Clothing on WIP Wednesday

Today, I’m looking for excerpts that include a description of clothing. I’m not a great one for writing these, but sometimes they really matter to my characters. I recently included in a blog post the clothes that Aldridge wore to Becky; his waistcoat was a subtle jab at Hugh. Often, a person’s clothes (observed by the protagonist) tell our hero or heroine — and the reader — something about that person. Sometimes, the protagonist’s reaction tells us something about them. In House of Thorns, I have Bear making assumptions about Rosa based on her clothes.

Which left him here, with an unknown female under his roof and not another human being within a fifteen minute walk, if Pelman was to be believed.

He peered more closely at the female in question. Could she be Pelman’s sister, come to secure her position? On the whole, he thought not. She looked nothing like the rather fleshy steward, whose receding hair was a dirty blonde rather than this tiny lady’s rich chestnut. Besides, would Pelman dress his sister in near rags, neatly mended and clean, but much washed and threadbare? And the boots displayed by his careless disposition of her skirts were likewise clean and polished, and worn to the point that the woman had tucked cardboard inside the sole.

Poor thing.

And I’ve just written a description of Rosa’s gown for her wedding.

Once Sukie had been despatched with the dressmaker’s maid to fetch Rosa a cup of tea, Rosa asked the dressmaker for directions to a place she could send her letter. Delighted that it was no more than a couple of streets away, she then put the letter out of her mind to focus on the gown.

It was the most beautiful gown Rosa had ever seen; not the light-weight shimmering silk that Bear had initially picked, suitable only for evening, but a figured silk in a slightly heavier weave, made up as a day gown, with a modest scooped bodice and long sleeves. The dusky pink ground bore a repeated motif of stripes and flowers, and the effect had been enhanced by embroidery on the cuffs and hem, using the same shapes and slightly darker colours.

The dressmaker and her seamstresses fussed over the exact fit of the bodice, and the length of the cuffs. There was a pellise, too, short waisted and in a darker rose.

She enjoyed the fitting much more than she had expected, which made the hour fly past. “We have little to do, ma’am,” the dressmaker said, at last. “An hour, no more. You are welcome to wait, or if you have errands…?”

An hour. With the rest of the hen money in her reticule, and a wedding present for Bear to purchase, it would be barely enough.

2 thoughts on “Clothing on WIP Wednesday

  1. I don’t have too many descriptions of dress in my books; in “Earl of Shadows”, the longest dress description I have is of the gown Mary wears to court for her presentation as Countess of Chatham:

    “The maid tied the basket hoop round her waist and Georgiana helped Mary into the heavy silver brocade petticoat. ‘Almost finished,’ her sister soothed as Mary staggered under the weight of the fabric. ‘Nearly there.’

    Mary gazed anxiously at her reflection as the maid pinned the gown to the embroidered stomacher. Her chestnut hair had been frizzed and pulled as high as it could go, powdered and strung with pearls. Three ostrich feathers bobbed towards the ceiling, matched by a pair of lappets stretching halfway down her back. An enormous amethyst necklace – a wedding present from her husband – hung above her breasts, which thanks to her maid’s ministrations were crushed into her ribs.

    ‘There.’ The sincerity of Georgiana’s smile brought tears to Mary’s eyes. ‘You look beautiful.’

    Mary stared again at her reflection. She thought the tall headdress made her neck look scrawny, and she fancied she looked like nothing more than a frightened girl dressing up in her mother’s best clothes. ‘I hardly recognise myself.’

    ‘So long as Lord Chatham does,’ Georgiana said, and Mary choked down a flicker of anxiety at the prospect of facing John looking like this.”

    Otherwise, it’s just a hint here — for example John’s pea-green suit when he confronts William; him wearing his regimentals (yes, I dribbled every time I wrote him in those); the scattering of powder on John’s shoulders in one scene; Mary’s pink dress in the first scene where she’s introduced. I see my characters in their clothes in every scene, but I don’t usually feel the need to describe it.

    I don’t think I’ve described any clothing at all in the new book as yet. The closest I have are the following lines:

    “John’s regimentals, with his lieutenant-general’s triple bands of gold lace and his chest crossed by the blue ribbon of the Garter, were hardly insufficient to warrant his attendance on the King; he had worn this uniform to the levee more times than he could count.”

    (There, Johnboy in his regimentals again. *dribbles*)

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