CREATING CHARACTERS: DESCRIBING CLOTHING OF A CHARACTER

The clothes people wear tell us things about: their status in life, their cultural affiliation or identity. It tells us what era they live in, and their state of mind.

The use of clothing shows the status of the character. It creates an authentic setting. It makes your write-up richer. It helps to contrast a characters personality. It is also often shows change in development or fortune of a character.

I am going to narrow this down to ‘Medieval clothing’. As a writer exploring and learning other cultures are very beneficial to a good and catchy story.

VICTORIAN ERA CLOTHING

During the Victorian Era, women generally worked in private, domestic sphere. At that time clothing seemed as an expression of women’s place in the society. Those women who were in high social class(upper class women) did not need to work, often wore tightly laced corset over a chemisette, and paired them with a skirt adorned with numerous embroideries and trims; over layers of petticoats.

Middle class women exhibited similar dress styles; however, the decorations were not as extravagant. The layering of these garments make them very heavy. Corsets were also stiff and restricted movement. Although the clothes were not comfortable, the type of fabric and the numerous layers were worn as a symbol of wealth.

Neck-line Bertha is the low shoulder neck-line worn by women during the Victorian Era. The cut exposed a woman's shoulders and it sometimes was trimmed over with a three to six inch deep lace flounce, or the bodice has neckline draped with several horizontal bands of fabric pleats. However, the exposure of neck-line was only restricted to the upper and middle class, working class women during the time period were not allowed to reveal so much flesh. The décolleté style made shawls to become an essential feature of dresses. Corsets lost their shoulder straps, and fashion was to produce two bodices, one closed décolletage for day and one décolleté for evening.

Bell sleeves were small at the armhole and wide at the elbows (short sleeves) or wrists (long sleeves). This style of sleeve became popular in the late 1840s and lasted through to the 20^th century in various sizes. The tops were so narrow in the 1840s and early 1850s that they were sometimes crafted as separate pieces and tied to the bodice. With the bulky openings engage antes were worn. It could be argued that sleeves of this style with flounces were specifically called pagoda sleeves, but the terms seem interchangeable when reviewing Victorian articles. Late in the 1800s short bell sleeves for evening gowns appeared quite a bit, until straps became popular. “Bell-sleeves must be cut together and reversed, and each sleeve is cut in one piece.” Cassell’s Household Guide, London, 1869.

A corset is a garment worn to hold and train the torso into a desired shape, traditionally a smaller waist or larger bottom, for aesthetic or medical purposes (either for the duration of wearing it or with a more lasting effect), or support the breasts. Both men and women are known to wear corsets, though this item was for many years an integral part of women's wardrobes.

A skirt is the lower part of a dress or gown, covering the person from the waist downwards, or a separate outer garment serving this purpose.

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A petticoat or underskirt is an article of clothing, a type of undergarment worn under a skirt or a dress. Its precise meaning varies over centuries and between countries.