'True' Elven Dress

Updated with an anatomically correct, but still messy, drawing. (And holy golden monkeys, why the white eyes?! Why didn't I give her eyes?!)

Please do not  use or copy this design. You know that thing that happens, when you're super proud of an original design or concept, and then you turn around and see someone else using it, even though you came up with it first? And you're like, "Oh..." Yeah, I hate that. Please don't do that. (Case and point, I came up with this design in like 2011, and this one in 2010, and as of 2016, the cut-out shoulders are now in fashion. At least I get points for being fashion forward? No? Oh...)

The idea behind this was to create a "true to history" version of what Elven women's clothing might have been like had elves/fairies actually existed. The problem with the Elven clothing you see in medieval/Renaissance/fantasy faires is that it's all medieval, and not even true-to-history medieval, but merely someone's fanciful interpretation of medieval clothing. But epic Elven mythology is primarily from ancient (not medieval) Ireland, which was, like many places in Europe at the time, inhabited by the Gaelic peoples, who dressed more like ancient Greeks, but using heavier and more colorful fabrics. There was also some use of actual dresses/tunics called a leine, and the men wore pants (which Romans later called barbaric. Can you imagine being called barbaric for wearing pants? Ancient peoples... lulz.)

Anyway, in Celtic myths, elves are described as wearing much the same clothing as the Celts themselves, although maybe wore silks more often than the common linen that everyone else wore? I don't know, I wasn't there. Also... they didn't exist, so there's that.

This design is not my my interpretation of what they wore then, but rather what they might have worn later, as their clothing style evolved in a different direction than that of their mortal neighbors, since obviously immortal peoples don't have to be bound by the culture of the insipid mortals around them. I retained some of the Greek styling and combined it with stereotypical "medieval".

This is just a first attempt. One dress style shouldn't be nearly enough, especially as the Greeks themselves managed such varied styles of clothing all just because they could drape and tie their chitons in a million different ways. I just need to figure out how to get further out of the overdone-fantasy-clothing box. I plan on (eventually) creating more of these designs, NONE of which will involve corsets. Lace-up garments of some sort, sure, that makes sense in the absence of zippers, but no corsets. (This way for my full rant on the over-use of corsets in fantasy and "historical" clothing.)