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elegant-etienne · 7 years

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Fashion, pastel goth, and glams in Eorzea

When I returned to Balmung about a year and a half ago, I fantasia’d Etienne with a very specific sort of soft grunge / pastel goth look in mind. While the definition of pastel goth (much like ‘goth’ in general) is vague and not very agreed-upon. In the case of Etienne’s design philosophy, it is, at its core, an embracing of elegant, feminine lines and shapes with a heavier Victorian/gothic fashion sense, while embracing a spring and summer color pallet. I classify Etienne as a pastel goth just as much because of their attitude as much as their look. I do not consider pastel goth to be ‘goth lite’, as some might categorize it. Also, I’m more of the philosophy of creating an aesthetic rather than following one, if that makes sense. Since I can’t define what pieces turn up in the game and not everything I’d like Etienne to wear is available to them, it’ll never be exactly what I’d want or imagine. But I find that to be part of the fun and the challenge.

I was very flattered recently to receive a message asking for tips on what items dye well for a pastel goth aesthetic. I’d say the Heavensward gear is best for goth stuff in general, there are a lot of gems in the leveling gear, and people are moving away from that for the time being which will give you a more standout, if possibly quaint, look. I wouldn’t say there’s a particular color or dye that works better. I bought some of the pastel pink dye for my wedding and have used it on a few other items and found it quite satisfying, but you can get a good look out of everything if you follow through with your colors and it happens to be shades that work on your character. Even the ice blue and rose pink dyes you get in the early game could be put to good use in the right context.

Siince I realized I had a ton of things I wanted to say on the subject of glams, pastel goth and fashion, as well as wanting to use visual aids. Here’s some basic ideas and philosophies that help me dress Etienne in all their pastel goth glory. All of these things are purely my opinion, every single one of them, so feel free to disagree. Preferably far away from me. I’m only an amateur when it comes to fashion. I like it a lot but I have not taken a single class or cried over a dress form or anything like that. If I get something wrong, I hope you can at least get my gist.

1. The Character Creator, Hair, Makeup, And Other Considerations

Everyone’s got that POTD haircut these days, right? But I love it!

When it comes to character customization your mileage can vary by races. I won’t begin to tell you what looks good. Aside from retainers, I’ve heardly touched any of the character creators aside from mi’qote and elezen. I’m a little obsessive about trying to make sure that my characters don’t look like everyone else’s, and that’s something that’s only brought about by long-term experience in the game. Remember that shades look different between haircuts, and if you think a skin tone or hair color looks good in the character creator, you probably want it a shade or two darker. The swatches are liars and things IG tend to look more washed out than in the CC. This shade of lavender looks like pink in the swatch, lavender looks gray or silver, etc. You can waste a lot of time, and potentially gil or fantasia on experimenting with this, but I’d say 98% of the time I’ve gone back to redo a character’s look it was mostly rectified by darkening up my color choices. So you may want to simply pick what you like instinctively, and then go a shade or two darker. I happen to like to highlight with a lighter shade of the hair’s original color to give some illusion of depth and texture, but this doesn’t work with every hairdo. Paler eyes give an illusion of life and depth to characters, but wash out very easily in screenshots or may give a lack of distinction. Lip color you can take a bit more risk on. Darker purples, reds, and even greens or blues depending on what you’re going for / your character’s skin color (the latter look great on gray and blue skin tones) look pretty awesome, and again, better to err on the darker side. A brown can be an excellent choice for a ‘neutral’ lip color that still provides a made-up, polished look.

Bright colors look best on warmer and/or darker skin tones, so if that’s part of your character, you’re in luck.

One of the best pieces of advice on creating a customizable character to RP was to simply make it and walk away, and return to it the next day. This requires a lot of patience, but I think the results speak for themselves. You may otherwise wind up playing your character and finding you dislike your choices - or you made some very basic mistake.

2. Building A Silhouette

Shh... I know this isn’t pastel.

