#barrayaran clothing

[unbizzarre]

BARRAYARAN COSTUME DESIGN

The process for costume design:

Had fun looking through a whole bunch of reference images to try to create a costume set that reflected the strong sense of tradition with midieval-esque holdovers from hand textiles that would have had to be the norm during barreyars period of isolation, while also accounting for the wealth of the current barreyaran aristocracy and their access to modern galactic trends and clothing. I also didn’t want the midieval influences to be generic-fantasy-vaguely-european-bulshit, so I also tried to find reference images with styles, patterns, and silhouettes that where somewhat reminiscent of the French, Russian, and Greek cultural heritage barnyard first settlers may have brought with them. That being said, it wouldn’t make sense for any of these traditional garments to have been preserved with 1-for-1 accuracy from there earth origins over the many centuries (cuz like, irl traditional dress in these countries is less and less common) so I didnt want to just copy exactly historical garments.

OH! And then I also had to make sure the men’s clothing also reflected the pseudo-military affectations which Bujold has mentioned in multiple books as being popular in menswear amongst the vor cast. (Ex: the formal riding boots, and the two swords carried at formal events, or less formally vor “town clowns” also wearing casual clothing reminiscent of a military cut.) but! In order to do this, I had to think of both what would have been military uniforms both in isolation-barrayar and modern barrayar, and which aspects of each set of military uniforms would be incorporated into modern men’s fashion. Would any women’s clothing also reflect this warrior trend?

Finally, since all of this costume design was brainstorming for the dinner party scene, I wanted to make sure that the clothes matched the personalities of the people wearing them. Like aunt Alice and Professors Vorthis are both middle aged Vor-caste women, but will have vastly contrasting style. Alice being alice, her clothing will likely be both perfect for the occasion while also a sleek and elegant combination of the leading barreyaran fashions, while also giving a nod to traditional barreyaran costume at times as she is a representative of both the state and her old-vor house. The professora on the other hand, will probably opt for something comfortable and cozy, while not especially showy, as she is more concerned with her studies and gardens and is not super involved in the Vorbarra-sultana social scene.

Some of the reference images I used:

And many many sooooo many more. So much borrowed creativity from all over the internet I feel bad I can’t more accurately site all my sources 😞

Also some random cool aesthetic modern shit that I thought had fun sci fi vibes as well as some *sigh* generic-euro fantasy clothing cuz sometimes you need to be a little basic.

Also a lot of cool art by artists I love that is just dope costume design and totally all their work. Idk the names of a lot of them cuz I’m not really active on social media and only really see the images amidst thousands of others in my Pinterest hoard but I always recognize the artsyles and creativity and wind up saving them to reference art boards 🙈

Some that I do remember and love a lot are cy-lindric, Juliette, and Celia Lowenthall

[pod-together]

Pod-Together Day 5 Reveals 2024

moonlight lullaby (Tortall - Tamora Pierce) written by coffee_and_cardamom, performed by paintchipblue Summary: On their way back from the Barony Olau, the gang encounters something very unexpected.

On the History and Styling of God-Cloth (Original Work) written by Drel_Murn, performed by nimblermortal Summary: Yena had made her career selling pieces at auctions and to the art world online. As a priestess of Lady Keneka, God of Weaving, she got the occasional commissions from temples, but those didn’t come often enough for her to support herself off of. Even with the money she made selling in art circles, it was her late husband’s job as a plumber that had kept food on the table day-to-day.

on the ashes of sparrows (Hadestown - Mitchell) written by DuskDragon39, performed by BubblesKat Summary: Her fur is still dirty and matted, covered in oil and coal dust. “What do I do?” she asks the god next to her. “Sing. Sing for him, and hope like hell that your boy walks out of there alive.” Or, a retelling of Hadestown with daemons - and a bit more besides.

Leverage: Human Resources training (Leverage (US TV 2008)) written by Elle-dubs, performed by Wereflamingo Summary: Parker leads an HR training.

