Thoughts on your characters' wardrobes.

[TheWritingGroup]

I'm all over the place. Depends on the story.

Yeah.

In my case, it depends on one thing: does the viewpoint character care about clothes (at that exact moment)?

The character I've written the most viewpoint words for, Liz, doesn't care much about clothes. They only get mentioned in her stories if they're surprising, or if they matter to the story. Her friend Maria, when she has viewpoints, notices clothes (and jewelry and makeup and hairstyles) much more often, because she cares more about those things.

--Annie

 

[FrancesScott]

Thoughts on your characters' wardrobes.

The narrator notices lots of details about other people’s clothes, but seldom comments on their own (save in some lesbian stories to compare them unfavorably to those of another FMC).

 

[lasoldier]

In my opinion, that has only partially been pulled from my ass, the average reader's imagination can be directed, but only up to a certain point. Trying to describe anything beyond that point is largely wasted effort and page space. See: all the people that were shocked that Rue was a brown skinned girl when the Hunger Games movie came out.

So, I describe anything that's actually important to the plot/character (e.g, a wristwatch for a character who habitually checks their watch) and for everything else, I just throw out enough that the reader's imagination can do the rest. I'll tell the reader the main dude is wearing pants, TF do I care if they want to imagine jeans or corduroy? (This is an extreme example, wearing corduroy is a weird ass choice that I probably would point out.)

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

I do my best to describe everything in detail, even if that means I have to look up and learn fashion that I don't already know so that I can describe things properly. I want somebody to be able to google my description and have it show up in an image search exactly what I'm describing, so they can see it for themselves.

This can be hard to do without sounding stilted, but that's part of the fun of crafting the descriptions.

Here's one I did for a wedding dress:

"She had chosen an elegant, timeless dress that was about as demure as you could possibly get. Her gown was solid silk mikado in the brightest ivory I'd ever seen. She literally glowed. The high bateau neckline showed no cleavage at all, her collarbone and neck the most skin she was showing. Around her neck was a small string of pearls, almost a choker, and she wore pearl earrings in her ears, her hair done up in a French braid interwoven with baby's breath and pearls that blended into a thin gauzy veil. She held a large white bouquet of flowers in her hands, her arms covered by sleeves that were closed by two dozen pearl buttons."

I had no idea what the hell a "high bateau neckline" was until I started searching wedding dresses for what I imagined in my head for this scene, lol. Now I know.

 

[PennyThompson]

I do my best to describe everything in detail, even if that means I have to look up and learn fashion that I don't already know so that I can describe things properly. I want somebody to be able to google my description and have it show up in an image search exactly what I'm describing, so they can see it for themselves.

This can be hard to do without sounding stilted, but that's part of the fun of crafting the descriptions.

Here's one I did for a wedding dress:

"She had chosen an elegant, timeless dress that was about as demure as you could possibly get. Her gown was solid silk mikado in the brightest ivory I'd ever seen. She literally glowed. The high bateau neckline showed no cleavage at all, her collarbone and neck the most skin she was showing. Around her neck was a small string of pearls, almost a choker, and she wore pearl earrings in her ears, her hair done up in a French braid interwoven with baby's breath and pearls that blended into a thin gauzy veil. She held a large white bouquet of flowers in her hands, her arms covered by sleeves that were closed by two dozen pearl buttons."

I had no idea what the hell a "high bateau neckline" was until I started searching wedding dresses for what I imagined in my head for this scene, lol. Now I know.

It seems like a lot of people on AH don't care for this level of description, but I certainly do

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

When getting dressed to go out, mine almost have a uniform that mandates hose and heels. How, which ones and what else are the only differences.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Your characters will notice different things about clothing. A stereotypical straight man might only notice what is exposed around or through a woman's clothes - her cleavage, the shape of her ass or breasts, her legs. And only notice other men as 'normal' or casual or dressed up or something that strikes him as odd. A queer man will spot similar details on men. A few men are into clothes or accessories and will notice the weight of a watch or the style of clothes and plan a night out on the town with appropriate clothes:

A male hotel worker, Kenan: "slim build with muscles shown off with his stonewashed probably-fake Levi's and certainly-fake Gucci belt, crisp cotton shirt unbuttoned just enough to make me desperate to rip it off him. ...

