Borrowed Costume: Yang Guifei

If she turned her head and smiled she cast a deep spell, Beauties of Six Palaces vanished into nothing.
Hair’s cloud, pale skin, shimmer of gold moving,
Flowered curtains protected on cool spring evenings.
Those nights were too short. That sun too quick in rising.

The emperor neglected the world from that moment,
Lavished his time on her in endless enjoyment.
She was his springtime mistress, and his midnight tyrant.
Though there were three thousand ladies all of great beauty,
All his gifts were devoted to one person.

Po Chü-Yi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow

Yang Yuhuan, more commonly known by her title Yang Guifei (Imperial Consort Yang), is thought to be one of the four most beautiful women in Chinese history. She was, of course, so beautiful that it was a curse. Both sides of the rebellion believed her to the root cause of the Emperor's negligence and the loyalists demanded her execution. The Emperor ordered that she be taken to a Buddhist shrine and strangled to death.*

She was first married to a prince, one of Emperor Xuanzong's many sons. There various stories about how she came into the Emperor's favour, but she did and was eventually made imperial consort through a ruse that involved her briefly becoming a Taoist nun (thereby voiding her first marriage).

Like many famous female figures of folklores, there's an uncomfortable aftertaste of sexism that comes with her story. It can be said that her story revolves around the trope Love Ruins the Realm (warning: tvtropes link) for not only is she responsible for a rebellion, it also marks the beginning of the Tang dynasty's downfall. But it isn't just Love that ruins the Realm, it's the woman. It is a theme that threads through Chinese folklore: Red Dye Ruins Water.

For it is women that causes the downfall of monarchs and nations: the Emperor, wallowing in the pleasures of the flesh, gives in to her frivolous demands (famously the lychees were relayed to the capital from Guangzhou) and allow her corrupt relatives free reign at court.

Most of stories I know present her as hopelessly tragic, fatefully cursed and politically naive. She is both the root cause of the Tang dynasty's downfall and yet without true agency its cause. It is not her ambitions or her scheming that tears apart the Imperial court, but simply her transcendent, immortal beauty. She is more analogous to Helen of Troy than a true femme fatale.

As almost synonymous with beauty, Yang Guifei is also interesting for the fact that she is often held to be plump. She is alluded to in the saying about differing standards of beauty, often contrasted with Zhao Feiyan, who was said to be very slender. (Which of course, makes this a terrible cosplay of her. But there are only so many historical women who have distinctive outfits.) The way she is talked about, the way her alleged beauty is described (and sometimes discredited) is especially interesting given the various pressures on Asian women to be skinny.

Numerous poems, books, films and so forth have been inspired directly and indirectly by her. Tale of Genji, regarded by some as the first novel written by a woman, was inspired by The Song of Everlasting Sorrow (partially quoted above). Various sumptuously costumed tv series are linked to here. There is even a musical, named Sacrifice, though I feel rather ambivalent about their understanding of the story: "Ultimately the message is simple; true love means sacrifice. [...] This great story enticed three western authors to China, intoxicated by its exoticism. What they found is the perfect vehicle for drawing west and east together; a transcendent love story that is, in fact, universal."

The costume comes in three layers, though only the scarlet outer robe is really visible. The hair is not a wig, though only a portion of it is my own. The shape of the train is what makes this costume really dramatic, with the sheer expanse of red. Tang dynasty costume was very much about a high waistline, enormous flowing sleeves and long, long skirts. At one point, the skirts actually started above the breasts.

Since we've also been on the subject of costumes for Empire LRP of late, it seems worth mentioning that the shape and flow of these robes would make for good Urizen costumes, though certainly not the colours. The red is far, far too bright for the pastel-loving spire-dwellers. The use of brocade as trim has potential, but only if it were very muted in its pattern.

The full story behind these photos was told in the preview post and the other photos from that day can be found filed under Xiaolongnu. A set of robes like these can be commissioned from the Mercenary and would likely cost between £50-150, depending on number of layers and choice of materials.

More photos under the cut.

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* The version I remember as a child was that he issued her with some dozen metres of red silk - a roundabout way of telling her to hang herself.

Empire: The Dreaming Spires of Urizen

Like many of Empire's cultures, there is a strong focus on the use of many diaphanous layers in Urizen's look and feel. If I were designing an Urizen outfit from scratch, there may well be less of an emphasis on heavy velvets and wools, which were chosen to be warm rather than ethereal. The colours are also overall a little dark and jewel-toned for Urizen, again from the fact that we're pulling this together from preexisting garments. In the absence of a brief, most people seem to veer from pastels and favour richer shades.

