Colors and Fabrics

Carlia

Member
Just an errant thought I wanted to share with you all.


As we all know, when we speak about noble or royal houses in fantasy, there is usually a banner, emblems or/and a motto involved in making them stand out and distinguish them from the rest. You can also see it in real life, almost everyone who sees this will know it is French, and it is a sign a Frech king would have worn:


And it is used also in Tolkien's works, it is particularly clear with the Lords of Gondolin. (I know this is fanart, and just one version, but it works as an example).


I believe this is something we might like to consider when it comes to costumes, it could be used to send a visual message to the audience without having to explain who is above who in the rankings, and who is loyal to whom.


Using different shades of the same color and different fabrics to dress the members of a certain House, we can distinguish their place in the family, or hierarchy amongst the people that serve that House.


For example, in Tudor England only the king and the royal family (his wife, children, parents, and siblings) could wear clothes of gold or silver fabric, and purple, as purple was considered a royal a color.


This applied to many levels of society and quality of fabrics. The lower your ranking was in the social scale, the less likely you were to be allowed to wear silk, or velvet, or a finer wool or cotton fabric.


Maybe this could help us when marking the allegiance of certain characters, as well as their rank?
 
Just an errant thought I wanted to share with you all.



Using different shades of the same color and different fabrics to dress the members of a certain House, we can distinguish their place in the family, or hierarchy amongst the people that serve that House.


For example, in Tudor England only the king and the royal family (his wife, children, parents, and siblings) could wear clothes of gold or silver fabric, and purple, as purple was considered a royal a color.


This applied to many levels of society and quality of fabrics. The lower your ranking was in the social scale, the less likely you were to be allowed to wear silk, or velvet, or a finer wool or cotton fabric.


Maybe this could help us when marking the allegiance of certain characters, as well as their rank?

I like this idea. It will help combat the appearance of homogeneous crowd. I can't imagine elves having actual laws in place about who can wear which color, but it would stand to reason that people from the same area or family would have access to and/or a preference for specific colors and materials.
 
The first thought that I had when I read this was what would be the symbols of Thingol's Court in Doriath? I could certainly see Thingol having some kind of prominent crest and color scheme which could then pass down to characters like Beleg and Turin. In fact, wouldn't that make a cool scene when Turin is "adopted" into the royal court and awarded those symbols along with the Dragonhelm?
 
The first thought that I had when I read this was what would be the symbols of Thingol's Court in Doriath? I could certainly see Thingol having some kind of prominent crest and color scheme which could then pass down to characters like Beleg and Turin. In fact, wouldn't that make a cool scene when Turin is "adopted" into the royal court and awarded those symbols along with the Dragonhelm?

Yes, I think that would make a lot of sense. I like the idea a lot. Maybe we could see Túrin arriving at Doriath wearing clothes the same color of his family's and then next time we see him, he is wearing Thingol's colors...
 
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