For those sci-fi writers out there, what kind of clothing do you have your people wear if it is set in the future? And, at least for my case, I mean FAR in the future. Is it unreasonable for people to wear clothes even similar to what people wear today? And if doesn't make sense, how would a writer go about describing these clothes?

Pants evolved through varying intervals from leggings worn to protect runners' legs when passing through coarse undergrowth, bracken and bramble and branch. Breech cloths serve a similar function. Sew a breech cloth onto a pair of leggings and pants are invented.

Collars and lapels emerged as protections for costly waist coats and jackets. They were removable, actually tacked on with a few stitches between washings. Pomades and hair powders were fashionable at the time. Today's collars and lapels are a leftover legacy of that fashion.

Vocations dictate uniform apparel. Printers wore visors with a shiny finish on the brim's underside so they could read a type galley in the reflection. Bibs and aprons and harnesses and suspenders and garters each have a practical purpose. Mechanics and workers with other cleanliness needs wear overalls. Bib coveralls are associated with farmers, the suspender straps eliminating waist belts and belt loops which will catch on machinery. Machine laborers rarely wear neckties for the same reasons. Tunics and pullovers for comfort or immodest quick changes or to protect street clothes, medical professional tunics, for example.

Nudity taboos, fashion extravagances, unisex apparel, gender specific apparel, new trends from new materials or traditional fabrics reimagined. Leather for durability. Wool for durability and warmth and comfort. Kevlar for personal armor. Sheer fabrics for coolness and comfort and immodesty. Cotton for its breathing fabric and low cost. Nylon, Rayon, Dacron, polyester blends, how they lay and cup and support on a selvedge, bias, or straight cut. Decorative darts and pleats, scyes and sleeve lengths, cuffs and seams.

Navy dress blue uniforms' thirteen-button fly, bell-bottom trousers were designed to come off with a tug of the bib fly in case a mariner fell overboard. Bell bottoms for quick removal over shoes. Lots of lore for other reasons why they needed to come off quickly. Bell bottoms have come and gone in fashion fads.

Button and zipper and Velcro fasteners for convenience and fashion. Other accessories for practicallity that merged into status and prestige symbols. Rings engraved with seals of office. Bracelets and necklaces from hand and leg cuffs and collar ties worn by captives, ritual or actual. Pins and brooches from fastening loose apparel like togas and kilts.

Tall head dress is a good way to pick out allies or a leader from a mob. Head gear still serves most of its early practical needs.

What will future milieus be like in how they reflect fashion desires and practicality of apparel? And characterize the society? How does apparel connect dramatically with a story?

I envision all our technology (cell phones, ipods, GPS navigators, etc...) integrated into the clothing. Movement generates the power for them, and they are on hand for whatever the wearer needs. Basic fabric will still be around due to its simplicity, but then so could futuristic materials that don't tear, or get dirty, or require washing, etc. These could be constructed or bio-synthetic clothes based on biotech (like the aliens in Independence Day...)

I went to grad school to study historic textiles.

My advice as far as clothes go is to largely let the reader fill in his imagination. People take clothes for granted. Unless mentioning the clothing gives you added information about the character or is neccessary to the plot etc...

The same way using terms we are already familiar with (like shirts pants etc... is okay too.

People wear clothes for various reasons, but excepting climatic extremes or occupational protective clothing we primarily wear clothes because we want to.

That said clothing give lots of information about the person wearing it, gender, age, social and economic status. People also attach culturally specific messages to clothing like sexiness, fashionability etc... that are hard to understand without the context.

General trends over the past couple hundred years are: the move away from custom tailored and handmade to manufactured clothing in a set range of sizes. This may reverse in the near future as the technology needed to do quick and cheap measured and fit to order with computer aided sizing, pattern making and manufacturing becomes reality. As manufacturing got better clothes became less of an expensive neccesity (people in the 18th and 19th centuries could spend as much as half their income on clothing) to a disposable commodity (people no longer leave their clothing to others in their wills).