The Dreams that Devour Nightmares (One Piece (Live Action TV 2023)) written by estelraca, performed by Cricketbones Summary: The Straw Hats have made it to the entrance to the Grand Line, but someone doesn't want them to move forward, and is willing to trap them in their worst nightmares in order to stop them.

Dawn of a New World (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)) written by flipflop_diva, performed by pensnest Summary: Giles is frustrated. And worried. Glory seems unstoppable, and Dawn is in horrible danger. But then a package shows up in the Magic Box and suddenly nothing is what it seems. Literally. Starting from the fact that now there are two Rupert Giles.

do you think I'm frightening? [text, audio] (Our Flag Means Death (TV)) written by oddishly, performed by Tipsy_Kitty Summary: A brave little trickle of longing makes itself known in Ed’s chest. The shriek eats it.

gone to be faraway (Stranger Things (TV 2016), Supernatural (TV 2005)) written by pprfaith, performed by reena_jenkins Summary: In which the Party find out that Steve is more than everyone's favorite punching bag and Ersatz!Mom.

Treacherous Gifts: Copper (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) written by RisalSoran, performed by BardicRavenReads, audio production by OneGoldenRaptor

Friends of Cordelia (Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold) written by Sanguinity, performed by PhoenixFalls Summary: During her decades of service to the Imperium, Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan commanded a special place in the hearts of queer Barrayarans. Explore their stories today at the Vorbarr Sultana Capitol Museum.

[clonerightsagenda]

Miles was getting prepped to be the next Barrayaran spymaster and hammers on Illyan's door for a while before Alys finally opens it in last night's clothes with her hair down and Illyan is getting dressed and they all seem far more cheerful than usual and he's like 'huh. That's weird. Why is she here?' Buddy

[bonaesperanza]

Alys actually strikes me as someone who is pragmatic above all.

Yes, people should get married and have children, because that way they produce legal and legitimate heirs for their families. Legitimate heirs mean stability in their war-crazy space!feudal society that has lived through two civil wars within Alys's lifetime, it means a clean line of inheritance and an extension of the family line, so obviously her relatives the Emperor and the only Heir to the Vorkosigan's District (who is also like third or fourth in line to the throne) should get married, and so should her son Lord Vorpatril (effectively the heir to the throne). But what are the actual concrete benefits of Alys getting married to Illyan? There are none. There are only drawbacks: she loses the Vor title, as well as her prestige as Lord Vorpatril's widow, becomes a target of more potential assassination attempts, and becomes subject to a bunch of additional laws and rules meant to curtail her civil rights (remember how Ivan says that as Tej's husband, he has the right to approve of or deny the use of fast-penta on Tej?). She already has a child and doesn't seem to intend to produce more of them as of the last Vorkosigan book.

For Alys, the fact that she loves Illyan has no bearing on the decision of whether she should marry him, because for Alys marriage is a social institution that's completely detached from loving someone. And this is both a very old aristocratic view of things, and very on brand for Alys. This is why Alys is so good at all the etiquette and unspoken social rules stuff and why she gets on with Cordelia so well: Alys is well aware that the rules are not there for their Inherent Nobility and Romantic and Moral Significance (like Ekaterin and all the Vorkosigan men think - think of how much time Ekaterin spends in a personal crisis because her social duties towards Tien don't match her romantic feelings towards him, and think of how both Aral and Miles approach their respective marriages and love lives. Think about the meaning of the concept of marriage for both Ekaterin and Miles; think about Aral's reaction to his first wife, whom he didn't give a fuck about, cheating on him). Cordelia is also aware of this, but where Cordelia scoffs at it all Alys always sees the practical utility in the rules and uses them for exactly their intended purpose, nothing more and nothing less.

This is also why Alys is so great at explaining Barrayaran social conventions to Cordelia: they share that same inherent pragmatism, but Alys, having grown up within the system, can also point out that "look, this seemingly arbitrary rule ensures that you get this, and this, and this".

Alys takes this approach to other things as well: she is good at clothes because she knows that clothes send a social message, not because she sees an inherent value in being pretty. And we see her take this pragmatic approach to literally every aspect of Gregor's wedding.

