(no subject)

[iniquiticity]

Anonymous asked
I'm sorry if you answered it already somewhere, and I missed it/haven't gotten to it yet, but can you explain the gendered elements of fashion in this 'verse? Who wears dresses, and who wears pants, and does anyone wear corsets and other uncomfortable things? Is makeup a thing left for the spouse who functions as "second" in the couple (Like Hamilton is wearing makeup for the ball)?

i did not already answer it but i am happy to answer it for you!

so when i started this story what i really just wanted was for everyone to dress in regency clothes. then as i wrote the story i also wanted gender parity. and since regency clothing is highly gender-specific, i also needed to make all regency clothes also equal.

so, it’s cool if you want to wear either a dress OR pants. if you are the appropriate status of the clothes that you are wearing, that is more important than the gender-association of those clothes. maybe there isn’t even gender association with clothes (i might have referenced this somewhere in the story because i wasn’t thinking super hard about how to explain it, if so i apologize).

alexander wears makeup at the ball for the point of making himself seem more delicate and less pointy and threatening. he wants to be lovely - pink cheeks, dark eyes. the quintessential nonthreatening partner, i guess. though makeup isn’t gendered in greenhouses, and i imagine everyone who shows up to a washington ball is at least wearing something on their lips and some blush to bring out their features. this is a serious event, and everyone wants to look their best. it’s sort like how even dudes wear makeup on TV, you know?

the only exception to this, i think, is that military is very pants-and-waistcoat oriented. so if your main affiliation is military, and that’s something you want to emphasize, you’d definitely wear pants and not a skirt. angelica’s the best example of this: like, if she wants to be john church’s cute wife on his arm and playing that role, she would wear a skirt. but if she’s showing up somewhere as part of a military situation, or she wants to impress strength, she would wear a waistcoat and pants.

but there’s no stigma if you’re a dude and you want to wear a skirt too. i assume there are some dudes in skirts at washington’s ball because that’s the role they wanted to display as/associate with. i wonder if what people decide to wear is economy-based, like sometimes skirts are cheaper or more expensive, so more people wear skirts to display how rich they are, or how in they are. (in which case, if you wanted to seem military affiliated, you might wear your medals on your corset to cover your bases, or you might have to figure out a way to elevate your waistcoast to visible-richness-levels of wearing a nice skirt.)

yes i know i think all the dudes in the story are wearing pants. most of them are famous based on militarty exploits (the generals), although maybe jefferson is actually wearing a really nice skirt at the ball. could be!

i think that covers my bases, but feel free to ask more if you’d like.

the-alexiad said: My guess has been to this point that it’s a matter of practicality–if you’re showing off that you’re so wealthy you can sit around all day, you have a skirt, but if you’re a type who is out doing things you’d go for pants. So if that’s the case, working class families would have everyone in pants, whereas as you get wealthier you might see the second in the relationship opting for a skirt, unless there’s a distinct reason ie a military or working history

this is also a reasonable suggestion!

rileymcdaniels replied to your post:the-alexiad replied to your post “I’m sorry if…

i can just imagine a smarmy jefferson in that velvety fabric that daveed wears as jefferson but, you know, give that shit an empire waist and some ribbon and let it skim delightfully across the floor, okay, fashion is important

this is SUCH a great mental image. jefferson would literally wear the best fucking clothes ever. he would have AMAZING corsets and dresses. i’m kind of sad i didn’t include that in the story at this point.

the-alexiad said: There is stILL TIME. Jefferson wearing pants is basically “fuck you I can get stuff done too” but is a majorly defensive move that he might go back on if Washington loses power. Also, in real life TJeffs considered himself this hero of the yeoman farmer–so he could be doing it for that.