# To suit the occassion



## Stormcat (Feb 3, 2016)

I'm writing a victorian alternate history story. I can describe women's clothing very well, from the colors, to the cut, the pattern, to the ruffles. Men's clothing on the other hand...

Being that there will be a lot of suits, how do I show the difference between an informal suit and something like Imperial Ball finery? There are only so many variations of black, brown, and navy blue I can use for a man's suit. I know the parts of the suit (My MC's husband is upper crust, so he'll be wearing 3-piece suits all the time), but I'm not good at telling apart the formal and informal ones. If I see the different suits I can tell them apart, but I'm not so good at writing them apart.


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## Bishop (Feb 3, 2016)

How deeply into the character's clothing are you getting? And, furthermore, how important is that to the story?


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## Stormcat (Feb 3, 2016)

Deep enough to show what Character A is wearing is not the same as what Character B is wearing.

I also want to show subtlties of the various character through the clothing they choose to wear. For instance, My one female character always wears modest, well-fitting black dresses to show an air of professionalism, while another character starts out wearing drab, ill-fitting dresses but as she gains confidence she starts wearing better-fitting and brighter dresses.


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## Stormcat (Feb 4, 2016)

In one scene, I have to tell the butlers apart from their masters, and I need to know what they would wear that would be different.


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## Stormcat (Feb 12, 2016)

*resurrecting this thread*

I've been browsing pinterest again. Looking at Pictures of men's suits. I found this:




This seems like a good outfit choice for one of my antagonists (Just make it white) Meanwhile... I want my love interest to look something like this:



Now, other than the fact that Loki here has a scarf, how do I describe the difference between the two suits?


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