Imperial Fashions

[AnthonyHJ]

I do a little cosplay and studied costume design in my youth, so fictional fashions interest me. Looking at Elite Dangerous, I got thinking about Imperial fashions, but found very little information. We have three examples of women's clothing in the forms of Aisling, Arisa and Zemina's artwork. That gives some idea of the range and Arisa's partly confirms Patreus' high collar as an Imperial fashion, at least in military-style clothing, but most of the artwork (quite rightly) focuses on the ships and flight-suits. The sum-total of my research on Imperial fashions (other than a few examples of fan-art) for men would be the pictures of Denton Patreus and the following quote:

Imperial design puts an emphasis on the glamorous, glorious, and aesthetically beautiful, with extravagance in abundance. Everything in the Empire looks impressive, from their cities, to their ships, right down to the clothes worn by Imperial subjects.

Does anyone know of any other examples I am missing?

 

[CMDR Morkar]

I think pretty much traditional like in the imperial age of our earth mixed up with some high society glamour from today. I remember there was short story from an imperial recruit in Frontier where he was wearing a military saber with his military full dress. I guess that a saber isn't that much common anymore on uniforms elsewhere in the year 3000.

 

[AnthonyHJ]

Imperial Age? Alexander had an empire in the 4th century BC and the British Empire technically persisted into the 20th century.

The four example of Imperial fashion I can see have Renaissance influences (Zemina's collar, the possible peplum of Patreus' jerkin-style waistcoat) mixed with military influences (Arisa and Patreus' collars especially) and Aisling's outfit is basically an Imperial Courier / Clipper as a dress. Too few examples to derive overall fashions and trends, but I suppose you work with what you have. Personally, the closest examples I can imagine would be the fashions from Deus Ex: Human Revolution with a less polygonal aesthetic.

 

[Vasious]

I would wager a guess at the impression being, Yesterdays Military Dress influences todays Formal Dress.
I am not at home to check, but I think the novels refer to outlandish uniforms, that I picture as the style seen on Napoleanic era Hussars, and Cuiassurs

As you say four people is hard to get a trend from, and for all we know, what we see Patreus, Aisling, Arrisa and Torval wearing might already be out of fashion, as you get the impression each "season" would bring some new outlandiship trend and how much do the powers actually set the trends.

The only other reference to fashion I can find in galnet is April's
"Aisling looked stunning in a lace red dress with matching accessories. Senator Patreus was his usual dashing self, although he had chosen to go for a more casual unbuttoned look for his dinner date with the people’s princess."
And May's
"The People’s Princess made an appearance in Cemiess late last night to attend the opening of Emerald’s newest art installation, ‘Prism’s Shades’, a multi-sensory experience that uses experimental light and sound projection technology to stimulate a series of empathic responses from its audience.

Aisling dazzled crowds by dressing in a long-sleeved ruby red evening gown, adorned with painite sparkles. She accessorised with an equally stunning tinted visor, fashionably stamped with Aisling’s personal crest"

So perhaps even her move from Red to White was going to set a new trend

 

[Vasious]

with Achenar 6 orbiting in 77.9 years, then that could be a "Long Year", and useful for measuring some things - maybe people get a telegram from the Emperor on reaching 2 Long Years in age or something, as that's quite an age.

Capitol orbiting in 830 days, could be useful, in terms of fashion seasons and so on, if somethings in or out. Maybe if it's summer on Capitol, everyone in the Empire is expected to dress in summer styles, regardless of what the weather is on their own world at the time.

from the Imperial Calendar Thread

 

[Louella]

from the Imperial Calendar Thread

I actually had a thought earlier today, about this. Like, with 830 days on Capitol, then, there could be something like every 200 days, there's a fashion show on Capitol, three of them lasting 5 days, and the "End of Fashion Year" show lasting 15. (to use up the odd 30 days).

People from all over the Empire would want to see the shows, to get designs to take back to their home worlds, and so on.

On worlds distant from Achenar, the local fashion magazines might pay quite a bit for the latest news, even if it is only a few hours ahead of their competitors.

 

[aspiringexpatriate]

It might also help to check out the images of the NPCs when you're docked. There's more variety but you can feel a common theme throughout the overseers, clients, patrons, and governors.