We tend to see the Society Matron who cares about Clothes and Etiquette and Appropriate Marriages as an inherently frivolous person who is drinking her own cool aid because that's how modern people see old-timey aristocratic femininity, but there's nothing in the books to imply Alys is like that, and one of Bujold's major themes is the soft power seemingly powerless women wield through their firm control on such "feminine matters".

In the latter half of the Vorkosigan saga, almost everyone gets married and has babies, which makes sense because this series is, in addition to being a space opera action adventure military sci-fi mystery, also a pretty classic historical romance.

So it strikes me as pretty interesting that we see two Barrayaran women who want a serious relationship with a man, but still outright reject the institution of marriage: Kareen Koudelka and Alys Vorpatril. Kareen makes sense, she’s from the new generation, she studied off-world on Beta Colony, and she’s dating Mark Vorkosigan of all people, of course she wants to forge her own path. But Alys Vorpatril is the picture of respectable old-school Vor decorum, and she still doesn’t seriously consider marrying Simon Illyan. He’s her lover, her partner, her gentleman friend, not her husband. Of course there are various security and protocol issues, marriage to a prole would strip her of her Vor title, marriage to the former chief of the secret police would saddle her with additional surveillance nightmares, etc., but if she really wanted to marry him, she wouldn’t let any of that stop her. It seems more likely that she doesn’t want to marry him. She’s spent thirty-five years grieving her first husband and also being angry at him for dying the way he did, so she might be a little bit ambivalent about the idea of marrying again. She’s very pro-marriage in general, she wants her son to get married, she wants her nephew to get married, she really, really wants her ward the emperor to please get married, but she’s not getting married herself. Which makes her a very self-actualised person and also a massive hypocrite.

[captainlordauditor]

rhymingteelookatme replied to your post “but is there fanart of bel thorne’s star studded disaster of a...”

not that i know of but don't we all wish there was

i mean i guess i know what my job is then

[terriwriting]

Imagine a Barrayaran wandering around a tourist district on Beta Colony wondering why there are so many scenarios available about being kidnapped by some backwoods hick in ahistorical clothing.

This is a deeply niche post but I am thinking about how, similar to Americans writing wildly historically inaccurate Abducted By the 18th-Century Scottish Laird-style romance novels, the Time of Isolation on Barrayar would probably be a really popular setting for romances!

There’s probably a whole university course in it actually ‘Depictions of the Other: Barrayar through Galactic Eyes,’ with Professora Vorthys.

[tsanasreads]

Borders of Infinity - The Vorkosigan Saga Project

Borders of Infinity is the latest novella we’ve read in our Vorkosigan Saga Project. It falls after Labyrinth, and before Brothers in Arms. It’s another example of Miles being very clever, but is a lot bleaker than most of the stories that came before it, without as much humour, dark or otherwise.

You can read Katharine’s review of Borders of Infinity here, and Tsana’s review here.

Tsana: So this was pretty much the most memorable of the Miles novellas for me. What I specifically remembered was slightly wrong though. What stuck in my head most was how clever Miles was at his rescue scheme, going into an ice-moon prison. Turns out it wasn’t quite an ice-moon prison, though, (just a normal, slightly-crappy-planet prison) and the second reading of it left me with a different impression, probably because I stopped to think about it a bit more.

Katharine: It was certainly able to get my attention fairly quickly. Basically from the first page Miles is thrown into a prison for prisoners of war, barely has any belongings to his name (what he's wearing, a sleep mat, and a single cup) and is promptly beaten and robbed of everything. Including his clothes.

Tsana: I don’t think he’d really thought through how crappy a PoW camp would be until he found himself in out, either. Miles is very smart, but I think he sometimes walks into beatings a little too easily, especially given how fragile his bones are. (Interesting to note that by this story his leg bones have been replaced with stronger artificial ones, although the same cannot be said for his arms or wrists.

Katharine: Agreed, I think he is very much ‘eye on the prize’ and kind of flails his way through the beginning and middle of the plans until he gets what he wants. Mostly through perseverance. He IS super clever with getting people to do what he wants, but my goodness just how many beatings does he experience in this short novella?!

