khaenri'ahn fashion: a deranged micro analysis
All the khaenri'ahn characters check out one or more of a set of boxes when it comes to their clothing, and today I want to go over these boxes while we wait for the next khaenri'ah lore update hopefully coming this century
1. color palette
Pre catacalysm, the most repeated colors present in traditional khaenri'ahn clothing (which as of now (luna I) only includes clothing of nobleborns, knight uniforms and clothing of common borns/half bloods of the eclipse dynasty) were these:
So we have a lot of muted and soft colors, gold, light blues, a gazillion shades of purple and light greys.
It's common knowledge that both purple and gold represent wealth and royalty; purple also represents magic, which the khaenri'ahns did infact dabble in.
Light purple and lilac along with light blue can also represent tranquility and peace, while blue in general represents royalty (again), stability and wisdom.
White and light grey, which make up the majority of their outfits, represent purity, cleanness and serenity.
maybe the soft colors on the surface were a means of concealing the shady stuff was going on behind the scenes. Or maybe, these colors are for a time before the day they were labeled as sinners, when they were chaste and clean; Safe within the walls of their own homeland.
Now, after the catacalysm, their color palette starts looking a lot more like this:
(no this is not just abyss lector's pallette bear with me)
The blue and purple vibe is still going on, but not only are the colors darker now, they're also more saturated, almost as if they've been corrupted, or transformed from the original colors to be more agitating. It's such a slap in the face from the pastely eye candy.
The dark blue we see on so many khaenri'ahns is associated with knowledge and authority.
A few things to consider:
-its possible that some khaenri'ahns took to wearing darker colors as a way of mourning.
- the brighter neon purples represent the abyss, which has obviously been very in use since the catacalysm.
- its also just a case of hoyo wanting the vilains to be more flashy and evil looking, since a lot of "khaenri'ahns" are in game monsters.
2. capes and collars
yeah.
So, throughout history, big ridiculous looking collars were a common sight, however we see them most in 16th-17th century Europe in the form of ruffs, but I think this particular dracula looking knife collars the khaenri'ahns love is more similar to detachable cape collars.
Either way, big collars were almost always reserved for folk of high society and were associated with wealth and power.
Again, this is also a case of hoyo wanting to design scary and mysterious villains by making use of sharp motifs, but i mean two things can be true at once.
As for their capes, there are a few khaenri'ahns who wear diffrent styles of them (pierro, dain, rerir, capitano) but then again this is a fantasy game where a lot of other people wear capes as well so its not enough to classify it as a khaenri'ah thing. what i CAN classify as a khaenri'ah thing though, are:
3. sashes
a LOT of khaenri'ah characters have some kind of sash dangling off of them. Some even have more than one.
A sash is found in many cultures and can have many diffrent meanings. However, when its worn from one shoulder to the opposite hip, it symbolises rank or status.
What I think is that maybe the diffrent styles of sash was used as a way of communicating your status. For example, all the knights wear it from their right shoulder to their left hip (which is usually a way to show chivalric order in real life cultures as well), chlothar and caribert are wearing it hanging from both shoulders, pierro's is in a v shape (which is usually associated with academics), diredyth's (half blood) is a diffrent style entirely, etc etc
might I add that sahses can be found in almost every nordic country's traditional clothing, but more so as a belt. The type of sash khaenri'ahns wear is a more roman style.
(disclaimer: i know that the sash on caribert's arm is from his mother and not a fashion choice i just thought it'd be fun to add. I also know that the sash on rhine's shoulder is from nebarius's side, which is a little weird to me since its the single most khaenri'ahn coded piece of her outfit but whatever.)
4. vests and pants
Not much to say for either of these which is why I smushed them together. But anyway
Some of the characters wear vests, which again, isnt a khaenri'ah exclusive thing in this game; BUT
Vests are very very common in nordic traditional wear (the pictures above are all norwegian bunads I believe). So i thought that would be intresting to point out.
A similar thing is going on with the pants, Caribert's pants specifically, which is a common style of men's traditional legwear.
5. Star motifs and gold accents
The eight pointed star is the insignia of the eclipse dynasty, and these people have it plastered ALLLL over them.
I'm gonna skip putting the pictures because I have very few picture slots left (why is this a thing tumblr why), but i'm sure you know what talking about. The abyss heralds/lectors and the black serpant knights have it on their chest, kaeya has it on his shoes and his arm sash, chlothar and caribert also have it on their chest with a special little yellow center, the ruin machines, albedo's constellation, and many many more that im sure im forgetting.
Now, the eight pointed star has many meanings. In gnostisism, its meant to represent divine forces. In Christianity it represents new begginings, it can also mean the cycle of birth and rebirth or life from birth to death, then there's the eight pointed star of ishtar.
Either way, deciphering the reason khaenri'ahns are obsessed with this symbol is not for this post because its a post of its own entirely. But if you're intrested, there have been many theoried written about this both here and other socials!
what IS for this post though, is pointing how how cringe it is to have your country's flag plastered all over you. Equivalent to americans wearing those usa flag baseball caps.
and also
these people love their gold. we get it you're rich you have splendor and money and class we GET ITTT
6‐ modesty
I've seen a few other people point this out but I wanted to quickly go over it as well.
Khaenri'ahns seem to be rather prudish with their choices of clothing. Chlothar is wearing a literal rectangle that covers him from neck to ankle, the knight uniforms and caribert's fit are fully covered with like 7 layers, and pierro is wearing...that. (refer to the "sashes" picture to see what im talking about.) Even the two women we've seen (rhine and direidyth) have only ONE body part exposed each. Which is huge considering its hoyo.
(Disclaimer: I didnt add dain, capitano and post catacalysm pierro because i think they're trying to not have their rotting flesh on display more than anything.)
Anyways, this checks out with the medieval european court vibe khaenri'ah has going on, but not with the ancient nordic culture is draws inspiration from. (luna II edit: DEBUNKED! kind of)
7- Shoulder guards
Shoulder guards are a common piece of armor, so safe to assume this was a a part of the knights' uniform armor, which explains why dainsleif has it. As for kaeya, it can either be an attribution to his father, who (if we go with anfortas alberich=kaeya dad theory) was a knight marshal, or have nothing to do with khaenri'ah and be a part of his own knight uniform. (We all know which one is more likely but let me dream)
7- other fun tidbits
a- a lot of khaenri'ahns have multiple ribbons of cloth where there should usually be a single solid piece of fabric. (eg. Dain's cape, the lector's and heral's skirt thingies)
b- while most pre catacalysm khaenri'ahns we've seen have purple motifs, direidyth's outfit is mostly blue, which could be because the former are nobles (purple the color of royalty and all) while the latter is a halfblood commoner.
c- the front of Capitano's coat has snake scale prints! And we all know Khaenri'ahns are so normal about snakes.
If you made it this far I really hope this was comprehensive. You can really see me lose patience towards the end (currently 2am) but this was overall very fun to research and write! If you're educated on fashion history feel free to add anything or correct any mistakes I made.
tldr: cuntria