We go spruce up. Dan's got a T-shirt with extra-short sleeves that shows off his arm ink nicely. A good belt, bit of gel on his wee curls, and he's hot as fuck. I stick to a linen shirt -- can always undo it more when I get hot -- and chinos. Slicked-back hair, moisturiser, and I look OK. Kenan looks appreciative, so, job done. ...

Kenan's all slicked-back curly hair and a diamond earring, with an ironed tight shirt that's a bit risqué with mesh, rapidly hidden under a respectable blazer. He grins at us."

Even within just mainstream tops and trousers and shoes, you've got ironed collared shirts with ties (silk or cheap nylon), oversized sweaters, well-loved tartan overshirts, designer T-shirts with discreet logos, store-brand plain tees, faded band T-shirt from the 80s, jeans can be flattering or sagging, new or well-worn, trainers can be dirty running shoes or shiny in-demand styles of Adidas or Nike...

 

[Britva415]

Guy's clothes suck. Pants, shirt, shoes, maybe a jacket or coat. Not much else to detail really.

Women's clothes on the other hand ...... infinite range of styles, colors, accessories.

How far do you go in describing who is wearing what? Or not.

I don't make any effort to describe anything which isn't directly relevant to the plot.

Sometimes some details do come out in my writing, details which aren't directly relevant to the plot, but, if they do, it is completely without effort or rumination. It's just what pops in to my mind and seems worth including just for the sake of "color" - usually literally.

Beyond that, people just wear whatever such a person in such a situation would wear. I'm willing to name worn items but I generally don't find it necessary to describe them beyond a very superficial treatment.

 

[NotWise]

This is the initial description of the two main female characters in Mom, Sex, Guns, and Rock-n-Roll. Alex is the POV character. Sophie is a side character. They're watching through a window as Zelda and Grace arrive.

Zelda wasn’t alone. A girl that Alex guessed was about his age followed her out of the taxi. She stood by the car and talked to the driver while Zelda sized up their student-ghetto house through big, dark glasses.

Sophie watched around Alex’s shoulder. “Ooh, fur. She’s over-dressed for this place. I see where you got your blond hair.”

Alex stepped aside so Sophie didn’t have to look around him, and she said, “I feel like I’ve seen them on TV.”

“It’s probably just the look,” Alex waited with his hand on the door knob while Zelda tucked her glasses away.

“You’re probably right. The glasses, hair up, short tight skirts, spike-heeled pumps.” Sophie said. “Where’s Toby? He’s missing the show.”

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I generally spend more time on her outfit than his, probably more time than it deserves, but I think it can be important. Women do tend to spend more time on the appearance than men and to some extent, it helps define them.

I have spent more time on a man's clothes if the story called for it. One such was in trying to 'set' a character, one which the MFC found attractive, in my Past, Present and Future Ch 1:

I'd first noticed him when I was a freshman last year. He stood out on campus. He was always well-dressed, well-groomed and neat. I'd never seen him, for instance, with unpressed clothes. Today he wore immaculate white canvas slacks and shoes, a white shirt and a blue blazer. He looked like he owned Hollywood.

Now, in one sense that's not a lot of detail, but I think it was quite enough to do the job.

 

[FrancesScott]

The narrator notices lots of details about other people’s clothes, but seldom comments on their own (save in some lesbian stories to compare them unfavorably to those of another FMC).

As per:

"Something on your mind, Dhyani? Is it OK to use 'Dhy' by the way?"

I nodded my consent to the use of a diminutive. But what was most on my mind was Van's transformation. Fridays were casual days and earlier she had been wearing loose khaki pants, flats, and a black, cotton boat neck; a pretty outfit, but still professional. Now...

Most women have at least one LBD, but my own one was significantly more modest than Van's. Hers looked like what Coco Chanel might have designed if her target audience had been strippers. It was clearly an expensive garment, and the number of dollars per square inch of actual fabric must have been truly astronomic. And Van wore it well, then she had legs to die for, or maybe kill.

