How to refer to clothes without modern words ? (e.g: t-shirt)
This is a constant struggling point of mine. Most of my settings take place in fictional worlds often inspired by various parts of human history.
For instance, one of my stories is located in an Ancient Egypt inspired world. (EDIT : My setting is only based on Ancient Egypt and the clothing is not accurate to what it really was like back then. My characters wear anachronistic clothes.)
In these worlds I am creating, people, well, obviously, wear clothes. Although description is far from being one of my writing strengths (I avoid this weakness by making it part of my style that I don't describe much), I almost always picture very clearly in my head the characters and the way they dress up. In fact, as I am not so bad at drawing, I even use to draw them and their outfits.
The thing is, well, I can't — and it would be stupid to try — ever avoid describing things. Sometimes, it really is important to explain the reader some details he cannot invent by himself. While just writing descriptions is a little problem in itself for me, the worst part of it is describing outfits.
Words like t-shirt, for instance seem really out of place in fictional and not futuristic worlds, like the Egyptian one I mentioned above. But when what my character wears is basically a t-shirt, how do I describe it?
Also I have to mention that I write in French and we use the English words t-shirt, shorts, sneakers or pullover as is, which seems even wronger when used in fictional worlds. But not only English words cause me problems: scarf, for example, for which we have a French word, seems out of place when describing a long piece of cloth the character is wearing around his neck, but not to keep him warm (when in the Egyptian setting it is even worse). Even trousers is weird in some settings.
A trick I often use for lack of a better way is to blandly refer to clothes with very generic words like haut (French for top):
He was wearing a white top and a long piece of cloth around his neck.
See the above example. It is really generic and doesn't tell me much about, for instance, the length of the sleeves of the said top. Or basically anything about it. Moreover, if I have to describe several characters' outfits at once, it quickly becomes boring and makes it harder for the reader to see the characters in their mind.
[Character1] was wearing a dark blue top and a long bottom1. [Character2], however, had a long piece of cloth around his neck and a red top with long sleeves. His bottom1 was short and stopped just above his knees.
1 Not sure this word can be used in this context in English. Sorry if not.
Where I could have just said:
[Character1] was wearing a dark blue t-shirt and and a pair of trousers. [Character2], however, had a scarf around his neck, a red pullover and was wearing shorts.
(Dumb example with dumb clothing)
Well, this is it. I'm sure there is no best way but I'd like to know what techniques you employ to describe clothes similar to ours in fictional words where the modern words we use seem out of place.
I'm writing in French but I believe the problem is quite the same, although even worse in my case.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/25956. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
4 answers
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The answer to this is "do your research."
If you're writing about Ancient Egypt, you start by Googling "clothes in Ancient Egypt." If you're really serious, you find books about Ancient Egypt and go to museums to study what's been unearthed, written, and saved.
Your paucity of imagination is remedied by cracking open a book. That will tell you the terms you're looking for.
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A t-shirt is a short-sleeved pullover shirt. A chemise (a term still used) is a short-sleeved pullover dress, like a nightgown. Robes are full or half sleeved garments, typically open in front and tied or buttoned closed, that reach to mid-calf or even the floor.
Describe how the clothing is used, donned, or appears. Is it tight or loose? Does it reveal a figure or hide it? Are the arms or legs exposed, or not? Is it trousers or a dress or gown? Where does it end on the leg: Mid-thigh? The knee? The calf? The ankle?
A dress can be closed at the waist, made to be stepped into, with a belt or sewn on ribbons to cinch it at the waist. It can be open-backed with buttons to close it, or ribbons or ties.
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Your options are:
- Use modern terms
- Use antquated terms
- Use generic terms
- Use invented terms
If you really think about it, that's all you have to work with. However, there's a wide palette of ways to mix and match these approaches to add flavor.
My recommendation would be to research the correct term for the historical dress. Once you have the most precise historical equivalent you can find, ask yourself "is this good enough?" If it is, then great! If it isn't, then its time for you to invent a term for your particular gear.
Once you have this term, treat it somewhat like you would a character. You'd never assume that the reader knows that Alice is a curious sort of girl, why assume they know that a Shalwar Kameez* is a type of loose trouser? Teach them the ways of your clothing.
This is a great opportunity for that overused phrase: show don't tell. You don't have to give a definition for every clothing word you use. Instead, show them. At some point, when your character is wearing Shalwar Kameez, and spills wine, say he spilled wine on his trousers. Back and forth utilization of the proper name, generic terms, and description will build up the nature of the clothing industry in your world almost for free! It's how we learn the meaning of words when we are children, and it works at any age!
* I chose this particular article of clothing simply because its a name that is not typically known in Western cultures. I, myself had to look it up, so if I actually got this clothing term wrong, my apologies!
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25984. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Several people have said that you should look into the historical names for clothing. However, as you pointed out on what's answer, a name that the reader is not familiar with can confuse him. This has happened to me plenty.
There are two things that you can do here, both of which I would recommend:
- Describe the function of the clothing
- Equate the look of the clothing with something in your setting that looks similar.
Describe the function. The first thing is to stop relying on already-made terms. Pants, shirt, sweater... as you have pointed out, all have a futuristic feel. As what mentioned, you can use terms not tied to time, such as 'shoe' or 'loincloth'. But better yet, do not use any terms at all. Describe the clothing.
I know you said that description is not your strong suit, but you're going to have to do it. Describe the clothing and its function. Then you can call it whatever you want:
He wore a veldera, a long piece of cloth draped over his shoulders, wrapped about his chest twice, and secured with a rope.
The other thing you can do is to equate the clothing with something that looks similar.
It gave him the distinct appearance of a mummy.
You can also combine these two methods, and describe the function by equating it with something else:
The lator was made from rough wool, giving the wearer the look and feel of an elderly sheep. It fit snugly about the chest, with long sleeves that covered the arms, and was said to be as warm as the skin of a bear.
Note that the above could easily be used to describe a rough woolen sweater. Case in point.
I hope that helped!
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