Given how this was the most extensive of the Empire photosets, it does appear that the Mercenary has developed an accidental specialization in Urizen costumes. We do seem to tinker and there have been many, many variants on "elven" robes in slightly different shades, cuts and weights of fabric. I do think we've come a long way from the first generation of elven robes.

The Slander Rat is in the cream renaissance gown that appeared in the League photos. The extensive train has been pinned up in these shots and form more draping folds from her waist (though it is mostly hidden by the pooling velvet robe). She also wearing the Egyptian cultural armour she and the Ginger Ninja made for Odyssey (though I believe that set is actually made for the Ninja). She is holding a Lorien Shield and a fey sword, both from Character Kit.

Attempting to arrange everyone into group shots for Urizen was difficult, if amusing. Given their cultural need for personal space, we all felt that it would be deeply inappropriate for us to huddle too close even for the purposes of these photos.

Thus were born many jokes of how flirting between Urizen couples need happen via the medium of semaphore (the Proprietor and the Slander Rat star as a pair of star crossed lovers on the opposite sides of a flying buttress who cannot bear to approach each other any further) and the inconveniences of secret wizardly cabal meetings (thus being unable to whisper properly at each other). The Proprietor also quipped that all Urizen, no matter their actual skillset, look like wizards.

These photos were around the back of St Giles Church, where once two prince bishops (one true, one false) fought for the control of County Durham. Or so I'm told. There are a lot of long, low shots with the walls and church windows, hopefully with the careful cropping give a vague sense of the spires and towers of Urizen.

The long sleeveless robes that are being worn as the outermost layer in most of these outfits do not appear to be particularly compatible with larp fields, though they are quite that long in part so that they still look good (by having sufficient drape) when you pull the train over your arm to carry it when walking. It can, of course, be commissioned shorter.


We did run out of pale under robes and the Battle Librarian is wearing a pale blue peplos under the various blue robes he has on. The Proprietor is wearing as his base layer a cream robe that could legendarily fit three people (it was once a bedsheet).

Of the props, the naginata is from Eldritch. The black leather crown is from Nordavolk. The necklace worn by the Pillywiggen, I believe, was made by Sara Emmims.

The white and gold shield (also having appeared in the Highguard shots), the pike and the fey swords can be purchased at Character Kit. The velvet robes (midnight purple, grey and beige brown), the cloak with a hidden pocket and the various sets of faux silk elven robes (greens and blues) are also on the website. The Proprietor is in a gold elven coat, which is also available in green. The various robes can be commissioned from the Mercenary in different combinations and fabrics.

More photos of the Dreaming Spires of Urizen under the cut.

Empire: The Many Paths of Navarr's Great Dance

Navarr was odd for us in that instead of doing all them as a set, we did the three sets of costumes separately and thus had no group shot. It seems that these Navarr are loners and walk their own separate but intertwined paths (after all, they do seem to be tracking each other).

This is the only set of photos that we've done with any form of Lineage makeup. We had originally intended to do one with each nation, but it was soon obvious that this would be impractical given how we had intended to do all the nations in one weekend.

The Slander Rat was originally done up as a Draughir, but due to the Designer wanting to do some gill makeup (closeups under the cut), she was swapped over to a Merrow. The pale grey (or more accurately, a lightly applied black and white) colouring the Draughir was tinted green around the eyes and mouth. The colouring around the mouth in particular gives her a more fishy, inhuman look. The fluttering gills are done with tissue paper and latex over a patch of skin coloured black and red. The Designer describes it as a sort of latex papier-mâché. The black and red snazz provides contrast with the gills as the move.

There are quite a few photographs of myself festooned in half of my troll kit, which last appeared on that Carthaginian Philosopher. The jewellery was made by myself (though that feather is borrowed off a straw tricorn).

None of the bows in the house proved to be plastic-free enough to be photographed and in the end, there was only the beautiful quiver and some arrows. There's probably a story there.

The Navarr costume guide recommends long, close fitting boots and the only pair of those I own has a faulty zip on the right boot. Thus was necessitated the belt to hold it shut and the Navarr penchant for belts and straps is thus further fulfilled.