Reading my dumbstruck thoughts, Van baletically twirled, not an easy task given the height of her heels. "Do you like it?" she grinned.

"I love it." The words had tumbled out before I could filter them for appropriateness. Looking down at my own work clothes, I added, "But..."

"You look great," said Van, encouragingly. She then ran an appraising eye over me. "But... if you want to change, my place isn't far, and I think we are a similar size. I have lots of things you could try on."

I felt explosions going off in my head. Going to Van's place? Playing dress up together? Was I asleep and lost in some fantasy?

 

[MK_Whimsy]

A lot of my characters are stuck in straitjackets or other bondage fetish clothing that they can't easily get out of. In that case, their "wardrobe" is highly relevant to the story and I'll probably spend some time describing it and its effects on the character.

Aside from that, I don't tend to spend a ton of time describing characters' clothing other than briefly mentioning it. I might be a little more specific if the clothing type adds to the story in some way or provides a point of contrast I find interesting. For example, in The Pull, my mentioning of the MC's frequent wearing of "a crisp gray blazer" is intended to provide a contrast between her professional life and the fetish scenario she is remembering/fantasizing about.

In Scale Servicing, I mentioned that the reptile aliens were wearing clothing consisting "simple off-white canvas material." This was mainly because the visual seemed to fit, and because I thought it contrasted well with their advanced technological prowess.

In Sphinx and Mouse, I attempted to describe the MC's wardrobe a little more thoroughly, including giving her a sun hat so she wouldn't get sunburned. I can be considerate like that.

 

[PapaRomantic]

I'm with others who say it varies and is dependent on that particular story. But when I want to be descriptive, I've often found the look I want to describe by doing fashion searches on the web, and then describing as best as I can what the look is.

I have done the same thing when picking out what my characters look like. I find a picture where the subject is what I've pictured in my head, then describe them as best as I can. It has worked well for me.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Hmm...

Sometimes I replace the blazers for leather jackets, varsity jackets, hoodies, or sweaters. Most of the time there's a choker hidden beneath the shirt's collar, or visible. Lately I've been putting more details to it, mostly based on something I've witnessed at my previous workpace.

I don't think much about tie knots though. Personally I use the Van Wijk knot, but I never thought about that little detail for my characters regardless as to whether they're teachers or schoolgirls. I love neckties, I find them a huge turn-on, and this is just a good excuse to have them all the time. Plus, they work already as improvised collars, leashes, and bindings. Perfect for the teacher who wants to fuck the hot senior, or the senior wanting to have their way with the hot teacher.

School uniforms aren't 100% strict, depending on the school I'm writing about. Some of my girls may have proper school shoes, others may have sneakers. Nevertheless, they are always bold and even dare to wear things that would turn anyone into a retifist. In the same vein, socks can be replaced with knee highs, thigh highs, or pantyhose. The ones who have a more alt style consider using fishnets, and plenty of accesories.

As for the underwear, it's mostly a combination of my mood + the context of the scene + anything that happened before the scene. I do love have my schoolgirls on commando though; it's pretty hilarious, especially when I put the reluctant feel to them. My ex told me she imagined one of her favorite characters always pulling down her panties and shoving them into her backpack before entering school. I prefer to have a decorated naked body. Tattoos and piercings, even genital piercings. I had an experience with the latter one, and it's awesome.

The teachers though it's the same thing for schoolgirls, but their style doesn't shine through. They look very business-like, but they verge on the edge of their outfit turning from serious into inappropiate one. They do wear high heels almost all the time.

I love fanservice. I love the human body, how beautiful it can be, and since this is porn, I find it a good opportunity to make characters who love to throw a wrench to those stupid dress codes I grew up with that only destroyed my self-image on the long run. Even after transitioning, I still get the flak for having long hair.

Anyway, having school uniforms and business dresses leaves too little to change things up, which is fine by me because these constraints make it coming up with new outfits challenging.

 

[ChuckWolf]

A character in one of my stories:

Slightly plump, in her mid 50's and very pretty, Edith was wearing a quirky outfit that was cute and sexy, but still made it hard for Eddy to take her seriously as the movie's costume designer, not that he was any kind of expert on fashion.

