#dilah of volantis

[procrastinatingsoicanreadfanfics]

the fashion of Hand turns Loom - Women

for my fanfic Hand turns Loom (contains some spoilers!)

@levithestripper i think you started reading this once so maybe you're interested?), @ilikeitbetterangsty (i'd love for you to read this fic, but also, this was so fun to make and maybe something for your ocs as well?)

Alethia Stahl

At the beginning of the story, Alethia has to start from scratch again. She's quite dependent on House Strong, and often wears Strong colors (especially blue) for that reason.

Also, she alters some of her clothes to look more like those from home, especially dagged sleeves are something that stay for a while. There's almost no embellishment, which is also for practicality. Her hair is very simple, and sometimes gets compared to men's styles.

As Alethia moves up the ranks of King's Landing and establishes herself, growing close with Helaena and Aemond, her clothes become more adjusted to court fashion. The dresses become cleaner, more well-tailored, and more embellished. Here and there, Alethia begins to throw in a piece of jewellery (apart from her earrings). In the yard, she keeps to the clothes she'd wear training in her old home. Her hairstyles start to become more sophisticated, and often are quite similar to those of Helaena.

The richness of her clothes and hair peak when Alethia marries Harwin. At this point, she's rich, influential and established, but dangers are starting to surround her and her family. Embellishments and gold galore, Strong colors all the way, Alethia becomes a sort of symbol of strength. Subconsciously, she takes a page out of Cersei's book and begins to incorporate armor-like elements into her dresses.

At this point, her hairstyles become stricter again, such as the ones she wore back home, and she wears her hair in braidcrowns.

Helaena Targaryen

At the beginning, Helaena is still very close to canon - the kind of forgotten, kind of ignored middle child. She's still dressed a lot by Alicent who (partly on purpose) dresses her in colors that don't compliment her a lot. The silhouettes are ill-fitted and don't follow many trends of the court.

In her early teens, when Helaena is forced to marry Aegon, she tries to rebel by wearing Targaryen colors. It's an attempt to show that she is a dragon, has a voice, belongs to the family. While she tries to mimic Rhaenyra to gain her freedom, she ends up wearing some of her mother's dresses from when Alicent was trying to fit into the family, which is an irony in itself. During this time, Helaena experiments a lot with silhouettes and hairstyles and grows partial to headdresses and dagged sleeves. Still, she always tries to cover herself and kind of hide in her clothes.

As Helaena kind of begins to find her freedom and herself, she starts to realise that she'll never be some hardened warrior, but she loves and accepts that part of herself. She embraces her softness, her kindness, and this is reflected in her clothing. The lines become softer, her waist drops, her sleeves become more dagged. A lot of it is for comfort, but a part of her still uses her clothes to hide. The colors do become much more suited to her though.

During this time, Helaena wears a lot of blue. It is her secret way of showing Aemond that there's people there for him. Also, she returns to her braid-crown, and starts incorporating more embellishments, some of which are an ode to Dreamfyre (with whom she loves to match).

***

(i haven't written as much on these characters, so there's less pictures, but that doesn't make them any less important!!)

Jena Selmy

When Jena comes to court with Jocelyn Dondarrion, she's only her friends lady-in-waiting and quite low in standing. She mostly wears simple styles, combining fashion from the Stormlands and the Crownlands.

Later, as she becomes lady-in-waiting to Helaena, Jena starts to wear more purple to honor her "best friend" (she's so gay lmao). Generally, her style remains very, very loose, with lots of flowy fabrics. Her sleeves are mostly in the split-sleeve style that is so popular at court.

The money she starts to silently earn in Braavos isn't that obvious in her clothes at first, however, Jena begins to invest in more expensive materials such as Myrish lace and fine silks. She also starts to wear her housecolors some more. Even though she constantly looks like a bride thanks to the white, gold, and beiges in her sigil, the court is well aware she refuses to marry, and it makes her happy to be a better represenation of her house than her father or brother.

Cassandra Strong

Now why is she always dripped the fuck out?? Even as a child, Cassandra loves riches, loves fashion and loves luxury. When Harwin refuses to spend even more money on his daughter, she turns to betting and gambling, and does this quite successfully. Still, in her childhood, Cassandra follows the trends of the court very closely.

Later, when Cassandra gains influence and standing, she begins to incorporate even more detail in her clothes. She loves complicated stitching and stones that are incorporated in her dress. Also, she begins to become a sort of trendsetter, and moves away from the fashion of the court. Nonetheless, 80% of the time, she'll wear blue. It's her color, and she knows she looks good.

As she matures, Cassandra realises that many men don't take her seriously due to her gender and some of the extravagance leaves her clothes. The lines become very strict and harsh, and she tends to cover up more, opting for long sleeves and never wearing wide or low necklines anymore. Cassandra also develops a signature hairstyle (see the pic in the middle) where the silhouette of her hair is always confined to the space around her head.

Morrigan Strong

Morrigan and Cassandra are meant to be polar opposites, and this is reflected in their clothes. Morrigan keeps to Riverland fashion, which Cassandra DESPISES. She dresses for practicality, and wears a lot of masculine styles, especially since she trains so much.

As a child, Morrigan has exactly one dress that's fancy that she likes to wear. She does not like the constricts a skirt brings with itself and prefers to wear things that could be from her father's wardrobe.

When she matures, Morrigan becomes more aware of the politics that are reflected in clothes, and wears dresses at court, and pants outside of it. Still, her clothes are always simple, and maybe even a little below what someone of her station would wear. As said, she dresses for practicality. Has the most comfortable boots in Westeros.

Dilah of Volantis

Growing up enslaved and very poor left a lasting effect on Dilah. She does not feel safe in court, preferring large cities or the wild. Dilah mostly wears "men's clothes", and styles from the Free Cities, especially Braavos. Overall, her clothes are very travel-friendly, and could be worn in many different regions of Planetos.

She refuses to wear anything that could be touched by Volantis.

During Winter, even in the South, Dilah is always cold. She does not cope well with lower temperatures, and that is reflected in her ridiculously warm clothing.

and that concludes my thoughts! i wanted to add baela and medea but there was no space for their pictures anymore. oh well...

[procrastinatingsoicanreadfanfics]

OC faceclaims (young adult version)

idk i made some faceclaims for my ocs on artbreeder and i wanted to share (@levithestripper you might find this cool/do it for your oc?)

from top left to bottom right: Alethia Stahl, Cassandra Strong, Morrigan Strong, Alaric Strong, Edd Stark, Dilah of Volantis; all at around 18 yrs old