The armour worn by the Ginger Ninja is that set that was made for a Dragon Age cosplay some time ago. It was made by Julie Knox and is still for sale. It would fit a medium-sized man. The leather shoulderpiece is part of a matching set and was made by the Slander Rat (among her first efforts) and the goatskin skirt, inspired by Morrigan's in Dragon Age, was made by the Designer. The mantle of many furs (including rabbit, goat and sheep) is also by the Designer. The green man quiver is by Miss Wu. The dubiously functional armour I'm wearing was inspired by that from the film King Arthur.

The warpaint swirlies are drawn by The Slander Rat (of Slander Rat Crafts). She appears here as a Merrow with green fishy.

The black hooded coat (£75), fey daggers (£15), fey swords, tooled vambraces (£40) and the intricately tooled quiver (£140) can be bought from Character Kit. The Forest Cloak (£75) also makes an appearance. The spear is utterly ancient and has been tipped and repaired so many times that it's really only good for being in photos for this blog.

More photos of the Navarr under the cut.

Empire: From the Streets of Holberg

The League was an immensely fun, if chaotic shoot. The direct sunlight was deeply unforgiving on our whites and creams, especially given the better camera being out of battery during this segment of Saturday. On the other hand, we had pulled together sufficient costumes that we really felt we had on our hands a lively cast of characters to pose. When reviewing the photos, a convoluted narrative of intrigue, passtion and jealousy seemed to unfold from the sequence of images, following the misadventures surrounding this odd little red leather book. It is probably best we don't dwell on it here, but suffice to say it was a deeply evocative experience.

The bravos are both in doublets and are lightly armoured on one side (for the fighting of duels! With flourish!). They are actually sharing the same set of plate which I believe is from Mytholon. The rose rapier is a custom job from Eldritch and other is a Medlock. The mask is from Durham's Georgian Window, though I don't know if they ever intended it to be worn.

Pillywiggin is wearing the same velvet gown that appeared briefly in Mirroring the Pre-Raphaelites (and did not get its own post for some reason). Other costumes on that blog that would work in League include: Early Venetian Gown (though these specific colours are a touch dark and gloomy); Winged Doublet; Tudor Loose Robe.

The various dresses pictured would cost in the region of £90-150 to commission, depending on design and materials. Both the doublets pictures can be purchased at Character Kit and fit a men's Large. Do email in for a more detailed quote.

More photos of the Streets of Holberg under the cut.

Empire: The Rich Colours of the Brass Coast

As perhaps wasn't implied by the teaser post, some nations got a lot more love than others. For the earlier ones we ventured forth to the nearby church and the woods, others we did in the garden due to dwindling daylight. For some nations, like Urizen with its elven and oriental influences, we managed to pull together a multitude of outfits from past and current stock. Other nations presented more of a challenge simply due to having as much of the kit to hand.

Brass Coast was one such nation. We did these late in the afternoon of Sunday in the garden and as such there just isn't much.

It's the Slander Rat (the eponymous proprietor of Slander Rat Crafts and fuzzy things creator extraordinaire) underneath all those robes. As the Proprietor quipped as he left us, she was wearing enough clothing for about four characters.

The challenge for us in these was to get the palette right, to have both the rich, warm colours but to not clash. We had thought to reuse far more from the Carthaginian Philosopher ensemble, but the colours simply weren't working out for us as Carthage uses far cooler colours with a focus on blue. We were careful to avoid the various pitfalls listed under Look and Feel and the Designer was delighted to note that Freeborn favoured the sort of headcovering (the Tagelmust) he knew how to knot, having learnt it for Odyssey.

Of the layers, the outermost robe is an elven coat (gold faux suede, half lined, ivy trim, £75). It is not the most Freeborn of garments, but works very well here as one among many layers, especially with its sleeves. The white voile base layer is the same as that worn by the Carthaginian Philosopher, one like it would cost in the region of £25-35. The dark red skirt and orange paisley robe are both the model's own. The dark red embroidered sash has been seen before with the Embroidered Elven Robes.

The lamp belongs to the Slander Rat and I believe is from a charity shop. The scarves are from a street market in Hong Kong. The dangling waist ornament was once a necklace and was from ebay.

More photos of the Freeborn under the cut.

Miranda and Layout Update

Been playing about with photoshop and I've desecrated Waterhouse's Miranda by smooshing it with a photo we took of the Pillywiggen in the kirtle.

In other news, the blog has had a redesign and apologies for any wibbliness this may cause to your browsing experience. Also, many of the older posts are probably not happy with being viewed at this width. I know about it and it should be fixed... eventually.

