Patrica C. Wrede's Worldbuilder Questions

Fashion and Dress

• What do people wear? How expensive is it? Can the material be produced locally, or must some or all of it be imported?
• Are certain clothes customary for certain occupations -- e.g., military uniforms, judges' robes, sports team uniforms, etc.? How much variation is allowed? Could a scholar wear a fluorescent green robe as long as the cut was right, or would that be too much? Is it color or style that is most important?
• Are the dyes for certain colors -- purple, indigo blue, etc. -- rare, making cloth of that color more expensive and/or reserved for nobility or other high-status people?
• Are there sumptuary laws, defining who can wear what? What are the penalties? Who decides when changes are needed? How often are they adjusted?
• How many changes of clothes can a normal person afford? A noble person? A peasant?
• What are current fashion in clothes like? In hats? Jewelry? Shoes? Do such fashions differ for humans/non-humans? From country to country?
• What materials are appropriate for the climate? What cloth (e.g., silk) must be imported, and is therefore used only for expensive upper-class clothing?
• What styles are considered tacky and vulgar, and what is stylish?
• What types of decorations and accessories are common? What colors and combinations of colors are thought to look well together, or to clash? Do opinions of this vary from race to race?
• What physical types and characteristics are currently fashionable--tan vs. pale skin, the "consumptive look" vs. robust good health, fat vs. thin, blonde vs. brunette, muscles vs. "dead poet", etc.? How does this vary for non-human races?
• How do non-human fashions reflect the habitat and physiology of non-humans? Do mermaids have a nudity taboo, for example? Do dragons dress for dinner?

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