Clothing:
Ava's Court Under Gelion
Court Fashions
- Sevolites wear vests and jackets that permit display of their lineage in the form of stylized "braid". The patterns may be embroidered into the clothes or expressed in lacing patterns that hold a vest closed or bind pieces of leather into a wearable garment.
- The more Demish, the more ornate. Vrellish Sevolites prefer vests that are easily shed. A Demish prince might have the patience to stand still for a complicated lacing session, but if a swordsman would require stretchy lace that would not inhibit movement.
- Lacing and embroidering in house braid is a highly skilled and demanding art done by hand and performed by commoner artisans.
- Colors reflect those for which Hearths of Fountain Court are named. (See Houses of Sevildom feature.)
- Style may emphasis current alliances and preferred identity or historical origins.
So this, Erien thought, was what he was. Across the room, from the mirror, someone looked back at him that he did not recognize. A Pureblood of Sevildom. The leather panels of his overjacket were held together by the intricate braided knots which proclaimed his ancestry in as much exhaustive detail as any Demish genealogical recitation. The front fastening had taken the braid-weaver nearly an hour, and much lacing and unlacing, to accomplish; plainly, he had given little prior thought to how one should combine Lor'Vrel and Dem'Vrel. But then, Erien observed to himself a little bitterly, nobody had given much thought to accommodating the Throne Price.
Chapter 19, Throne Price
Clothing, though not always clean, was far from drab. The locals' brightly dyed, vat-drawn synthetics ranged in style from imitations of court garb to simple tabards and trousers. Natural fabrics were worn as ornaments, tufts of fur, ropes of woven leather, medallions of leather or fur or stretched silk on metal chains. Natural fetishes were for good luck, or for a better rebirth if luck ran out.
Chapter 3, Throne Price
The food seller took a step closer, making Amel's heart rate speed up. "A sticky bun for you, master?" He had decided Amel was a better-off commoner, a safe bet in this vicinity for someone going swordless beneath a cheap, synthetic traveling cloak.
Chapter 2, Throne Price
- devices
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Each house has a heraldic symbol. (See Houses of Sevildom feature). The symbol occurs in a variety of arrangements or poses. Vrellish decorative impulse is bold, such as Horth Nersal's fondness for black shirts with a single, splendid Nesallian dragon embroidered on it in crimson. Demish taste runs to the baroque.
Liege marks on the collar or near the shoulder of a costume indicate the wearer holds title to the house indicated by other devices or braid displayed by his or her clothes. The marks themselves are small and vary from house to house. Vrellish houses tend to favor slash marks of some sort, such as the Nersallian triple dragon claw cuts.
The leather was worth more than the jeweled ship-and-moon buckle, but the latter proclaimed House Dem'Vrel allegiance.
Chapter 6, Throne Price
Silk caressed his hands. It was an off-white tunic, delicately strung down the left breast in tiny wild flowers. The embroidery was definitely West Alcove, with days of meticulous artistry in every playful tendril and laughing blossom. It came with black tights, a wide belt, and a white leather tri-lyre strap tooled in the same tiny wild flowers."
Chapter 6, Throne Price
- Sevolites idolize nature, even in its humblest forms.
- Leaves, vines or other foliage are common motifs.
- Monatese art features horses and peasant life on Monitum.
- Demish art enobles peasant agriculture.
- Earthly details may be accurate or inaccurate
- Cats are popular in Lorel influenced circles because they had a monopoly on them for hundreds of years, selling spayed and neutered adults as prestige items to other houses of Fountain Court.
- Sevolites find repetitive patterns irritating.
- Flooring is never checkered.
- Marble (real or otherwise) is popular for its ancient association with Earth and varying details.
- Wood or wood grain is even better than marble.
- Furniture sets never duplicate a piece exactly.
- Handmade clothing or decoration is valued over manufactured kinds
- Organic objects are valued over manufactured ones.