Preview: Embroidered Elven Robes

Due to the nature of the embroiderers and them reluctant to take on any orders that don't involve fewer than a dozen garments, we have been experimenting with designs and have come up with this elven ensemble, drawing quite strongly on elven aesthetic of the Lord of the Rings films. Though as said before, there's something very oriental about the garments and it came easily to people who were accustomed to making tangzhuang.

The whole outfit doesn't really fit me. It's a couple of inches too wide in the shoulders and hangs more than a little oddly. The wide sash (maroon faux silk with a silver white embroidered design) makes the whole thing neater than it really should. The sash is just pinned to me in the photos (being on the large side) but there are snap buttons.

The elven coat is a dark green wool (very much the same lovely medium weight wool as that of the tail coats), though we've also done a couple in a much lighter fabric, a faux silk. It's fully lined in green faux silk and the buttons are small, round and in gunmetal grey, fitting into tiny little satin loops. The stretch velvet robe is unlined (and really quite rough). We've more made it to show the effect of a complete outfit than selling large numbers of them.

And yes, these are indeed more blurry photos. I'm having some problems with the camera battery and long story short, it might be a little while before we're seeing really good photos on the blog again. But hopefully we'll sort this out.

Also, if you have any commissions, I do recommend sending them in the next week or so. The official deadline is the February the 3rd, after that it's very unlikely we'll be able to do any custom work.

If you're interested in our Elven designs, do have a look on the items we have in stock on the Character Kit website. These embroidered coats (sash included) are likely to cost something in the region of £95-115, depending on how the maths works out at the moment. Unfortunately due to how the extra surcharge on single item orders with the embroiderers, custom versions would likely cost about £15 more than the standard.

More photos of the embroidered elven robes under the cut.

Borrowed Costume: Xiao Long Nu

Yang Guo raised his head; he saw a white jade hand lift the hanging curtain, a girl entered. The girl wore an old fashioned delicate white dress, it was as if her body was covered with smoke and mist, she looked like she was about sixteen or seventeen years of age. Apart from her black hair, her body was as white as snow [...] he thought that she was beautiful, but without comparison, exuding an icy and emotionless aura.

from Divine Eagle, Knight Gallant, Book One, Chapter 5, translated by "Noodles"

The white-clad Xiao Longnu is one of the main characters in Jin Yong (aka Louis Cha)'s Return of the Condor Hero (though it is more accurately rendered Divine Condor and his Heroic Companion or Divine Eagle, Knight Gallant, as per the online translation of the novel). She is quite possibly the one of the most iconic characters of wuxia, especially given some rather consistent costume design throughout the many, many adaptations.*

Xiao Longnu is the leader of sect, the Tomb of the Living Dead. She is cold and dispassionate, cultivating a martial art that discourages any outward expression of emotions since an early age. She is the mentor and lover of Yang Guo, the non-avian titular character. The taboo nature of their relationship and their struggles with the disapproval of the pugilistic world fuels most of the plot, though the Mongolian invasion forms the backdrop to the story.

She is in many ways an archetypal Lady of War, being both hard as nails and characterised by her almost inhuman grace (she sleeps balanced on a tightrope). She can practically fly through her knowledge of the art of lightness and is, I believe, inspiration for many of the subsequent iterations of the trope in wuxia. That said, Jin Yong did largely found modern wuxia as a genre.

Divine Eagle is the second book of the Jin Yong trilogy, though it stands well enough alone. Depending on how you count (that is, if you exclude a certain slew of spin-offs made in the 90s), Divine Eagle is the most adapted of Jin Yong's wuxia novels. Like anything that has been extensively adapted, fans debate about which version was the best. The '06 version is probably the most accurate in the details and extravagant in production values (this fight is beautiful), though the '83 with Andy Lau and Idy Chan is probably the most beloved in Hong Kong. The anime is probably the most approachable since it periodically broken up by "footnotes" explaining the many of the underlying conventions of the genre (such as qi, qinggong and pressure point strikes aka Touch of Death). The internet is also rife with comparisons on Xiao Longnu's various incarnations in the serials.


More than any of the other novels though, Divine Eagle is a love story, or love stories, even, as most of the characters are motivated by love. The Scarlet Immortal is primarily motivated by her deep hatred of her ex-lover (the book opens with her slaughter of his entire remaining family). The feud between the Taoist Quanzhen ("Complete Truth") Sect and the Tomb of the Living Dead come about due to the extremely repressed romance between their founders. Passionless Valley even has a poison that kills you when you think of the one you love.

