Some notes on clothing in Calenta/Reiassan

I’m working on a tiddlywiki/setting bible, which meant pulling out all my old notes on the setting here, on the old wiki, everywhere, and beginning to compile them.

And then I realized most of the clothing notes, esp. for Rin/Girey era, were in my head and had evolved mightily.

So:

The basic unit of Calenyen clothing is the kiparrie* (orig. Qitari before I realized I didn’t have a Q…). This garment has a high band collar, either split on one side or split in the middle with an asymmetrical cut going off to one armpit (Chef’s coat, cheongsam).

The side the shirts close on indicates skilled worker vs. unskilled labor.

The garment is fitted at neck, chest, and shoulders; sometimes it is fitted down as far as the hips and sometimes it is looser, even baggy. It is worn down to the knees over full pants (tozhyu) or a full skirt (kanzhyu) (except in very warm weather, when it is sometimes worn over very short pants), and it (and the pants or skirt) is almost always worn in layers.

The number of layers is dictated by weather (In summer, this can come down to an undershirt and undershorts and a vest-like over-kiparri with, probably, a light pair of overshorts) and by formality. Layers in deep winter or exceedingly formal situations can number from four to ten.

* This, like “kimono”, is a generic term, with any number of specific terms depending on shape, length of hem and sleeve, purpose, cut of collar, etc…

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