The centerpiece -- taking up a quarter of the room -- was an entire miniature village, spread on emerald green hills along a flowing stream. Each of the tiny people was set in place in carefully composed groups of pastoral labor, not a one isolated, misplaced or tipped over. Erien would have stopped to study it -- he had never seen such a thing, and it spoke to him of a childhood quite unlike either of the ones he had enjoyed, on Monitum and on Rire ...
Chapter 7, Throne Price
The Vrellish do not distinquish fashions according to gender. The Demish do. Hybrid houses vary according to their status and cultural identify. Highborn Demish women wear layers of flowing skirts with tighter bodices. Prince Luthan's house, of H'Us, features pearls in ornate women's dresses and uses silver heavily both as jewelry and as the house color. Yellow and pale blue are also popular with H'Us..
A party of errants and women -- mutually exclusive categories, amongst the Demish -- came around the fountain. In the midst of white and silver clothing, and fair hair, he caught sight of hair of pure gold beneath a pearl cap.
Chapter 15, Throne Price
Monatese errants, in dark green livery, acknowledged Amel's presence with their stares, curiosity dominant over professionalism.
Chapter 2, Throne Price
Costumes for Flight and Fleet Service
- flight leathers
- Leather jacket, pants and optional sleeveless shirt made of natural fabric. Use of leather is superstitiously believed to protect the pilot from gap and shimmer The jacket might have device markings embroidered or tooled into it. The pants have built in waste collection linings and fittings to accommodate involuntary voiding under stress . Flights are rarely long enough to require the fittings for other reasons but that, too, is possible. Some ship designs provide for drainage directly into a chamber of the sling cockpit.
[Erien] followed the two women deeper into the Throat, to the door of the Breakfast Hall, and was just in time to catch the uncommon sight of Ameron losing track of his own words at the sight of Ayrium. Golden hair, cropped short enough to wave; worn, white flight-leathers with purple piping and a small crest showing a silhouette of purple hills; white gloves. A slight swagger to a confidently female walk.
Chapter 17, Throne Price
On duty officers wear black uniforms with red insignia designating fleet rank. Wearing house braid is optional. Exceptions are more likely the higher ranking the individual is socially, and tend towards ordinary court dress. The Nersallian fleet is the most coherent and disciplined of the Fountain Court powers. Practice in other fleets vary.
The Liege-Admiral was dressed in Nersallian black with an embroidered dragon snarling in crimson on the silk shirt. He wore the sword he was never seen without.
Chapter 1, Throne Price
Fencing Wear
- Contestants in an arranged duel dress in simple, practical pants and leather shoes. A house device might appear embroidered on the shirt but would be modest in nature. Since such matches are meant to be mortal or at least to first blood, no protective gear is allowed.
- In a spontaneous duel, or melee, contestants fight in whatever they are wearing but will shed vests or cloaks if possible.
- In exhibition matches, contestants usually use some protective gear, but might decline out of bravado. Cloaks and vests worn between bouts are ostentatious.
- Fencers practicing on the Octagon or in private gyms employs padded clothing with face guards and other gear, although these can be omitted in a grudge match such as that between D'Therd and D'Lekker on the Octagon in chapter three of Throne Price
As Erien watched, Dorn feinted, exposing himself just slightly; Ditatt attacked; there was a brief flash of blades and Dorn landed a crisp head cut on Ditatt's brown unruly hair. Even with an edgeless practice sword, that would have hurt. But Ditatt's howl was one of outrage. He fairly danced with frustration, pounding his un-gloved hand on his thigh. "I fell for that. I can't believe I fell for that."
Chapter 3, Throne Price
Sword as Article of Daily Wear
Any Sevolite with rights to defend wears a sword in public.
Most of the occupants of the anteroom were standing, watchful, but poised to mingle if granted a desirable opportunity. They all wore overjackets in house colors, decorated with status braids. And swords. Erien's own sword was packed, in its sheath, in his carryall.
Chapter 1, Throne Price
ARTICLES 
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LJW, May 2000 updated with background graphic Jan 2001)