Swag

[Gryphos]

For someone reason I've found that in my world there is an abnormal amount of swag. By that I mean so many characters have style when it comes to their clothing.

For example, there's a dude who shows up for literally one scene whose entire outfit 'seemed to have been inspired by a chessboard, or a zebra, or a badger, or– you get the idea'. He wears a white bowler hat and a white waistcoat over a black shirt, as well as white trousers and black shoes. he also has a black handkerchief sticking out of his waistcoat's breast pocket and tattooed serpents coiling up his forearms. That's a f*cking aesthetic, that dude clearly put effort into his outfit.

Then there's another dude who has a three-piece suit with golden dragon patterns embroidered all along the hem and lapel of the jacket, and of course an elegant top hat.

Then there's a dude who wears a white shirt, gold waistcoat, gold jacket and gold trousers. Even his pocket watch chain is gold, and he sticks a dandelion in his lapel.

And what about the woman with the sleek and form-hugging purple dress (rather unusual for this 19th century inspired setting), along with a black half cloak and hood. Her face is completely covered in tattooed black and white spirals.

You get the idea. I don't know why, but I can't help but give my characters really distinctive looks, even the minor characters like the aforementioned badger-bloke. There's even a bit where the main character is reading about a vampire who used to dye his beard blue and decorate his hat with a daisy chain. My world is just filled with swaggy people.

Does anyone else have this habit of infusing inordinate amounts of swag into their characters? What kind of swag do your people have? I personally think that something as simple as giving your character a distinctive look, creating a striking mental image in the reader's mind, can only benefit the memorability of those characters.

 

[Tom]

I would love to read about your characters! That sort of swag is a gift.

Not sure if my characters possess swag. I myself am a distinctly non-swaggy person, throwing my outfits together in the morning based mostly upon the temperature outside and what's clean. My usual outfit is a graphic t-shirt with jeans and maybe a hoodie or plaid button-down.

A few of my steampunk and modern characters have swag--I'm thinking of my steampunk skyship captain, who can rock a full-length green and gold dress while wearing a tricorn hat and wielding a saber. One of the hunters in Frostbite, my vampire story, is described as "looking like Audrey Hepburn--if Audrey Hepburn were a hipster". She includes decopunk elements in her outfits, occasionally.

As for my fantasy characters, I'd say a few of them are pretty stylish. The antagonist in Southerner possesses a certain degree of swag, I guess. He wears clothes in rich colors like cobalt blue and blood red, that are cut to accentuate his tall, lean build. He also has this sweet midnight-blue short cloak embroidered in gold.

 

[Russ]

Actually I think I could learn from both of you gentlemen, I was working on my manuscript recently and thinking "I really don't describe the clothes enough..."

 

[Caged Maiden]

You know...for someone who glorifies historical clothing as I do, I tend to not detail it too much in my work. That being said, I enjoy detailing clothing in certain ways. One character wears a ratty apron that becomes a point of contention with her husband who really likes the innocence the garment conveys. This is the same woman who wears dresses with "threadbare elbows and a tatty hem". IN another scene, she's gifted with three magnificent gowns which she thinks are coming from her mother-in-law, but in fact they were purchased by her husband who "didn't want to see her alter her late mother's dress to fit the current fashions".

Clothing has its place in my stories, but I try to keep it really relevant or else I'll just go off on a tangent about clothing. If you've ever seen my photos on my profile page here, you'll get the idea of how obsessed with clothing I really am!

 

[Gryphos]

Actually I think I could learn from both of you gentlemen, I was working on my manuscript recently and thinking "I really don't describe the clothes enough..."

The way I see it, when someone enters the room, probably the first thing you're going to notice about them is what they're wearing, especially if it's something really swagalicious.

Think about how much more characterful you can make someone like a villain if you give them swag. Compare an evil warlord who you only describe as wearing 'a suit of plate armour' and an evil warlord whose armour was silver but for a crimson breastplate, and the scarlet griffin feathers which protruded from her pauldrons, whose helmet was adorned with the vicious idol of a savage platypus and ... damn, I kinda wanna write about this evil warlord now.

Style is important, both in real life and in fiction (he says, pretending he's some kind of expert in style).

 

[Tom]

Exactly, Gryphos! What a character wears should tell a story all its own.

Says the person going to school for concept art...who usually slaps a tunic and trousers on fantasy characters and says "Eh, good enough".

Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to create more varied clothing for my medieval-ish fantasy. My favorite new inspiration is Eastern European clothing--it has an Asian/Middle Eastern element that makes a really distinctive look. I also stumbled upon character concept art for the game Ryse: Son of Rome and fell in love with the designs, especially those for the barbarian peoples. So hopefully now I can break out of the "tunic, trousers, and boots" formula.

 

[Gryphos]

Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to create more varied clothing for my medieval-ish fantasy. My favorite new inspiration is Eastern European clothing--it has an Asian/Middle Eastern element that makes a really distinctive look.

Oh hells yeah. I've been wanting to write a slavic-esque setting for a while partly just so I could use that clothing aesthetic.

 

[Snowpoint]

I was just thinking about uping the swag-facor in my WiP. Errybody was wearing rags... feel like pimping out their threads.

 

[evolution_rex]

The fact that you think a lot about what they're wearing shows you've got the characters down well in your head, and writing it out would show a lot of detail. I personally struggle with this, I have a hard time visualizing characters if they don't have something completely abnormal about them, let alone what clothes they wear.