Tsana: A lot! And that’s before he even gets a chance to start putting his plan into motion. It’s a very clever plan too, but it should probably go under the spoiler shield…

<spoilers ahoy!>

Katharine: Also we should mention that Miles immediately befriends the only person in the camp less popular than himself - some guy who reckons he's the chosen one, and has bored the rest of the prisoners into trying to kill him with his inane ramblings. He's one of the only other prisoners to also be naked and robbed of everything, although he knows how everything in the camp works, who is who, and what to expect. Basically he is the information hub that Miles needs, and it's with his help that Miles is able to track down his initial mission - a military expert that Miles has been sent to rescue.

Tsana: But unfortunately Colonel Tremont is in no fit state to feed himself, let alone lead a rebellion against the Cetagandans. So Miles has to improvise. But to deviate from our summary for a moment, I found it really interesting, politically, that in this story with have the Barrayarans secretly paying the Dendarii (through Imperial orders to Miles that almost none of the Dendarii know about) to interfere in a war that doesn’t directly concern them. Except that it does involve the Cetagandans, their long-standing enemies, invading a place we have previously only heard of in passing: Marilac. (And I didn’t even remember the earlier mentions of Marilac in the books, I actually just double-checked the Vorkosigan Wiki, which is full of all sorts of spoilers.) I kind of like the extent of the background political machinations that lead to this story. It shows depth of worldbuilding.

Katharine: I must admit I don't remember any previous mentions either… What do you think drives them? Was it Gregor’s idea?

Tsana: Marilac was just mentioned in passing as a potential Cetagandan target. I think the Barrayaran motivation is pretty straightforward: they don’t want Cetaganda to get too powerful. If they help Marilac set up an effective resistance/rebellion, that will keep Cetaganda occupied and reduce the risk of them trying to invade Barrayar again. The last Cetagandan invasion of Barrayar was in Miles’s grandfather’s memory, so not so long ago. And bits of Barrayar are still radioactive, so they’re unlikely to forget even when the actual war passes out of living memory.

Katharine: Ah yes, including the piece of land Miles has used in a previous novel as a bargaining technique.

So this is really where we get to see Simon/Gregor start to really use the Dendarii to their own gain - in the best way possible. Miles gets to run with his crew, and his crew have slightly steadier pay incoming.

Tsana: And by this book, it’s been around seven years since Miles first took control of the Dendarii. After a bit of a false start, which we discussed in our The Vor Game post, Miles has been leading them for a while now, albeit sometimes from afar. In Borders of Infinity we see that Miles now trusts the Dendarii enough to rely on them to get him out of a hellish prison camp. Admittedly part of that trust comes from his being the source of the paycheck, but we also know that there are several members of the Dendarii who would go out on a limb to save Miles just because he’s Miles. People like Elena, Baz, Ellie and Bel definitely would, anyway.

Katharine: Miles certainly does inspire a strange kind of something in the majority of the people he meets - as we see in this. Miles soon realises that there’s no way he can achieve his current task (well, even if the guy were to survive) due to the hell hole it’s turned out to be. Armed only with the craziest other person in the camp, he somehow takes what he’s got and starts to make something of it.

Tsana: Mainly by saying sensible things to the right people. Forcing them to see that he has a point as soon as they stop to listen to him. Lucky for him that he’s not only smart enough to have a good point, but also to articulate it well.

Katharine: Or just show his resilience. By letting the women beat him up over and over and over (seriously, how does he have any bones left?) until they’re mildly impressed enough to listen to him.

Can we talk about the women in this story? Because I found that idea to be pretty incredible. Not so unheard of - I’m sure it happens often in these types of scenarios - but the way it was handled by Bujold was excellent.

Tsana: Which specific idea do you mean?

Katharine: All of the women have taken their own area of the camp, haven’t they? (I mean like, literally every single woman). They take it in shifts to patrol their borders, they’re fair to one another as far as food and limited care go. They know who in their group has which skills, such as medic (however pointless this is with no supplies…) and they’re almost the only decent ones in the whole camp - other than perhaps the small bands of platoons. We do see the leader of the group Miles’ target is in try to care for the dying man, but other than that… the bullies rule, and rape and other violent acts are rife.

