Unfinished stories“The Tale of Galadriel and Selborn”, “She was considered beautiful even among the Eldar, and her hair was a thing of incomparable wonder.” What better way to show the beauty and fairness of this character than in her white dress? Viewers will also understand the subtext in her white dress.

in A memory called Empire By Arkady Martin, a noblewoman named Nineteen Aze appears in the first 100 pages of the book and is described as “a Teixcalaanli woman dressed entirely in bone-white: pants and a multi-layered shirt and an asymmetrical jacket.” My first thought when I read this was: power suit. Nineteen Aze wore a power suit that effectively conveyed her social status, power and influence. In a single sentence, Martin establishes the foundation of an important character, matching her power and position to that of the protagonist, a young diplomat. Any deviation from this energy set picture now reflects the status of Nineteen Ades.

This is the second example where I have used white to convey authority and even beauty. In fashion, white color is considered as the “basic” color, which can be matched with all the colors on the vehicle. But don’t let that fool you. White can symbolize purity (for example, a bride on a wedding day), but it can also symbolize privilege because it is historically difficult to maintain purity. But here’s the catch: white is the color of mourning for Hindus. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a Hindu who saw Galadriel on screen for the first time and thought for a moment that she was returning from a funeral.

This brings me to my next point: the costumes described by the authors are a direct reflection of their own cultural understanding of the world. Tolkien, for his genius for writing and world-building, was still a 20th-century man, who probably saw fashion as something in the realm of women. After all, most of the female characters are dressed in traditional women’s clothing. Eowyn’s reversal of gender roles in The Last War was a notable departure from the norm for Middle-earth.

On the other hand, Martin published A memory called Empire In the year It’s 2019 and you’re no doubt aware of the cultural discourse around power sets to refer to women trying to break the glass ceiling.

Science fiction and fantasy novels are imaginary worlds that emerge from the minds of their authors. The clothing worn by the characters and power players in these books is not only a representation of the status of those characters in that world, but also how the author perceives that clothing. In the West, white is a symbol of purity and innocence, the perfect color for a fair elven queen. It is also a basic color that can make a statement when used for a suit, the perfect color for a powerful court.

Want to learn more? Read all about fashion communication in literature.