We encourage our community members to use garb and deco befitting the late 1800s up until 1899. We urge community members not to bring steampunk-style garb and deco to game. Civil War iconography is strictly forbidden, as are clothing or accessories that would be considered to be culturally appropriative in real life (examples of this would be if a white player wore traditional Native garb, specific headdresses, geisha garb and makeup, etc.). Cultural appropriation has no place in our game. Anyone who wishes to explore their own cultural roots, of course, is welcome to. Most importantly, our game is meant to be a welcoming place for all players.
What someone wears can signify a lot about them: type of livelihood, community of origin, social class, and even religious affiliation. Elan is a nation of diverse pursuits and backgrounds, but one unifying factor is an appreciation of aesthetics. Many of the population take pride in how they present themselves, even if it’s little more than the drape of a skirt or a fine feather tucked in a hatband. “The first impression,” as the seamsters and cutters of Jillert School say, “is made with the eyes, not the ears.” As you develop the garb for your character, keep in mind their background - origin, occupation, and even personal experiences that might influence the way they dress. This article is meant to inspire, and we’re eager to see the individual touches you put into your garments to help tell your story.
Elanite dress can most easily be separated between rural and urban populations or wealthy and poor.
Rural Elanites dress for a hardier, earthier lifestyle. Clothing is utilitarian and often worn until it falls to pieces, sometimes by numerous people within a family. Most of it is not bought in stores, but made at home using whatever materials are most handy. Additionally, clothing is layered for all kinds of weather.
Urban Elanites often wear clothes sold in shops. Separate outfits for work and leisure are common, as are pieces made for a variety of weather conditions. Elanites in the city also enjoy more baubles, accessories, or fashionable touches to their clothing, even if they are laborers.
The poorest often dress in whatever they can find and carry only what they need. Often their clothes are given to them by well-meaning neighbors or charities, but sometimes their clothing consists only of things that they happen upon by chance in a rubbish bin or an alley. With a needle and thread, rags can become clothing suitable enough for keeping the cold off their skin.
With wealth comes the greater option for fashion and greater wardrobes. Fine patterns, bright colors, and rare materials are often sought after, and fantastical pieces like coats, scarves, and hats are used as status symbols to stand out from neighbors. However, among rural folk, the flashy dress of city-dwellers can mark someone as being aloof and out of touch.
In all, the average Elanite sticks to a few basics. Commonly-worn items are made of cotton, flannel, wool, canvas, or corduroy. Linen and silk are expensive and rare, but also of use if one can obtain them. Pieces of considerable use are: trousers (often worn high on the waist, usually textured, and sometimes even patterned with a stripe or check), buttoned shirts (often in harder and thicker fabrics, and sometimes worn collarless), waistcoats (sometimes patterned or made of more durable fabric), skirts (made without the boning for the poorer Elanites), and light jackets and heavy overshirts (worn to keep wind and weather off the body). In the months where inclement weather or cold temperatures are the norm, many Elanites wear long underwear or insulating leggings under pants and skirts. Large wool, leather, or waxed cotton coats are worn atop the outfit to keep body heat in. Due to the fact that many rural Elanites have made a practice of passing garments down from person to person, garments are frequently patched and repaired many times, with actual discarding being fairly rare - some families even keep “generation coats” with each wearer having signed their name on the lining over the ages.
The greatest accessory any Elanite can invest in are boots, be they laced, buttoned, buckled, or slip-on. For those who labor on their feet, a boot that can handle wear and tear is of the utmost importance. Hats are popular, especially among outdoor workers, who use the wide, flat brim to block sunburn or rain. A jaunty kerchief or bandana worn around the crown of the hat or around the neck can serve as a handy tool for nearly everything - very few Elanites go without one somewhere on their person. The practice of handing down has also made button braces or suspenders more popular than belts on trousers, considering that their adjustability makes actual waist measurement far less important between different wearers.
Looking like a settler heading west is the latest obsession. Dressing in deep greens, dark reds, blacks, browns - all earth tones are sought after. Among the wealthy, contrast-collar shirts are popular. Rather than using flashy or shiny fabrics, dull and lusterless materials are more popular. Large statement jewelry pieces have been surpassed in popularity by small baubles such as enamel pins, broaches, necklaces, earrings, tie pins, bracelets, and cufflinks. New from the Jillert School of Fashion is the pronoun pin, usually made of wood or metal and displaying the wearer’s pronouns.
To prepare for a hard life in a new territory lacking the luxuries of modern towns, most people will dress simply and avoid constrictive, complicated, or overly showy clothing. Hargrove is a growing settlement, not yet an established center of commerce and community. However, some people are more likely to wear what is fashionable despite the necessities of frontier life.