Tsana: Well yeah. In that situation it seems pretty logical that all the women would band together. Some of them have been there a long time, remember. Even if they started out with some women thinking they should stick with their male friends (for example), they wouldn’t’ve been unharmed for very long, even if their friends were decent non-rapists. How else would you survive if not through strength in numbers? It seems like the only way in the absence of Miles coming in and setting up a larger organisation with the food rationing. Which, incidentally, probably would not have been sustainable. It was already starting to fray while Miles was waiting for their rescue, so things probably would’ve devolved to the more stable women vs everyone else system eventually. It is interesting that this is just a casual part of the story though.

Katharine: I think it’s interesting that it’s literally every woman - I’m not sure how many would have been part of other platoons or if they all vaguely knew each other (did they all fight for the same side, or is the prisoner of war camp made up of many factions?) and that it’s their gender (or weakness, sadly) that unites them above everything else. You hear of similar things happening when there’s a natural disaster and a large group of people are moved to a shelter - though I think after Hurricane Katrina it was Australians in general who mobbed together, kept the women on the inside, and the men stood around them on the outside.

Tsana: (Well I don’t think any of us wants to be in the US come the apocalypse… )

But any woman that wasn’t part of their large group would not have survived intact for long. I assume they also would’ve mounted rescues of women being attacked as the faction was forming. Also, they come from different armies, I think. This is a camp of people who were fighting against the Cetagandans. So they were probably allies but didn’t necessarily meet before being thrown in the PoW camp.

Katharine: At least there’s a little bit of hope even in awful conditions.

So Miles talks his way into the women’s camp, and using their numbers (along with a few of the other smarter prisoners) he manages to start to control the conditions of the camp. Before, when food was delivered only the strong would manage to get some - and they’d take and hoard as much as they could manage, which meant a hefty number of people would miss out. With Miles in control this changes significantly, but as you say, it is all falling apart a little by the time they’re rescued. As it seems all this time our favourite Elena and others have been working busily behind the scenes, and luckily weren’t killed doing whatever they were doing.

Tsana: Yes, I love how Elena and Ellie were actually watching Miles on the security feeds the entire time, and were tasked with translating his oblique statements into Dendarii orders without alerting the Cetagandans who were also watching and working alongside the two Dendarii spies. What a job!

Katharine: I’d love to see the same novella from their POV though - infiltrating and general spywork? Way more badass than Miles’ usually ‘get beaten up until it all works out in the end’ mantra.

Tsana: That’s true. We have not, so far, seen those two interacting with each other very much, although we know that they are separately very close to Miles. HMM. If only Bujold were planning more Vorkosigan books in the near future.

Katharine: We can only hope Bujold is reading this, and goes ‘oh that’s right, here’s something saved in some folder on my computer somewhere - here you go!’

Tsana: Haha, one can dream. But new stories or not, we have plenty to go in this ongoing reread. I, for one, am excited to get started on the next book!

Next up we’ll be discussing the novel Brothers in Arms. Tune back in about a month from now.

Previous discussion posts:

Shards of Honour

Barrayar

The Warrior's Apprentice

Mountains of Mourning

The Vor Game Cetaganda

Ethan of Athos

Labyrinth

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[unbizzarre]

Byerly Vorrutyer Character Designs

BYERLY VORRUTYER of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga

Tried to go for a rapidly-aging prettyboy with the gothic heavy lidded eyes (idk how to describe the eyes I’m talking about) and a face that reads as male while having something slightly feminine about it. A face that smiles often but is composed, cool. Slightly wavy black hair that is either shortish, chin length, or slightly shorter than shoulder length (I haven’t decided yet 😅)

Designing faces is not my strong suit so I am working backwards from a few references I like. Will probably simplify artstyle, slightly lengthen hair and mix with a dash of Professor Venom from OK KO (for that little bit of haggard twink energy) to creat the final design.