 

[Gryphos]

Case and point, I wrote a scene with a dude who I originally had wearing a black frock coat. Then I was like 'WTF? This dude's swag levels aren't near high enough.' So I made wear a maroon, side-buttoned frock coat and a bright pink bow tie. Much better.

 

[ChasingSuns]

My current project takes place across a few different kingdoms, and involves a pretty large cast of characters, so depending on the character, I decide whether or not to give them swag. There's definitely some that are super swagged out, but not all of them. I love the sound of your characters btw! I'm interested to hear more about them already

 

[Gurkhal]

I'm terrible with swag as I am not interested in fashion at all, not one bit.

But I've got a question for those who are into this and can actually see what's a nice outfit and not. If you don't have an interest in swag/fashion/whatever would it be a mistake to try and describe something rather than just have it noted that one person is dressed well without going into details? I'm thinking that instead of making a fool out of myself with clashing colors etc. it would be better to just add that "this person was dressed well" but in a more elegant way?

 

[Tom]

It's probably best just to describe the clothes as "elegant", "tasteful", "fashionable", or whatever adjective fits the situation.

However, if you want to go into more detail (which would require actually describing the clothes!) I'd suggest looking at fashion. See if you can find examples of well-dressed fantasy characters whose clothes resemble those of the characters in your world, and describe those. The more you look, the better you'll be at describing fashionable clothes. If you have trouble telling which colors go together, find a color wheel or Google complimentary colors.

Hope that helped!

 

[Gryphos]

I'm terrible with swag as I am not interested in fashion at all, not one bit.

But I've got a question for those who are into this and can actually see what's a nice outfit and not. If you don't have an interest in swag/fashion/whatever would it be a mistake to try and describe something rather than just have it noted that one person is dressed well without going into details? I'm thinking that instead of making a fool out of myself with clashing colors etc. it would be better to just add that "this person was dressed well" but in a more elegant way?

Swag is whatever you make it, for all beauty is subjective. If you want to give a character swag, don't think about what Fashion with a capital F dictates looks good, but what you and your character thinks looks good. In that sense, swag can simply be defined as an extra piece of effort one puts into their appearance. It's the difference between throwing on any old T-shirt and selecting the shirt you think would look good.

It doesn't matter if a maroon, side-buttoned frock coat and bright pink bow tie actually looks good. All that matters is that the reader will have a much clearer image in their head when they read it, and so will remember that character better.

 

[Gurkhal]

It's probably best just to describe the clothes as "elegant", "tasteful", "fashionable", or whatever adjective fits the situation.

However, if you want to go into more detail (which would require actually describing the clothes!) I'd suggest looking at fashion. See if you can find examples of well-dressed fantasy characters whose clothes resemble those of the characters in your world, and describe those. The more you look, the better you'll be at describing fashionable clothes. If you have trouble telling which colors go together, find a color wheel or Google complimentary colors.

Hope that helped!

It helps, thanks for the suggestions!

Swag is whatever you make it, for all beauty is subjective. If you want to give a character swag, don't think about what Fashion with a capital F dictates looks good, but what you and your character thinks looks good. In that sense, swag can simply be defined as an extra piece of effort one puts into their appearance. It's the difference between throwing on any old T-shirt and selecting the shirt you think would look good.

It doesn't matter if a maroon, side-buttoned frock coat and bright pink bow tie actually looks good. All that matters is that the reader will have a much clearer image in their head when they read it, and so will remember that character better.

True, but I'm kind of feeling that readers who understands these things better will just sigh at me for trying to write about things I don't know. Just like someone makes great and detailed descriptions about nonsense warfare stuff, that would make those who know about it, shake their heads. Or tries to portray a Disney-version of chivalry as the real thing will make me lose a great deal of respect for the author.

 

[Gryphos]

True, but I'm kind of feeling that readers who understands these things better will just sigh at me for trying to write about things I don't know. Just like someone makes great and detailed descriptions about nonsense warfare stuff, that would make those who know about it, shake their heads. Or tries to portray a Disney-version of chivalry as the real thing will make me lose a great deal of respect for the author.

What I'm saying is there's nothing to know. Fashion isn't like warfare where there are loads of technical details and complexities and objectively better decisions. No, fashion is just putting effort into an outfit. All beauty is subjective.

 

[The Stranger]

swag is a good way to set up interesting characters. a person with a specifically styled wardrobe would have a reason for it, right? whenever i try to visualize my characters, i try to give them as much swag as i possibly can into them, its a nice way of reflecting the characters personality through appearance.

 

[Cambra]

Shiny lilac chainmail with gold/silver reflections...

Even Tolkien did swag, right? What is mythal but swag?

 

[Cambra]

I'm terrible with swag as I am not interested in fashion at all, not one bit.

But I've got a question for those who are into this and can actually see what's a nice outfit and not. If you don't have an interest in swag/fashion/whatever would it be a mistake to try and describe something rather than just have it noted that one person is dressed well without going into details? I'm thinking that instead of making a fool out of myself with clashing colors etc. it would be better to just add that "this person was dressed well" but in a more elegant way?

That's telling, not showing... Just saying.

 

[Gryphos]

So I got to a bit where a butler character is introduced. So of course I described her having a typical butler's outfit, tailcoat and all. But I knew that this was going to be such a special and important character that I knew she was going to need more distinctive swag. So I had her wear a cravat patterned with skulls and have a raven feather sticking out of her lapel.

Now I approve of her swag.