Some of the plots do seem overwrought and melodramatic to the modern eye, and for a genre that is often sold on its fights, there is a lot more going on (and early tv adaptions certainly did not have the budget for hugely elaborate fights). Questions of the rejection of society (and societal judgement), the price of honour and patriotism come up. And, of course, as the frequently quoted poem asks: "What is love?" (Which makes it really very good inspiration for anyone seeking to run an Exalted game.)

The outfit is based predominately on the outfits worn by Liu Yifei in the 2006 version. It consists of three layers: a white sleeveless inner dress, a short lacy cross-collar top with long sleeves ending in lace cuffs and a large white robe. There is also a wide lace sash that is then secured with a white cord. Both this and Xiao Long Nu's costumes in the 2006 serial are quite interesting in how its very much it is a fusion of modern materials and ancient styles. Lace of the sort used for her cuffs, for example, was certainly not known in the Song dynasty. One of her variant outfits also features white cloth "petals" over her breast and some lovely white-on-white embroidery on her over robe.

Though we didn't make this costume (see here for the full story behind the shoot), it is possible to commission something like it (or something closer to any of the original Xiao Longnu robes from the various serials) from the Costume Mercenary. Email us for more details. Also, Character Kit sells an excellently weighted 38" larp-safe Chinese Jian (£50).

More photos of me pretending to be Xiao Long Nu under the cut.

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* For those who have seen Kung Fu Hustle, Xiao Long Nu is revealed to be the name of the formidable Landlady (and Yang Guo, her husband). They appear in the subtitles as "Helen of Troy" and "Paris", which isn't quite the same.

My uncle's response to seeing these photos was an exclaimed "冷如霜" (literally, "cold as frost", a paraphrased quote from the novels).

Needless to say, cosplaying her is really rather vain.

Preview: Borrowed Wuxia Costumes in the Studio

This was more or less an exercise in vanity and cosplay. I had the opportunity to dress up as Xiaolongnü, elegant, indifferent and hard-as-nails heroine of Jin Yong's Return of the Condor. I also got to play around with most of their costume rack (which included many other fascinating costumes not appearing in these photos).

There isn't a terribly big market for wuxia, much as I've been using many of the elements in designing elven costumes. It's just not a genre that necessarily translates to live roleplay very well, though the Designer and I do have some notes and plans (nothing concrete). That all said, I did enjoy playing around with giant sleeves and flowing robes. We should have more of that, just generally.

What was rather amazing about the experience was watching the stylist do my hair: it's not a wig. She swiftly and efficiently built the whole coiffure out of my hair, additional braids, other extensions and, of course, various hair ornaments.

Due to these being studio photos done by a professional photographer, they have been tinkered with, that isn't actually a bamboo forest (unlike with the scholar and red robes shoots at the Durham Botanical Gardens, which is odd to think I was actually in China this time) and there is an utterly excessive amount of make-up on me. 

I suspect I'll write more on the actual characters being portrayed in the individual posts, though I can't say I'm not a little embarrassed at comparing myself to characters famous for if not defined by their beauty (the photo on the right being an impression of Yang Guifei). But as said, this is largely an exercise in vanity, and if we ever do end up running that wuxia live roleplay system, I suppose we've got some publicity shots on file.

Also, if you're seized by a sudden desire to own a larp-safe Chinese Jian, Character Kit offer an excellently weighted 38" one for £50.

Commission: Steampunk Magistrate

The steampunk magistrate consists of a real silk surcoat (or chao pao, 朝袍, literally "dynasty robe") and a hand-embroidered rank badge (also known as a "mandarin square"). The surcoat is fully lined, edged in a slightly lighter shade of green and has engraved jade buttons and side pockets hidden in the seams. The mandarin necklace Jha has made herself.  


The outfit was designed for Jha's steampunk persona, a Qing Dynasty colonial magistrate hot on the heels of opium smugglers. She was hoping to introduce education about the Opium Wars to steampunk events and was planning her character around it.

More photos and discussion of the steampunk magistrate outfit under the cut.

Commission: Black Linen Cassock

This cassock is made of black linen. It's unlined and is fastened with a row of gunmetal grey buttons down the front that give the cassock a mild steampunk edge. It has three deep pleats at the back, plain cuffs, piping and a standing collar.