As for styles new types of clothing are generally introduced at the less-formal end of the spectrum and gradually become acceptable for more formal wear. Some finally reach a stage where they develop other associations and become fosilized before finally becoming obsolete and disappearing. Court costume, military dress uniforms and Japanese school uniforms are good examples of fossilized clothing. Things like neckties and what we now know as formal suits and tuxedoes are more likely to disappear soon than bluejeans.

In one book I read, all they wore was a apron that hung from a belt and that was in case of leakage. That was a zero G environment. When I read that, I did not ask how the flapping cloth would cover anything when any movement would send it flying around.

quote:

---

In one book I read, all they wore was a apron that hung from a belt and that was in case of leakage. That was a zero G environment. When I read that, I did not ask how the flapping cloth would cover anything when any movement would send it flying around.

---

I've also started reading a series that takes place in the present day but revolves around fantasy. The writing isn't the greatest, but the thing that drives me crazy more than anything else is the author's obsession with describing everything everyone is wearing in detail and by the individual. Even the MC get a fashion review every time she's dressed in something different. I don't mind when it's nice to know what she's wearing because of what she's doing in the story. But the fashion review isn't even necessary about 90% of the time.

Besides, it's a good way to differentiate a change in the background, both from the here-and-now and also between the characters in the stories. Right now I'm working on one of those collapse-of-civilization things I seem so fond of writing, and changes in costuming over a several-hundred-year period are inevitable, I'd think.

quote:

---

Some of the things you see characters wearing in SF / fantasy movies or illustrations are borderline ridiculous when you break it down to the nitty-gritty

---

Very true - but so are some of the things that were worn in the past, and some things that are worn today (e.g. the utter purposelessness of the modern tie with a suit) - it's al a matter of perspective.

I thought of startrek - in that society fashion doesn't matter. So the clothes are very simple. But if its a society with a class system then the higher society people would likely have more complex looking clothes.

A lot of times, it is what costs the most. When the business people (they are the middle class or those with some money to dress more than utilitarian) could not afford silk, the elite wore silk. When the designer names came out, the elite wore designer clothing.
Now in olden times, especially during the middle ages, there were the elite and the poor, and not many in between. It was easy to stay ahead of the middle class, so styles stayed the same for generations.
Nowadays, the middle class is so prevalent and wealthy that whatever the elite has, the middle class ends up with within a few years.
This is why styles change so fast today. The elites cannot stay far ahead of the middle class.

For your stories, you decide what stratification in the society there is, how easy it is to become a member of the elite or fall out of favor.
The easier it is to become the elite, the faster the styles will change. The more difficult it is, the slower the styles will change.

Another thing to look at, is practicality of the clothing. If one is going out into a space suit at a drop of the hat, the hatches are tight, low gravity dictates that clothing be worn close to the body, then the poofy dresses of the Renaissance, (could be the men wearing them instead) will not be practical.

Also, Masters do not want to be mistaken for slaves, and slaves are not to be mistaken for the master. Clothing and hair style, if skin color or other features do not do the job, will be different enough to where there is no question which is which at a glance.
in a society where one sex dominates, such as where muscles still count, the dominant sex will not want to be mistaken for the submissive sex. They will have very different clothing and hair styles. That was the biggest reason men wore pants and women wore dresses over the centuries.

signed,

If humans had evolved with the female gender being dominate in society we would associate conficence and authority with a large bust perhaps?... rather than square shoulders.

These types of associations are very dependant on culture. Here in Japan guys don't seem to get hung up on wearing pastels, traditionally femine colors the way they do in America, just as an example.

quote:

---

Pink used to be considered a very manly color.

---

When one sex depends on the other, it will do what is needed to keep the dominant sex happy, Looking attractive to keep them, will always be a given.

I just had a wild idea. A society that spends most of their time in space suits. They might only sleep in a bedroom clean up, maintain their space suits.
The submissive sex decorates the space suits to look pretty, to keep the dominant partner happy.
Now if it is a society where the dominant partner can be male or female, depending on who is doing better in life.
someone picks up a date, and while everyone thought the person was dominant, suddenly starts decorating the suit.