Before I start with the analysis, I just want to say thank you to everyone who is already following this blog or liked/reblogged the first post – I didn’t expect so many people to be interested, and I’m incredibly grateful for that interest. Please bear with me on the art a little bit – I’ll do my best to make it clear and consistent, though it won’t be the best you’ve ever seen. The quality of the images should improve in a week or so, when I'm back at school and can use my scanner. And now – the clothes!

As a starting point for the clothing in The Way of Kings, I thought Vorin fashion would be the best place. Many of the women present in the book are Vorin lighteyes, which means that they would wear a distinctive style of dress: the havah. The havah is a one piece dress, described as being made of silk and having a sleek fit. They are fitted in the bust, waist, and torso, but the skirts are full. Like the militarily inclined coats of Vorin men’s fashion, havahs also have a high collar and buttons up the side. Finally, havhas also have a replaceable hem, and of course the long left sleeve to cover the safehand.

Announcing Cosmere Fashion

Brandon Sanderson’s creativity and innovations in fantasy are well known here on tumblr and in other parts of the cosmere fandom, particularly his unusual magic systems and decidedly untypical settings. However, one of the facets of his writing that I most appreciate is how different and original the clothing is in his worlds. Too often, fantasy clothing ends up a combination of medieval, Renaissance, and Victorian attire, but in the cosmere we see an enormous variety of styles and colors, both among the garments worn by the characters and among the garments referenced only in passing.

To this end, I would like to collect, organize, and report on all of the clothing references in Brandon Sanderson’s cosmere books here, as a record for myself and anyone who is interested or wants to put them to use. The idea is to go book by book, thoroughly exploring each and coming up with designs based on what I find. Each week will focus on a specific topic (or group of topics).

I decided to start with The Way of Kings, as it has the largest variety of clothing, a huge amount of descriptions, and some of the most unique designs among the books. By the end of my reread, I realized that this project was going to be much bigger than I had initially thought, which is where this blog comes in. The purpose is to keep all of this information in one place in an easy to access format, for whoever wishes to use it. And so, I look forward to tomorrow when I can finally share the first post of many after several months of work and a lot of notes.