Chapter 4 - Clothing, Tailoring and Design
"She shoved a pair of close-woven blue-green trousers at Menolly. 'This should
match the leather pants, and it does,' she said tossing to Menolly a dark blue
jerkin. 'Put that lot on the chest there and try on this wherhide jacket...
Here's a hat and gloves. And tunics." (Dragonsinger, p124)
-
General introductory information about Pernese clothing
-
Tailoring and design terminology
-
Information on various different articles of clothing
-
Clothing styles on Pern according to geographical
region
-
Benden Hold and Weyr
-
Fort Hold and Weyr
-
The High Reaches
-
Igen
-
Ista
-
Southern Boll
-
Tillek
-
Clothing styles according to specific Pernese events
The basic thing to remember about Pernese clothing is that the style is
loosely based on late medieval clothing, though people wear trousers, not
tights. There are no zippers, though there are button flaps, drawstrings
and a two-sided substance like Velcro.
Making clothing is a time-consuming process and most ordinary people have
only a few sets of simple clothing. High-ranking people will have more
elaborate clothing, often Weavercraft-made. Weavers will make special
Gather clothes for them as well. Some Pernese have a keen eye for style.
In the holds closer to the Weavercrafthall, and in the Weyrs, clothing
tends towards the ornate with complex designs and patterns, whereas in
other holds and many crafts, clothing tends towards the practical with
residents, and apprentices wear simple blouses/tunics and trousers in
their organization's colours.
Clothing for women:
Dresses of varying lengths from knee-high to floor length, blouses, skirts,
trousers, overalls, wool sweaters, fur-lined cloth jackets (for high ranking
people) lace trimming, lace gloves. In the south, muumuus, sarongs, and
daishikis may be worn. Also veils and head scarves to block out the harsh
sun.
Clothing for men:
Trousers, overalls, blouses, tunics, shirts, wool sweaters, fur-lined
cloth jackets. In the south, turbans may be worn.
Children generally wear miniature versions of whatever adults wear.
If you have any questions about clothing, please ask a
Weaver.
- Basting
- Basting is the sewing of long, loose
stitches,
and is usually only a temporary means of holding fabric together.
- Bodice
- The close-fitting body of a dress.
- Collar
- The band which is the part of a garment at the heck. Collars can be
high, stiffened, low, narrow, wide, layered, edged with
lace
or other trim, fastened with ties, buttons, or a brooch, etc. See also
the entry for necklines.
- Flounce
- A hanging strip sewn to the skirt of a dress.
- Hemming
- The 'hem' refers to the border of a garment, doubled down and
sewed
so that the edge will look neat and will not unravel. This is done by
marking the hemline, and then trimming the hem allowance to an even width
all round. Pin up the hem, pinning at right angles to the hem. Never
slant pins or place them parallel to the hem. This will cause a shift in
the layers of
fabric,
which will lead to an unattractive twist in the finished hem.
- Neckline
- The border at the throat or neck of any garment which covers the upper
half of the body. Necklines can be high, modest, low, wide, narrow,
scooped, rounded, plunging, off-shoulder, squared, v-shaped, or edged
with
lace,
a collar, or other trim.
- Shirring
- Shirring involves the puckering or gathering of
material
with
stitches
done in
thread
which has an elastic quality to it. This quality is achieved by having
a
cotton
thread wound around a fine elastic core. It is best to use fine
fabrics
for shirring. The result is a material which can stretch and is
self-adjusting. It is excruciating to do this technique by hand, and thus
shirred fabrics are a rarity on Pern.
- Sleeve
- That part of a garment which covers the arm. Sleeves can be long,
short, or medium length, they can be tight, loose, puffed, stripped,
layered, flaring, they can be caught up close to the arm at one or more
points along their length, they can end in cuffs, ties, points, ruffles,
buttons, etc.
- Tailor's Tacks
- These are tacks used for marking positions, for joining folds, etc.
Benden has carefully guarded treasured patterns for
patchwork,
which it uses for clothing as well as for the
quilts
for which the area is justly famous. Ornate sleeveless padded vests in
patchwork worn over shirts are a trademark of the fashionable Bendenite.
Embroidery
is a skill many take up to pass the long evenings. Clothes are made by
tailors,
but, especially during an Interval, clothesmaking is a spare-time
occupation of dragonriders at
Benden Weyr.
Evenings will often be spent discussing
types of stitching
and how to get the most out of pieces of
fabric.
Fort Holders have a keen eye for style. Since they are so close to the
Weavercrafthall in
Southern Boll,
Fort Holders get the news first on what is fashionable for each season.