It was commissioned by Femina Necans, who is modelling the garment herself in the photos. The Designer and I were unable to convince her that she wanted the cassock to be edge in purple or red (like the high ranking catholic cassocks). There was some debate as to where we should move the front pleats so as the garment interfaced with breasts, but overall it can't be said to be the most exciting of commissions. Also seen in the photos is the silver-lined Necromancer Cloak, with gunmetal grey rose buttons (like those on the Red Rose Coat, but larger).

With the cathedral in the background, we did joke that we were taking photos for some form of female priests campaign or the Miss November of a priestly fund-raising calendar.

We toyed with giving the whole set a more vampire-hunter feel with more props and taking some by the weather-worn tombstones in front of the cathedral, but in the end, none of those came out particularly well. Still with the cassock worn open and armed with the gun (from Evenlode Studio) and the Tallows dagger, I fancied this brought to mind Solomon Kane (except more Catholic).

There isn't more more to say of the cassock, save if you would want one like it, it would cost in the region of £50-55.

More photos of the black linen cassock under the cut.

Preview: The Cloth and Dagger

We were down by Durham's cathedral and castle with Femina Necans, who very nicely agreed to appear in her commissioned cassock and various other bits and pieces.

Perhaps the primary frustration with using beautifully imposing buildings like the cathedral and the castle in such photoshoots is that many of their interesting features aren't near human height. We're only just beginning to learn the various tricks of manoeuvring the model into an interesting pose and have an interesting bit of masonry conveniently in the background. I must thank Femina Necans here for her ongoing patience with shuffling in front of the buildings concerned. 

The beautiful horse-hilted dagger seen in the photographs is a Tallows. And the replica cap-firing firearm is from Evenlode Studio.

As usual, I should be posting the photos up in the next week or so as I sift through them. The lengthening nights and early dusks are making the business of taking good photos of people in clothes rather more difficult. The dreary cloud-shrouded day was largely It was two thirty in the afternoon when we took these and the golden rays of the setting sun were already happily bleaching the colour from the shots.

Oriental Costume Concept Sketches and Inspirations

Zhang Renyuan's

Back Home in Dream:
 Bedroom of Girl

I was in Beijing and feeling the urge to sketch something topical (and not mope about the fact that I wasn't not at Odyssey), I embarked upon a Quest for a book on Chinese historical costume. Several book stores (including one that was eight solid floors of books) later, I ended up buying several fairly cheap artbooks full of portraits (and postcards of old photographs). There seems to be a trend in modern Chinese art to paint women in historical (or pseudo-historical) clothing looking soulfully into the distance. It's really rather prevalent and whilst the artistry is certainly exquisite in many of them, I do wonder what it says about us.

One way or another, I had my designing binge and here are some of the results. My watercolours didn't seem to be cooperating and the colours seem to be coming out more luminous than I intend them to.

Somewhere along the line I started wondering if all oriental steampunk costume has to be Victoriental in some way. The Buckle Cheongsam certainly wan't, but it really does go back to the fact that trying to communicate the technology level of your world setting in clothes is a problematic conceit. The shorthand for steampunk is well established and the ease of incorporating Victorian elements to create oriental steampunk is, in part, because one's tapping into those recognisable visual cues. When it comes to oriental steampunk, one almost has to establish one's own lexicon.

But those are design notes for another day's concept art. Today we're in the realms of knot buttons, long elegant robes and inadequate representations of brocade (one day, I'll work out how to approximate it well with watercolours). I'm spanning quite a few centuries with these designs and amalgamating quite a few ideas into a jumble of oriental-esque imagery. I vaguely had that wuxia thread in mind but much of this does deviate somewhat from "standard" wuxia fare (if there is such a thing).

Only women in this post, partly due to the overwhelming number of women in the research material (see above), but more sketches to follow. I may have to resort to looking at costuming from tv serials and those blurry photos I took from the Hong Kong culture museum.

More sketches under the cut.

Water Palace and other Places: Oriental Steampunk Inspiration

the incomplete and really rather steampunk Hall of Water

The Hall of Water was started in 1909 and was never finished. It's hidden in the less visited wings of the Forbidden City in Beijing and it's utterly gorgeous. The original intention was to have glass panes put it (hence it's other name of "Crystal Palace") and it reminded me greatly of Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace, which is probably the most steampunk building to have every actually existed.

The Costume Mercenary is back from her stay in Beijing (long story, involves helping a lady with her Tofel) and much as I don't want to turn this into My Week in Beijing, I did come back with something of a high in terms of oriental steampunk inspiration (mostly jade cogs and geomantically-powered machinery). Perhaps it's the stepping into what appears to be a world that compulsively and ornately decorates and regulates everything.

