A Review of Modern Fashion in Ivial

[Avedri]

I as a player was having a hard time with the outline of Ivial fashion, so I do what I do in these situations and find lore reasons for it to make sense! This isn't expected to be cannon, merely one character's recounting of her homeland.


A Review of Modern Fashion in Ivial

By Octavia Theime

In my travels, I have often heard from people that they are confused by the limited palette of colors embraced by the Viali. For us, it is a matter of national pride and fealty yet there was a time where fashion in Ivial was very different from what it is today. Once you could see a collective rainbow of colors present on Citisday when every hamlet, village and town --all the way to the capitol would gather in the morning for market, showing off their brightest and most unique garments. That was a glorious time that existed before the civil war and before the exile.

Many accounts left from that time say that the worst part about the exile was the aftermath. When someone had discord with another they would accuse them of allying with Rhun; a man who had an unpaid debt to a merchant, a wife who had been unfaithful, the heir separating another from a fortune or even the lone apothecary who was unable to heal a sick child. It was a very dark time for our people and the pain and shame of it haunts our history.

It is from this time that there came a renewed sense of home and loyalty. People started putting away their jewel-tones and bright hues and adopting fashions that embraced the colors of our banners. In some cases this was a form of self-preservation, those who may have been charged would seem less guilty if they were swathed in the colors of our nation. This tradition has continued until present day though greater detail of fashion is often broken down into caste.

Single-shoulder tabards are hugely in fashion for both male and female nobility. The tabard is typically one solid hue and the bordered in a variety of ways with a personal or family insignia. For example, a scholar who specializes in the documentation of animal species might have applique pages with mossy outlines of forest wildlife. Whereas a duchess with limited professional interests may just have elegant scrollwork dotted with small sigils of her family’s banner.

Over the tabards both genders often wear some kind of chain or girdle, men tend to wear theirs lowers about the hips and ladies tend to prefer a band encircling just below the chest. Though wearing a decorative belt at just the waist is respectable for either. Under the tabard, males in formal settings have adopted to wearing short-sleeved leather or suede jerkins adorned at the shoulders. Depending on the weather, a linen or cotton leine is worn next to the body with any length of sleeves.

It would not be unusual to see a female donning such attire but for formal and state events most females generally wear close fitting cotehardies or bliauts under their tabards. Unmarried girls who choose not to wear tabards have adopted neck-gloves as a way to express themselves. Neck-gloves are really nothing more than a detached collar that fits just below the chin-line and can extend all the way to the decolletage. Neck-gloves are typically adorned with keyhole cutouts in a variety of shapes just at the hollow of the throat or open-laced down the front with spun silver or electrum.

The artisan class, being heavily regulated for quality by their parent guilds, is typically seen wearing a tradesman vest. While the garment itself is little more than an unspecific fabric it is always adorned with an emblem from their guild representing what they are skilled at and their proficiency. Amongst average citizens attire tends to be plainer and more utilitarian by necessity, but one thing that most Ivial citizens adhere to is rarely wearing boots that rise above their calves. As part of a rare but extremely popular satire brochure, a hypocritical knight templar was depicted as having nearly hip-high boots and the general populace saw the farce as an example of the frivolity present at times within the upper classes. Since then it has been rare to see many common Viali wearing boots or shoes that come higher than the calf.

This document is absent of any analysis from those serving in the Church of Light as the breakdown and review of their fashion would have to delve into practices and additional hierarchies.

[Hadya]

This is awesome! <3