Day 18: The Art of the Dress
For the average Aquilish citizen, tastes in clothing skew more towards comfort than fashionable. Cloth shirts and blouses, denim trousers and ankle-length skits, flat shoes and work boots. With that said, the advancements of the textile guilds have made a wide variety of colors and styles that were previously outside the realm of the common folk.
Members of guilds, on the other hand, almost universally look like they’re ready for business. This usually means two-piece or three-piece suits made of silk or cloth, or high-quality dresses made of the same materials. The higher up in the guild you are, the more expensive your outfit is: not just as a show of your wealth and status, but because of simply psychology. After all, you’re more likely to be promoted if you already look like the people above you. When off the clock, of course, people can wear whatever they want.
Those in the Aquilish government, especially the Princes/Princesses, are expected to look the part whenever they’re out in public. A Prince’s “casual” outfit looks a lot like what a guild’s leader would wear: three-piece suits and fancy silk dresses. In general, these are also relatively conservatively cut and colored, favoring muted shares of greys or blues.
There are some exceptions to that amongst the Grand Princess and Princesses, of course. Gale Iokiend, Grand Princess of Melas, is well known for eschewing dresses all together and instead favoring the suits worn by her male peers. This has become a sort of signature style for the Princess, and has raised the question of whether her daughter, Fara, will follow in Gale’s steps.