I loved the attitudes and the splendour of the China's ancien regime and whilst I'll add that I am wary of overly romanticisming it, I don't see it as any more of a problem as the one general steampunk has with its periods of inspiration.

I learnt several things about ancient China, and the rule of thumb I keep coming back to is: however big you think it is, it's probably bigger. I was wandering out of the Palace Museum's front gate (the heart of the Imperial City, what was the Forbidden City, that is now a museum), handing in my audio guide and twenty minutes later I finally arrive at where the original gate of the Imperial City would actually have been (see map).

some of the consequent
costume sketches

As seemingly no post is complete without the Costume Mercenary in silly clothes, here's a photo of me in borrowed garb Summer Palace's Suzhou Market Street, some three hundred meters of shops and alleys (mimicking that of Suzhou city - hence the name). It's no longer populated by merchants and pedestrians imported from Suzhou, but it's still rather remarkable. It was apparently recreated in half a year for the Emperor Qianlong's homesick (ex-nun) concubine. This isn't the only recreation and there seemed to be this desire (and ability) to recreate beautiful landscapes and areas in not-very-small-at-all miniature in the palace (not unlike Marie Antoinette's Hamlet).

So, just quickly, under the cut, an illustrated steampunk ramble from Beijing. The costume sketches will probably be in another post.

Red and Black Chiton

The Red and Black Chiton was, unsurprisingly, designed with the live roleplay system Odyssey. Whilst the Costume Mercenary has been daydreaming much more ambitious costumes in the costume sketches, this particularly giant robe is quite modest in design.

The chiton is just a giant rectangle of a robe belted in. It is made of black and red linen, with many metal buttons.

The prototype has been sold. If you would like to commission one like it, it would cost £40-45. And that's the Chinese Jian again in the Proprietor's hands.

More photos of the red and black chiton under the cut.

In Other News: Blue Peter visited Peckforton Castle Treasure Trap (direct ancestor to our local DUTT) in 1983 and you can watch what happened in what is quite possibly the best YouTube video known to man.

Egyptian Robe without Sash

Also known as a Kalsiris, this Egyptian Robe is made from a white lightly-woven linen. It is of very basic construction, can be worn with a sash or without. It has been described as very comfortable by the Proprietor but he also faults it for giving the wearer an odd funerary feeling of being prepared for immanent burial.

Despite the seeming photoshop effect, the strange cast to the photo on the left is caused by an inadvertent fumble on the part of the Designer (here acting as photographer) and not allowing the camera to compensate for the sudden shift in light conditions. The Designer also thought it an excellent idea to pose by the nearby River Wear, hoping to evoke the famous Nile.

The Egyptian Robe is available from Character Kit at £25.

The Proprietor is seen wielding his new Chinese Jian (£50) in the photos and the Mercenary is seen sporting a lapis lazuli necklace and beaded sandals (there is a surfeit of Odyssey-worthy sandals this fashion season). Large amounts of kohl eye liner was also applied.

More photos of the kalsiris under the cut.

Preview: Cathedrals, Gambesons and Robes

Many things were accomplished today as Laced Gambesons of many colours were photographed on the Proprietor as were the results of my dabbling in Odyssey costumes (available soon from Character Kit).

(The photo to the left of the Proprietor in a red and black linen robe is captioned: Watching the Sunset with Beloved Column.)


Various mildly amusing incidents of note include: eating lunch to the eerie, ethereal choir of the Treasures of St Cutherbert exhibit at the Cathedral; the Proprietor feeling far too naked in the blue chiton; learning that Egyptians had to do their moving for them; far too much pillar-hugging; and, a priest materialising in a black robe the moment we started doing shots of a similar (but less ornate) black robe.

The two main locations we used today was the Durham Light Infantry Memorial Garden and the riverside Greek temple known as "Count's House." It was an ornamental folly built for Józef Boruwłaski, the Little Count, a Polish midget violinist in the eighteenth century.

(The photo to the right is captioned: Angry Woman in Gambeson About to Launch into a Highland Charge at Camera.)

Elsewhere in the land of anecdotes, I was playing "stick-monkey" to the Pillywiggin's archaeological survey of Durham Cathedral's Deanery (not pictured) in between lacing the Proprietor into arming jacks, standing in front neo-classical columns and wandering around the cathedral itself. My task mostly just to stand with a stick (read: prism) and to keep it level as the Archaeologist zapped it with the magic-survey-box-thing-named-Elliot (after T. S., "Total Station"). We ran out of synonyms for "ready?" and "level" quite quickly.

