If you've followed me for long enough, you know I have personal beef with some of DQXI's costumes, specifically Jade's.
While the redesigns I've done for Jade focus specifically on making them less fanservice-y, this one for Hendrik is about making it just... less ugly.
Redesign notes under the cut!
"Field Marshal's Finery" has peeved me off for the LONGEST time. It does Hendrik no favors, cuts him in half at weird places, and makes him look like a cross between a marching band kid and the spokesperson for Spirit Halloween.
(Perhaps making him this terrible outfit was Jasper's final "fuck you" to Hendrik...)
First, inspiration/references. Since Heliodor is based roughly on European monarchies with a fantasy twist, I looked at pictures of English military formal wear, and found that the original costume was likely based in part on ~ 18th century Navy uniforms. Which.... are ugly as hell.
Since I didn't want to straight up make him a redcoat, I changed the hue of the sash and other accents, trying to keep a more cohesive color palette. The purple was not doing anything for me, so I sequestered it to the pins on Hendrik's chest.
The original jacket also cut him at a very weird, sharp angle at both the waist and knees, so I extended the outer layer and made it asymmetrical to provide a bit more flow to the outfit.
The small gold buttons are definitely a bit more modern than those weird mariachi things on his lapels in the original, but they match the decals on his belt (taken from his regular non-costumed model).
As for the inner layer, I substituted whatever vest+jabot mess he had going on with a simple high-necked red tunic so it doesn't look like he's drowning in his outfit.
Boots were next, getting rid of that pinkish color that appears nowhere else on the costume in favor of sleek black leather. I also colored the gloves and soles to match the leather of the belt, since the swaths of white were a bit distracting.
Finally, I added a normal cape to match, and updated his face/head to match the Heliodor Knight texture mod I have installed for Hendrik.
Overall, I know that military formal dress uniforms can be kind of goofy looking, but I just wanted to design one that fit my tastes a little better and had a bit more visual coherence. At least for this one I don't need to make my "gamers don't be mad its just for fun im not Wokeifying your goonbait" disclaimer LOL
