Writer as Costumer

Published on 29 May 2024 at 12:21

One of my favorite things about being a writer is the many hats I get to wear; there's not many professions (or passions) where you get to be a researcher, a philosopher, an editor, a biologist, a costume designer, a psychologist, an interior decorator, and a mathematician all wrapped into a single project. In many ways, writing is an exercise in holding an entire world inside one's head. In this series I'll explore a few of my favorite roles as a writer and the place they played in my most recent novel. Enjoy! 


Costume Designer

I place dual blame on Robert Jordan and J.K. Rowling for inspiring this love in me. 

Both Harry Potter and The Wheel of Time focus on the clothing culture of their stories--in The Wheel of Time, it's more about the clothing of broader cultures (i.e. what an Andoran wears vs. an Illianer) and what those distinctions signify about the culture, like how much they care about nobility. In Harry Potter, the focus is on the clothing of the individual characters, creating distinct outlines or silhouettes for each person so that they become recognizable to the reader just by their description. 

Emerald green robes, pointed witch's hat, spectacles? 

Black robes, lanky hair, hooked nose? 

Pink robes, terrible bows, oppressive love of cats? 

If you've read Harry Potter, you probably didn't have any trouble identifying those characters. 

In The Engineer's Craft, I was mostly working off things I'd done in previous novels set within the Republic of Metirno (I've written two other novels in this same world). The Luminaries wear the tabana, which is basically a toga-like dress cinched in the middle by a rope. It's supposed to suggest two images to the reader: a monk in their habit, or a Greek priestess in a temple. There's an inherent sense of piousness, enhanced by the color of the robes (white) but which is also slightly tarnished, hinting at the corruption of the Luminarium (it's described as off-white or cream-white, rather than pure white). 

For the scholars, I had a bit more fun. Since the Alphabine College is based largely on my own experience in academia, I thought it would be cool to have their clothing be anti-colonial, in a way. Each of the women in the college wears clothing that either she feels comfortable in, or which represents the province she came from. For example, Mauv wears the flowing robes of the Five Divisions (inspired by Japanese kimonos, although most of the Five Divisions culture is based on the cultures of southeastern Asia and Indonesia).  Each of the women of the college feel distinct, as opposed to the unity of the Luminaries. The minutia of what a character is wearing can come in handy to symbolically represent them or some aspect of their lives--for example, I gave Mauv a comb without any specific intentions behind it, but towards the end of the story I realized it could be a powerful artifact for recalling an essential memory. Thus, the clothing becomes not just a dressing, but a part of the character's journey. 

For Bartus, I wanted his clothing to feel like what a farmer's son would have access to on an adventure. Rabbit-fur boots, a sheep-skin coat, all very rough-cut types of clothing that make him feel perhaps more at home with the sailors than the scholars. I love identifying what each character would wear, what it can tell readers about their personalities, and how it can make them a distinct individual.