#also yes chuuyas gonna have short hair and no heals and pants in her 22 design. i am forcing this. no one can stop me

[tittysuckersworld]

am i finally designing my own ssk designs through the years? mayhaps.....

[originalaccountname]

Example with bsd because that's why most of you follow me for:

Let's say we want to turn one of the guys into a girl by following the principles above. I'll pick 22 years old Chuuya because I'm trying to get your attention:

Chuuya's personality can be seen through his accessories and how they contrast his otherwise formal attire, which reflects his occupation as an executive in the Port Mafia. Although long hair is pretty common in the series, the way he styles it does work along the accessories to show his rock-leaning tastes. He wears a lot of black, the colour associated with his organization (+ reinforces his initial role as an antagonist). His essential elements are his hat and his gloves, which are both story-relevant. As bonus design notes, his overall design mirrors Dazai's.

If they have any other outfits, it can be helpful to pin down the character's style. Since Chuuya has many, let's bring them out:

(yes I'm including chapter 31 cover's Chuuya because he showed up in chapter 101 he's canon) From comparing, we can note that leather and punk/rock influences despite his formal attire are a pattern for him, as well as wearing several layers.

Now let's look at what kind of designs the girls* get:

(*list incomplete) For the sake of brevity, I'm not gonna dwell too long on all their designs. Do note the overall more conservative way of dressing, with very little skin showing, with the exception of Yuan (pink hair) who is a teenager in the street.

In Chuuya's case, references most useful are the women in formal wear:

Observations: white dress shirt, black pants or knee-length skirt (+tights!), heeled shoes (flat shoes for Higuchi), jacket, hair short and/or tied up, and (visible) makeup not common (Tsujimura has some, Yosano only does in the anime). Overall, twists on classic feminine business wear. Wells (on the leftmost) doesn't really respect these rules, as she's purposefully dressed in men's clothes (and also not from Yokohama/Japan!)

With all of that information gathered, that leaves only the designing part left. Like I said, this part is subjective: there are infinite solutions depending on your tastes, mood and experiences. Chuuya's OG design showed his occupation, allegiance, role and personality, with his hat and gloves as necessary elements for his story (btw, them being essential does not mean they can't be modified; it just means their function needs to be included in some way).

Are you going for just an aesthetic change or a slight rewrite too? Would you keep her personal accessories the same? Would her hat be the same model? Would she get a skirt (+tights!) or keep her pants? How about heals? Does she become the only girl wearing a vest or do redesign her entire outfit? Do you change the gloves' cut? Does her hair stay the same, do you tie it up? How does it show her personality now? Would she be the kind of girl to wear makeup, and if yes, what kind? Are you preserving her colour palette, considering her allegiance? Do you work in how the OG design mirrors Dazai's? Would any of these changes influence story beats, character interactions? Do you want them to? How does she look next to the other characters now?

These are the sort of questions that could help nail down a design that fits the original intent and design guidelines. It's asking yourself why a character looks the way they do, how the original designer thinks through the designs of their world, and how you can bend these to your will.

a post I'd like to make but can't figure out a way to formulate without accidentally sounding like I'm telling people what to do is a post about genderbend designs that follow the design intentions of the original character/world. Because on one hand, it's a type of analysis/breakdown that's super fun to try to work out, but on the other hand, I fully support everyone's right to genderbend their faves into sexy outfits because they want to and I don't want this hypothetical post to become an arguement against that