Shape of an outfit is, in my opinion, just as important as the colors you choose. This, like many other aspects, has many factors out of your control as we cannot have items custom made and builds have little variation. It’s a video game, and frankly it’s not like most of us are getting our IRL clothes bespoke either. Just as much as you want to think about what colors you should be wearing (and if you’re a RPer like me, why your character might wear it) but if the lines look good. I tend to build an outfit around one specific, notable piece of gear. Usually it’s a coat or something like that, but it may also be a hat or boots. I take a look at the shape of the item and consider the overall silhouette of the outfit. The Thavnarian bolero is lop-sided and worn with pants beneath, as the bloodhempen casting robe. The ‘real’ bottoms for these sets are pants. I’m not fond of the way that breaks up the great line at the waist of these items and makes things look a bit lumpy and uneven. I thought a skirt was a great way to rectify this, plus it adds an interesting motion when you’re moving.

Having a lot of really ornate pieces all together at once, as well as potentially your weapons, can create a busy shape which makes an outfit seem muddled. Your admirers won’t know what to focus on. An outfit should, much like the main character of a Shonen Jump series, have a design that is simple, recognizable, distinct and attractive in silhouette.

3. Colors and Dyeing

If there’s one thing I come to again and again, it’s that you shouldn’t wear all one color.

This warddrobe color guide infographic literally changed my outlook on fashion forever, and thus, my entire glam life, and I keep the rules at the bottom for ‘foolproof combinations’ in mind at all times.

I tend to avoid traditional neutrals, if I must I’ll go with the various shades of gray that are somewhat underutilized IG. Cream yellow and bone white are ones I’ve used a bit on one of my mi’qo alts to great effect, but they are more yellow and ecru than just plain white.

I don’t have a cap that shows it, but I used to have a glam that was mostly grays with salmon pink gloves and shoes that dyed so that just the socks were that color. Using pops of color this way are an opportunity to cheat and use colors that might not look great in large amounts, or are unflattering on your character for the most part.

Remember that the more colors you have, the more bright pops, the more risk you run of looking busy, or that you simply threw together colors you liked without further consideration. That being said, I tend to enjoy using color families. Most of the light colors have darker counterparts.

When you dye an outfit a light color, many of the details get changed slightly to their darker shades. You can then pull out those colors for other pieces of your outfit and match it up. I was delighted to find out, when I got this hat in a drop, that it bore similar colors to the coat I’d already dyed colibri pink. Just because something isn’t dyeable doesn’t mean it’s going to clash with everything you own. If you like a piece, hold onto it. You never know. This is less of a problem in SB, but... just don’t ask to see poor Neondemon, my fashion retainer. Even his beefy Roe arms can’t hold all of my collection.

Plum purple wound up dying half of the boots that actual bright purple, and half of them a deep purple that coordinated with the trim and the other darker elements of the coat. In any case - dark hat, dark gloves, light shoes with a darker trim, and a very bright coat.

I also think it’s important that your earrings, etc., match the other materials you’re wearing, and that the shape compliments the outfit as well. Don’t let your earrings work against an outfit.

Here we have the combination of light coat, light hat, dark gloves, dark pants and shoes. I loved the line of the Ala Mhigan jacket and its art noveau little hat, so I decided to keep it. Even though this is a set of tomestone gear that basically everyone has, I’ve received a lot of compliments for the choices I made in dyeing this pairing it with the overall look of my character. In spite of it being an ‘ordinary’ outfit with zero alterations, I absolutely loved wearing this and how Etienne looked in these color choices. I don’t think you have to break new ground with every outfit or find the most unique, rare pieces. It may not be realistic to spend your time on that. When you dye things in unusual colors, it brings out qualities others might not have noticed or appreciated about that item. The details on the Ala Mhigan casting set are so much more noticeable in this light color, and it looks very pleasant with the snowy white trim. In spite of doing very little to ‘develop’ this glam aside from deciding on the colors, it’s one of my favorites so far.

Dark jacket, dark pants, light gloves, light shoes + paissa. #aesthetic

4. Take Risks, Get Feedback, Make Friends, And Have Fun

Or just marry someone really cute and stand next to him.

I’ve met so many awesome people because they complimented my look or my glam and I took a few minutes to chat with them about it. Complimenting others has gained me a lot of insight into different ideas, where gear comes from, how it dyes and how to pair it up with things. Allow yourself to be a work-in-progress. The one person you truly have to answer to when it comes to glams is yourself, so there’s no reason to worry to much about getting good.

I dye all my leveling gear.

I just feel like I’m having more fun when I’m pretty.

#ooc #fashion #balmung #reaction gifs

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