Clothes Make the Character

When you’re designing a character–especially your protagonist–do you know what’s hanging in her closet? Do you even think about this individual’s wardrobe, or do you just imagine her in a pair of yoga pants and a generic white tee-shirt?

After all, don’t you have enough to do already with choosing personality traits, age, hair color, background details, and deep inner flaw?

Uh, no. You need to do more.

Because while you’re attending to all those details–and juggling plot decisions at the same time–you should also be thinking about what a character is going to wear for those upcoming scenes of conflict.

Really?

Yes!

If we want to get technical about technique, then clothing falls into the tags-of-appearance or tags-of-possession category of character design. What your character chooses to wear at any given time or place in your story emits signals about this individual’s taste, judgment, personality, degree of imagination, degree of practicality, and likability. Your readers may be focused on the story events, but on some level their brains are registering wardrobe signals. They’re either liking your character even more or starting to doubt or mistrust this person.

If you’re unaware of the effect such signals can have, then you’re missing an opportunity to manipulate how strongly your readers will like or dislike a character. You’re also risking crossing up those signals, which will–at worst–create an inconsistent, uneven character, or–at best–confuse your intended audience.

Consider movie costume designers. They are working off these same principles as they choose colors, styles, and costume wardrobe for the actors in a film. Such costumes contribute to the dominant impression the director wants the actors to make on an audience.

So, too, should you be factoring in style and fashion choices as you plan character introductions.

Let’s consider the Disney animated villain Cruella de Vil. Everything, from her skunk-stripe hair to her angular body, chiseled face, and cigarette holder, is chosen to make her unlikable. All her clothes match her hair. The touches of red she favors are garish punctuation marks. She wears furs. She wants a new coat made of dalmatian puppy skins. She’s absolutely ghastly, and there’s nothing subtle about her design.

[image error]Cruella de Vil from 101 DALMATIANS

On the other hand, Cinderella in the film THE SLIPPER AND THE ROSE is always dressed to make her as sympathetic and appealing to audiences as possible.

[image error]Cinderella in THE SLIPPER AND THE ROSE

Even in her working clothes as a servant in her stepmother’s house, the rich color and ornate details of her dress show that she once possessed pretty things although this dress has been worn threadbare.

[image error]Cinderella dressed for the bride-finding ball in THE SLIPPER AND THE ROSE.



[image error]Even in exile, she’s dressed exquisitely as a princess should be.



[image error]The fabulous slippers for the ball. That’s serious bling!

Therefore, if your protagonist wears Armani suits, a paper-thin gold Cartier watch, and handmade shoes, he is conveying his level of success or affluence, his taste, and his degree of formality in an increasingly casual world. He may truly be cosmopolitan and wealthy, or he may be trying to fit into that world while living above his means.

Conversely, he might own a multi-million-dollar company but always dresses down in Levis, hand-knit sweater, and work boots. What, then, would that tell readers about him?

Whether you design a character that wears Paris couture or Target trendy, remember the signals of attire that give readers insight into her true nature. Make those signals work for you rather than against you.