What do your characters wear? Do they have quite the fashion sense or are they more relaxed in their choice of attire?
It may be easy for you if your character has a similar choice in clothes as you. If you have a heightened fashion sense and your character does too, or vice versa. A persons choice of clothing can be determined by so many things, so as a character that you are trying to describe, here is a list of ways to determine what clothes they might wear.
- By their career…
- What kind of job do they have?
- Do they have a uniform?
- Or do they buy clothes specially for their job?
- When they get home do they rush to change into something much more comfortable? Like pajama pants and a tshirt.
2. By their Social Life…
- Do they hang out with friends a lot?
- When or if they do what kind of environment is it in? Do they go to clubs, bars? Or is it Fancier restaurants, museum openings and galleries?
- Are they in a committed relationship? Does that effect how they dress?
- Do they go on a lot of dates?
- Or is it family they hang out with the most?
- If they’re married and have kids they may dress different than a single young person dating and going to clubs all of the time.
3. Personality wise…
- Their upbringing can effect what they wear. Like if their parents were strict maybe they either dress conservative or they dress more revealing because of how strict it was when they were growing up and now they have that freedom.
- Or they just enjoy a certain color, a certain look, Pattern, or perhaps they found a shirt they love so they bought like ten of them.
- Do they love to shop/follow the latest celebrity styles?
- Or do they dress as to not follow the latest trends because they like to be different.
- If they have a bubbly personality they may like brighter colors. Or if they have a darker more depressed outlook on life then black may be their go to. Not that everyone who wears black does (one of my favorite clothing colors is black)…it could just be a determining factor based on personality.
4. Their mood…
- A bad mood may entail a certain clothing choice to go with it.
- A great mood may be time for their lucky shirt or something.
- Woman on their periods have certain clothes they would rather wear during said time of the month. (More comfortable sometimes looser fitting clothes). Even men may have a days that they feel like its a more comfortable kind of day.
- If they’re feeling flirtatious, they may go for a sexier look.
5. Finally, this is a big one, their budget/availability/circumstances…
- If they have a high end name brand style, then it may not work on a smaller budget.
- Do they live an hour from the closest mall? Or five minutes?
- Do they shop at second hand stores on account of a lower budget?
- How realistic are you trying to make it? Meaning, mostly we tend to write a novel where they main characters have a decent enough job to have money for the lifestyle they need but we don’t always take clothing into account.
- I’ve even read stories where characters have made their own clothes for whatever situation they may be in. Mostly a survival story or end of civilization type story, or even just based in another time period.
6. Leading to my next point….the time period.
- Obviously that can greatly effect the attire that your characters wear.
- So be mindful of what time period they’re in, as to how they would dress based also on what society deemed appropriate in that time period. Not meaning that your character necessarily needs to dress as society tells them to but if they are rebellious and go beyond the norm, make it a point to point that out. (I would have totally rocked some trousers instead of a skirt back in the day, whether society deemed it appropriate or not lol. I love reading stories that reflect a rebellious side to the way characters dress.)
It is important to include some lifestyle aspects into the world you are creating. Readers love details, especially ones that tell a bit more about the personality of your characters. Clothing is one of those fun details that you can play around with and figure out what works best for both the story and your characters. They don’t have to dress the same as you. Do some research and have fun with it. Go outside the box and be bold with who they are.
In my current work in progress I have several different clothing styles. My main character is even different from me. She wears outfits that I wouldn’t necessarily wear and is more fashion inclined than I am. The reason I made her that way is because I took the six points I made earlier in this post into account, and determined that that’s who she is. Trust me, it’s taken a little research into outfits, colors, and styles to describe it but It’s worth it in the end to make my characters all unique in their own ways.
When you are struggling to come up with ways to provide detail and personality traits of your characters in your stories, think about including clothing. It really makes a difference and it is so easy to do once you make a mental list or a physical one if it helps you more to have a visual outlook, like I stated above. Those keys points help me not only come up with their individual styles but also do it in a way that tells something about those characters at the same time.
Thank you for reading my blog…Until Next Time…JUST KEEP WRITING.
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