The Hold lies in the temperate zone, so the styles of dress vary with
the seasons. In the cold season, fur-lined cloth garments are necessary
in the stone corridors of the Hold and the Weyr, even though the thermal
heating keeps off most of the chill. The holders wear floor-length
dresses and pants through most of the Turn, though the weather gets very
hot in the height of summer, when someone may reinvent the bikini or
weave clothing out of grasses, depending on how much attention he or she
wants to attract.
Tastes in clothing tend toward the ornate in Fort Hold. In the evening, the
holders design new clothes, using stones and hammered gold or silver leaf and
interesting
dyed
designs for adornment. The Hold is famous for its complex
brocades,
knit
or
woven
on multiple
looms.
The knit brocades are done on
needles
as thin as sewing needles, using ordinary
thread
of
sisal
or
cotton,
but there's nothing ordinary about the results. Brocade jackets cut to the
ancient Chinese pattern turn up from time to time.
Many patterns of
weaving
and
embroidery
are peculiar to Fort Hold. The weavers
can produce cotton
velvet,
terry cloth, and other slubbed fabrics. A common
cloth similar to denim is made for work clothes. Long sleeved boat-necked
sweaters and bush trousers are recommended wear for going outside the
Hold, as there are many plants to beware of in the brush: needlethorn,
itch-leaf, saw grass, and other plants too useful to medicine or cookery
to wipe out.
The weaverhall of High Reaches is unusually skilled. The weavers shear
the llamas that High Reaches uses as pack animals; the hair is woven into an
unusually fine and soft, warm cloth.
The
knitters
in High Reaches practice the art of
felting,
a Craft they share with
Southern Boll,
though anyone can tell the difference between holder-made
and Craftmade goods. As a rule, High Reaches holders use their skill for
gloves, sweaters, heavy skirts, and trousers to go under weatherproof
hide. The sweaters of High Reaches are often brilliantly coloured,
predominantly made in tan and blue, the
Hold colours,
but banded with bright gold and red
dyes
made from lichen for greater visibility.
Because of the hot, dry climate, the holders here adopt styles of dress
unique to Igen. Burnoose robes are common, as are broad-brimmed hats,
high-crowned to provide plenty of room to cool the scalp underneath
during the long days. Under the wide hats protecting their faces from the
sun, Igen women wear veils and snoods over their hair to keep out the
dust. They favour bright colours and resemble fantastic insects in the
shimmering landscape of the desert.
Ista is well into the tropical zone. Its temperature throughout a Turn
never goes below 55 degrees during the day, and is often very hot
indeed. Like the people of
Southern Boll,
Istans wear either many layers of thin fabric or
very little at all, depending on how each person chooses to deal with the
heat.
Shell jewelry is popular here. Mother-of-pearl, scrimshaw, and cameos, not
to mention strung lengths of tiny, pretty shells, are common adornments
for both men and women.
Surrounded as it is on three sides by the cool end of the oceanic current,
the Hold boasts hot, balmy weather in all seasons. Hats will not stay on in
the constant wind, so those who live in Southern Boll tend toward veils, head
scarves, and turbans. For those who do not mind the sun, muumuus, sarongs,
bikinis, and daishikis are not uncommon wear; there is even the occasional
grass skirt.
A much-practiced skill in Tillek during storms and bad weather is
knitting.
Mothers teach their fosterlings the skill from the time they can hold the
needles,
and gradually introduce them to
stitches and patterns
of greater complexity and intricacy. On a typical evening, the men will
gather to mend nets or knit, using the same skills for different
applications.
Like all the Sea Holds, Tillek fishers use a
specific stitch pattern
to denote port of origin. Tillek seaholders wear a trellis stitch in
which the Hold symbol can be easily rendered. It is often dyed in the
Hold colours: white and blue from the fields of meadowsweet flowers that
grow in the nearby mountain valleys. The sturdy, nearly waterproof
sweaters and jerseys serve to protect the person wearing them from the
elements, but also for identification if the body is washed ashore.
Traders compete to get the most skilled work of the
knitters
to take with them on their travel routes to the temperate Holds,
especially those closest to the snowy wastes. These are done in colours
other than those reserved for the Hold fishers. Nalbindning mittens,
incredibly warm, harder-wearing than knit, and more flexible in cold and
wet than hide, fetch a handsome price. The ancient secrets of their
making are not for sale. Some
brocade
knitting is done here, but it cannot compete with the delicate brocades
of
Fort Hold.
Previous chapter | Next chapter | Main
encyclopedia page | Encyclopedia index | Weavercraft home page