In my previous post, I had mentioned that the capital city of Selenite, the citizens typically wear fashion from the Victorian/Edwardian period, with the younger generation wearing modern day fashion, with some choosing to stick with tradition or adding their own flair to it. My second female character, Blythe, wore an Edwardian styled dress, but I have no idea how to describe it. Here's a picture if you guys want to see it.
If you were trying to post an online image you need to make sure the URL begins with HTTP:// and ends with .jpg, .gif, .png or some other common image file suffix. The problem I encounter sometimes is I accidentally try to use the video icon instead of the image one, or the URL isn't formatted like I said above.
I should've been clear with you guys when I had uploaded an Edwardian dress on my last post that I had got it from my Pinterest app and it had said copied the link, and I instantly forgot the proper way to put it in. Anyway, in a previous post, I had mentioned that the kingdom of Azurite's fashion is inspired by the Victorian/Edwardian period with the younger generation wearing 90's and 2010's fashion, while some decided to stick to tradition. My second female character, Blythe, chooses to stick to tradition and wears a dress from the Edwardian period, but I'm having a hard time describing it so, here's a picture if you guys want to see it. Also, she's holding an umbrella when she's about to board a ship to Nyika (an African-inspired world) with her brother, Emelyn, and their father.
You can edit your first comment if you want. It's really a gorgeous dress. Let's see what I can say about it.... - it's probably a day dress, not an evening dress, as we can tell by the high neckline - it has a little standing collar - its sleeves are puffed around the shoulders but fitted along the arms - it might be made from wool, but could also be from silk taffeta or some new, artificial material. It's hard to tell from the luster (or lack thereof) alone. I suggest you just make something up that fits your character's budget and the time of the year. - it seems to have braid applications or trimmings made of braid on both the bodice and on the skirt (I wish I had a higher resolution.) - there is a brown silk sash with a bow around the waist - it does not use a bustle (or crinoline, tornure etc.), so the skirt is narrow around the hips and flares slightly towards the hem. She probably has some light padding around the hips, though, to achieve the fashionable hourglass silhouette. Tbh. I'm not certain it is actually Edwardian. It could also be 1890s. It does not have the exaggerated "pigeon breast" silhouette.
No, no, no, kiddo. That's not how you learn to write descriptions. You learn to write descriptions by writing them yourself. I agree that the silhouette is more late 1890s than early Edwardian. Definitely a day costume. Those are modified gigot or leg o mutton sleeves, nothing as giant and puffy as they were early in the period: tight sleeves with puffs at the cap. It may not be a dress but rather a matching skirt and shirtwaist with the join covered by the waist ribbon. It's walking length (doesn't touch the ground) and is decorated with frills on the skirt that match the sash. I think the bodice is topped with a beaded lace overlay but I can't tell for sure.
There have been many threads like this in the past—I recommend reading through some of them and seeing the approaches people have suggested for how to describe a dress: Search: "how describe dress" @ Writingforums.org You'll find various ways to do it. Of course some of them are for very different kinds of dresses, but still a lot of the advice remains the same or need only be slightly modified to specifically tailor it to your particular dress.
I noticed the word 'how' was dropped from the search for being too short or common. So I decided to get even crazier—here's a search for "Describe" that covers all questions about how to describe things on the forum: Search: "Describe" @ Writingforums.org A massive wealth of answers brimming with excellent suggestions.
First, decide which characteristics of the dress are the most important to you to convey to your readers. How do you want to make your character appear? Is it the colour? The general impression the dress makes? Is it the material? Are the accessories or the decoration/trimmings important to you? Do you want to convey the historical inspiration by describing the silhouette (skirt, bodice/jacket/shirtwaist and sleeve shape)? Maybe choose one or two of all the characteristics Catriona and I have given you and put them into a sentence. "Blythe wore a ...... dress with ......" Write another sentence to describe one or two other things about the dress. Additional questions you should ask yourself: How does the dress compare to what the other people wear? Do you want to indicated the class / social standing of the character via her clothing? For example: "richly decorated", "best silk", "luxurious colour" etc. ... these would be indicators for wealth. "high neckline", "modest sleeves", "proper" or the fact that maybe she borrowed the dress or wears it only rarely ... these would make the character seem less wealthy, but willing to appear "respectable". You can also describe another one or two details at a later part of the story; you don't have to describe every detail in the first sentence in which we see the dress.
There are lots of retro/vintage youtubers that you could look up...none of which I remember right now, lol. I recommend looking up Micarah Tewers, particularly her video critiquing the clothes in the latest Little Women film. From there, the recommended videos should include a lot of retro/vintage recommendations.
If you read a lot of Regency romance, they do pretty well in describing the fashion of the era, flounces, ribbons, fabrics, layers, caps, hats, slippers, gloves, et al. A good thing to do would be to get familiar with the era correct names and descriptions of the outfits and styles. As an aside, what causes the vast fashion differences in your story, between what would be 1700/1800s and 1990/2000s style? A lot of the reason for the pre1900 fashion, for women, was as a way to literally keep women bound and powerless to convention. There are documented cases of women being openly derided for even wearing skirt-like trousers in public. And there is a huge difference between floor length skirts, gloves and bonnets and short-shorts and tank-tops.