References:

Wardrobe:

Materials: silk, velvet, ruffles lace, detailed embroidery, military piping, sheer cloth, fur — echoes of beautiful luxurious handmade traditional artisan clothing- but all a little to gaudy and cheaply produced - the barrayaran aristocrat version of fast fashion. Androgynous and galactic styles occasionally thrown in to add to mystique

-SHIRTS: silk shirts // shirts with poofy or frilly sleeves // patterned shirts // sheer shirts // velvet shirts // shirts that are tucked in the pants but so unbuttoned the entire chest exposed

- SUITS: velvet suits that absolutely reek of cologne // sleezy yet sharp barreyaran style black suits you might smoke a cigar or play pool in // pastel suit for daytime garden parties

WARDROBE ACCENTS

- bigass fur coat - maybe even almost a midieval king robe

- several offensively knock off fast fashionmilitary style jackets

- luxuriously patterned bathrobe

- see through shawl / wrap / night robe thing

- some gaudy galactic style outfits

- a few sexy or frilly dresses to piss off the family

- a few a casual / slightly more subdued blend of komarran, barrayaran and practical galactic clothing he only really wears at home (stuff he wears when he’s not preforming for an audience). maybe some sentimental pieces. What’s hidden beneath the camouflage.

- some bling: rings and earrings. A few broaches and cuff links probably not that many necklaces

EDIT: here are some reference collages I put together! Note that these references aren’t the exact items that he would have in his closet but rather there are aspects to each piece that I would want to incorporate into his design. Maybe it’s the cut of a sleeve, the silhouette of a coat, the way a robe drapes, the embroidery pattern on some fabric, or the general partied-too-hard vibes of a particular photo of a model.

Bastardized military jackets:

Neglige options / heavier nightfrobe options:

Bigass fur coat:

Shirts (please ignore the long blue scarf in the central image like wtf is that- the rest of the suit is nice tho):

Party vibes:

A lot of these aspects would then be mixed with my own head cannon for the rules/cuts of barreyaran mens clothing (I went to a library and spent a stupid insane amount of time looking through books with midieval, 1800s and 1900s men’s fashions and France, Russia, and Greece- + additional books of traditional folk clothings and textile patterns + several other books of historic military uniforms…. The process and choices were so long that I had to give up and just stop thinking about any sort of vorkosigan related character design for a couple months cuz my head hurt. - I will probably make another post at some point with more annotated collages and possibly some of my own drawings synthesizing the concepts, but uh not right now because I need a nap just thinking about trying to organize it all.)

If you’d like to see a little more of vorkosigan universe costume imaginings here’s my Pinterest board on it (kinda) https://pin.it/2rOoHsq it’s a extremely disorganized and from early hyperfixation days so none of my fashion history research stuff is there (cuz that was all physical book stuff) but uh, you can look at it if you want.

P.S.

If you have any feedback or critiques on the design so far, or ideas for how you think By should look, let me know! I love hearing other people’s interpretations 😊.

Photos of faces you think look like By, pictures of outfits that feel Byerly-ish, or direct quotes from the books about his demeanor or appearance are also welcome!

@starfishlikestoread it’s been approximately a thousand years but I’m finally getting around to that Byerly fanart! Hope you enjoy 😅

[captainlordauditor]

@animatedamerican (because really this belongs on its own post)  But also, assuming they didn’t allow military design elements to sneak into womens’ clothing - is Cordelia also horrified by the continued romanticization of war, or delighted by the allowance of women, however subtle, into the most valued aspect of Barrayaran society

[waffle-sorter]

Now that’s interesting.

I looked at the first one, and my reaction was that it looked very Bajoran.

By the time I scrolled to the third or fourth I was going “Is this Vorkosigan?”

But the only Bujold books I’ve read are her fantasy works. I was getting that impression based solely on Internet (primarily Tumblr) osmosis.

KNAPP The Post - war collection A/W 2012/2013 Costume design and styling Antonia Yordanova Photography and post production Diliana Florentin Jewellery design Milko Boyarov Make-up Slav Hair styling Dani Molchovska @ Arlet Hair studio Model Pirina @ Ivet Fashion MA Supported by Sonja Dimitrova

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