Making up things for characters to wear can be tedious sometimes, especially for a culture that has no earth analogue. Do we default to Medieval-normal (which wasn’t very normal at all), stick to the faux-Medieval we are most familiar with from endless movies and illustrations, or strike out on our own into new territory? Sometimes costumers strike a balance, like the Medieval-seeming-but-with-a-twist designs for the TV version of Game of Thrones; other times, they go hell bent for leather, like Paco Rabanne’s bizarre, never-again-repeated designs for the 1968 Barbarella, or Eiko Ishioka’s creations for The Fall and Mirror, Mirror.
Princess wearing a duck on her head… excuse me, swan… in Mirror, Mirror.
In SF and fantasy writing, the immortal Jack Vance always managed to clothe his protagonists in something bizarre, and Robert Silverberg as well, who portrayed a woman wearing a giant amoeba in his SF retelling of Heart of Darkness, Downward to the Earth.
If you want to strike a middle balance between plausible, historic, and memorable, here’s some (randomly generated) ideas.
Clothing of Distinction
Alligator hide clogs
Violet-dyed wool felt apron sewn with rough crystals
Knit wool shawl decorated with brightly colored pompoms
Tiger skin shoes
Red cuirass decorated with rough wooden disks
Emerald green dragon-scale loincloth
Woven tree bark shoes worn by youths under the age of ten
White wolfskin mittens sewn with freshwater pearls
Sheepskin headpiece decorated with eagle claws
Yak hair underwear
Indigo-dyed overskirt decorated with tiny silver bells
Green lambswool earmuffs with straps of gilded leather
Gray wool stockings sewn with old buttons
Dyed rabbit skin robe
Purple vest decorated with tiny silver bells and brightly colored tassels
Gilded leather slippers with lace insets
Velvet gauntlets decorated with baby shark teeth
Long orange kilt ornamented with copper beads and rough crystals
Snug snakeskin vest
Short felted wool tunic lined with satin