Edith was a crazy mix of green and purple. An oversized "Flashdance" style sweatshirt that showed her lacy bra underneath, a tight miniskirt, leg-warmers and chunky platform shoes. Again, all variations of green and purple. Topping it off, Edith was rocking a hairstyle that looked like Uma Thurman's bob from Pulp Fiction, only bright purple and somewhat oversized glasses (with no lenses?) that were green in color and lipstick that matched. Edith also had an infectious smile.

 

[Britva415]

I don't make any effort to describe anything which isn't directly relevant to the plot.

Sometimes some details do come out in my writing, details which aren't directly relevant to the plot, but, if they do, it is completely without effort or rumination. It's just what pops in to my mind and seems worth including just for the sake of "color" - usually literally.

Beyond that, people just wear whatever such a person in such a situation would wear. I'm willing to name worn items but I generally don't find it necessary to describe them beyond a very superficial treatment.

Thinking a little bit more about what "directly relevant to the plot" means and what it would take for me to do more description:

There are two author tropes which come to mind. One is Chekov's Gun, which is the reason I don't describe much. If two dozen small pearl buttons don't later feature in a plot point, my own motivation is to leave them out as unnecessary.

However: The other trope is "show, don't tell." So if two dozen pearl buttons show something about the character's class, means, taste, values, and motivations, maybe it's better to let the pearls do the talking than to just state blankly what class she belongs to, what means she drew upon, spell out her thoughts and reactions on the matter of taste, explain her actions by naming her values, or state explicitly what she wanted before she acted on it.

So "directly relevant to the plot" to me means if a description provides lines to read between, it could be better to read between the lines than to just spell it out narratively.

I do not want to write, and I do not appreciate reading, description which is totally not plot related and only exists to establish atmosphere. That can be done without zero-stakes description. Atmosphere or "setting" alone is not, to me, a good enough reason to merely describe something when the same information could be conveyed without an absence of plot beats.

Like - it can be OK to include a description of a point of setting or of character style when something is happening. But the act of description is the opposite of the act of writing what happens.

So I'm not a perfect slave to Chekov's Gun. To me, description of a detail which does not become a plot element is OK - as long as that description is provided within a statement which does convey an element of plot motion.

You have to tell something in order to show something else. When I "show don't tell," the thing I'm showing (implying, suggesting) can be Chekov's Gun (it should be, why else would I show it), while the thing I'm telling (naming, describing) can be included without having to be Chekov's Gun.

I'm not perfect at executing these ideals. That's plain when I re-read stuff. But these are the ideals I try to live up to, according to the way I like to write - and to read.

I'd never say that these are "rules." It's a matter of taste. But this way suits my taste.

 

[Britva415]

Is it OK to use 'Dhy' by the way?

Not to me it ain't - not without a pronounciation guide

idk how "Dhy" is supposed to sound. Dee? Di? Thy?

 

[FrancesScott]

Not to me it ain't - not without a pronounciation guide

idk how "Dhy" is supposed to sound. Dee? Di? Thy?

It’s sort of dee-yah-ni. But with the beginning aspirated like dharma. So a someone with no Indian heritage - like Vanessa in the story - would probably say ‘Dee.’

Dhyani is both a male and female name, more commonly male. I have no Indian heritage, but I know a woman called Dhyani IRL. Aside from ethnicity, my character has nothing in common with her (not least as the IRL Dhyani is very heterosexual).

 

[iwatchus]

Most of the time, I de-emphasize the clothes. Character are usually wearing "normal" clothes, which is how I expect readers to visualize them., so I say little about that. I only note when the clothing is exceptional, mostly for women, most commonly with either fancy gowns or lingerie. Women's gowns are so much more interesting than men's suits.

 

[UncleJunior]

Most of the time, I de-emphasize the clothes

Been on a bit of a fantasy and sci-fi tear lately where describing the outfit is required for worldbuilding, but this is my baseline with the contemporary stuff.

"Sexy" clothes like sundresses, skirts, or whatever my character wears "just right" (glasses, stockings, etc.) get special attention in the intro, but they don't generally stick around long enough for any real detail.