The Red Wuxia Robes

It is probably apt that the Costume Mercenary is finally appearing in kit from her own culture.

The outer robe is made of a crimson linen-polyester, as is the shorter white inner robe. The long black surcoat is made of pure linen. Under all that are some beige linen trousers.

I had some reservations about the linen polyester, but it does have the advantage of not wrinkling - as can be seen in contrast to the black sleeveless surcoat.

There are also two hidden pockets up the sleeves of the red out robe. The red sash is long enough to tie thrice around the waist.

The photos, as mentioned in the preview post, are taken by the puny bamboo bushes at the Durham University Botanic Garden. I was rather disappointed we didn't managed to borrow the Dragon Katana from Character Kit (last seen with the Gothic Coat), though that said, it'd probably annoy me on some level to be holding a katana whilst in a wuxia robes.

This was, surprisingly, one of the most difficult photoshoots. Being told to try and resemble Xiao Long Nu is strangely more intimidating than imitating Arwen. Though I was predominately obsessed with western fantasy, classical mythology and fairy tales during my impressionable childhood, I also absorbed much of the wuxia from the culture around me. The daily tv serials showed me the world of the rivers and lakes, a world of flying martial artists, ethereally calm swordswomen and wandering heroes.

But isn't really to all that these costumes come to exist, but rather from a Kamakuran character I played some years ago at Maelstrom. I just felt like reminiscing.

It did come up in Rule7 thread some time ago, but due to the reliance on hand-to-hand combat and the predominance of flying, wuxia translates rather poorly into live roleplay (that said, you could probably argue flaming walls and castles translate poorly and players are still capable of imagining). And I would still very much like to see an attempt made (and not simply because I would very much like to peddle you some kit for it).

A set of robes like the one the Mercenary is modelling in the pictures would cost something in the region of £80.

More photos under the cut.