Also, the Laced Gambesons are now available from Character Kit in six colours (Black, Brown, Camouflage green, Dark Blue, Dark Purple and Thistle-grey) and two sizes (M, L).

The Rustic Idyll

This was the original outfit before it went all Victoriental in the Ricepunk Traveller. It's fairly basic and is frequently seen in the sort of rural drama that plays on the rustic idyll that periodically airs in Hong Kong. I have rather distinct memories of the melodramatic Plain Love (following the struggles of an indentured servant and a tenant farmer in China at the cusp of World War Two).

The model is wearing beige linen Ru (襦) and black linen Ku (褲) with a wide black linen sash. She's also wearing an iconic rice hat.

I did it the designs mostly from memory (as I thought 1995 is rather too distant a past to scour the internet for, though it turns out that it is available on youtube if I can bear to watch it dubbed in Mandarin). An apron and a headscarf would probably be more evocative as accessories go, but part of my doubts that the readers of this blog would have been in any way exposed the costuming in what was probably a very forgettable TVB series (they did then make a number of spiritual sequels about the various rural workings of a tea plantation and later a rice winery.)

As an aside, the Designer points out that the white blossoms seen in the background of the shots is elderflower. Insert joke here about elderflower wine.

To commission a similar outfit from the Mercenary would cost in the region of £80-90.

More photos of the Rustic Idyll under the cut.

Odyssey Concept Sketches: Persia II

More sketches from the fantastical classical world of Odyssey. We seem to be covering Persia again, which is perhaps unsurprising given our shared affinity to purple and silly hats.

When watching the excessively long Alexander Revisits: The Final Unrated Cut with the Designer, I became rather taken with the dancing outfit Roxana (or to give her her Persian name, Rauxnaka, "little star") wore. It was beautifully swishy, but due to the nature of the scene, she was rarely still in it and only after taking some screencaptures and squinting at them excessively was I able to draw the purple version of it seen to the left. It's a little strange since the garment is drawn in motion and the figure seems stationary, but I think the concept of the dancing coat is conveyed.

The giant winged amulet of the Persian priest to the right is rather excessive, but it seemed, like many things, a good idea at the time. He is wearing a short tunic and the "trademark voluminous trousers" of Persia.

The metallic gold and silver details haven't come out quite right in the scans (incidentally, Pilot's Gold Marker is superior to Bic's Metallic Gel pens, though if one must use a metallic gel pen, Hybrid's flows better and has a slightly better sheen.)

Looking back, we've covered Egypt, Carthage, Greece and Persia (again). It does seem Rome is getting insufficient love, so I may well be attempting to scribble in that direction shortly.

For other Odyssey costuming inspiration: Silver Screen Modiste has a lovely collection of concept sketches from films about classical Rome and Egypt. and Clothes on Film have several articles on the costumes in the recent Prince of Persia film.

Ricepunk Traveller: Ru, Ku, Waistcoat

I'm hesitating again at the word Victoriental, because I really dislike the sound of it, but its specificity does apply in this case. The character in these shots does come across to me as an oriental traveller wandering through a Victorian steampunk world.

Instead of one garment that contains both Victorian and Chinese design elements (unlike the Buckle Cheongsam), we merely had me wear garments from both cultures in one outfit. It's not exactly the most sophisticated, original or ambitious method, but at this point we were mostly just playing around with ideas.

The model is wearing beige linen Ru (襦) and black linen Ku (褲) under a high-waisted Regency-inspired waistcoat. The waistcoat has brass compass buttons and is made from black suede. It is trimmed with black silk velvet. The model is also wearing the beer goggles and a rice hat (it has other names, but this being ricepunk, how could I really use any other?) She also has a pocketwatch in her waistcoat pocket, the silver chain of which is visible.

The Designer is remarkably proud of his ability to coax me into looking wistfully into the distance. I believe he was hoping the scratched on graffiti of the door would look a little like esoteric runes at a cursory glance, but I'm not sure it entirely works. The scroll, unsurprisingly, is the same takeaway calendar as the one seen with the Wuxia Scholar. I like to imagine that it's a map or directions the character is following. She comes across as a little uncertain about her location, but by no means overwhelmed by her circumstances.

To commission a similar outfit from the Mercenary would cost in the region of £80-90.

More photos under the cut.