Some thoughts on wizard fashion...
Apr. 12th, 2004 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
donnaimmaculata...Or: What sort of underwear do they wear?
Nah. I'm not going to talk about Snapey's pants or Sirius' black silk boxers. (Or was it Draco's?) But there is something that vaguely annoys me as one of the things that don't really make sense within the universe Rowling created. (And because I am dodging work, as usual.) So: Traditional wizard wear consists of long robes worn over underwear, right? No trousers for student!Snape, nor for old Archie nor for Albus himself (so we assume, though I really don't want to dwell on this particular image). Old wizards also tend to wear long hair and beards. Obviously, Rowling based her conception of wizard style on a very traditional image of wizards and witches, pointy hats and all. However, Molly Weasley, who comes from a traditional wizard family and is only marginally acquainted with Muggle culture, does not accept Bill's long hair as an aspect of proper wizard fashion. It is Percy, with his nicely trimmed hair and his horn-rimmed glasses, who is the ideal son. It is one of those inconsistencies that annoy me, because Rowling obviously screwed up the internal logic of the HP universe: Her Percy is the standard Head Boy/bureaucrate nerd of the Muggle world, not of the wizarding world. Percy is the personification of rules and old wizard values, which, however, differ from those in our world. Wizards like Percy don't assume Muggle fashion (short hair and jeans). They wear old-fashioned robes and grow a beard.
As to the old What-do-they-wear-under-those-robes? question: It is my personal convicion that, though the older generation as well as more traditional wizards like a healthy breeze around their privates, the younger generation tends to wear trousers. Even the Weasley children wear jeans when not in school (they have to change on the train) (on a side note: Harry and Ron change on the train while Hermione is in the same compartment, which leads me to the assumption that they merely pull on the robes over their Muggle-style clothes) - and they come from a traditional wizard family with no real knowledge of the Muggle world. As to the adult generation: While Snape, presumably a pure-blood who has spent all his life either at Hogwarts or in Voldemort's gang, is a healthy-breeze candidate, Remus, who is a half-blood and moves around the Muggle world dressed like a Muggle (OotP) would surely appreciate a pair of trousers now and again, especially if it's cold or he's in danger of having to run away very quickly, which is much easier when not wearing a dress. And then there's Sirius, who used to ride a Muggle motorbike. Even if one's not an outspoken supporter of LeatherTrousers!Sirius (I'm not.) (Ew), it stands to reason that he wouldn't ride a bike wearing merely his robes, if only because of the aesthetical aspect (hitched-up robes; hairy calves). Besides, there's the fact that Kreacher was snogging Mr. Black's old pair of trousers in OotP. Subtle hints as to Father Black's affinity towards Muggle things? Or merely another of Rowling's lapses in logic?
Nah. I'm not going to talk about Snapey's pants or Sirius' black silk boxers. (Or was it Draco's?) But there is something that vaguely annoys me as one of the things that don't really make sense within the universe Rowling created. (And because I am dodging work, as usual.) So: Traditional wizard wear consists of long robes worn over underwear, right? No trousers for student!Snape, nor for old Archie nor for Albus himself (so we assume, though I really don't want to dwell on this particular image). Old wizards also tend to wear long hair and beards. Obviously, Rowling based her conception of wizard style on a very traditional image of wizards and witches, pointy hats and all. However, Molly Weasley, who comes from a traditional wizard family and is only marginally acquainted with Muggle culture, does not accept Bill's long hair as an aspect of proper wizard fashion. It is Percy, with his nicely trimmed hair and his horn-rimmed glasses, who is the ideal son. It is one of those inconsistencies that annoy me, because Rowling obviously screwed up the internal logic of the HP universe: Her Percy is the standard Head Boy/bureaucrate nerd of the Muggle world, not of the wizarding world. Percy is the personification of rules and old wizard values, which, however, differ from those in our world. Wizards like Percy don't assume Muggle fashion (short hair and jeans). They wear old-fashioned robes and grow a beard.
As to the old What-do-they-wear-under-those-robes? question: It is my personal convicion that, though the older generation as well as more traditional wizards like a healthy breeze around their privates, the younger generation tends to wear trousers. Even the Weasley children wear jeans when not in school (they have to change on the train) (on a side note: Harry and Ron change on the train while Hermione is in the same compartment, which leads me to the assumption that they merely pull on the robes over their Muggle-style clothes) - and they come from a traditional wizard family with no real knowledge of the Muggle world. As to the adult generation: While Snape, presumably a pure-blood who has spent all his life either at Hogwarts or in Voldemort's gang, is a healthy-breeze candidate, Remus, who is a half-blood and moves around the Muggle world dressed like a Muggle (OotP) would surely appreciate a pair of trousers now and again, especially if it's cold or he's in danger of having to run away very quickly, which is much easier when not wearing a dress. And then there's Sirius, who used to ride a Muggle motorbike. Even if one's not an outspoken supporter of LeatherTrousers!Sirius (I'm not.) (Ew), it stands to reason that he wouldn't ride a bike wearing merely his robes, if only because of the aesthetical aspect (hitched-up robes; hairy calves). Besides, there's the fact that Kreacher was snogging Mr. Black's old pair of trousers in OotP. Subtle hints as to Father Black's affinity towards Muggle things? Or merely another of Rowling's lapses in logic?
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-13 11:58 am (UTC)I didn't take the movie canon into consideration, so the question whether or not Lucius' got long hair does not signify in this argument. My opinion is based on the conception Rowling's obviously got with regard to the fashion and accessoire style in the wizarding world: she paints a very traditional picture of wizards: long floating robes, pointy hats, writing with quills, riding broomsticks, using candles as light sources, brewing toad and snail essences in cauldrons etc. It's not so much the way she describes single characters, it's the entire atmosphere her writing evokes. Her witches and wizards look like the witches and wizards used to look hundreds of years ago. And although I'm sure that everyone could name examples of short-haired wizards known from books and films, the traditional image of such wizards as Rowling describes them is: long robes, pointy hats, beards. (Take Terry Pratchett, the man who picks up and twists cliches and throws them back into our faces: his wizards are elderly men with long fancy robes and beards. Because this is the classic image of wizards.)
So, although the single characters in Rowling's universe might have short hair (I'm sure Lupin does, and so does my version of Lucius), the meta-wizard, the wizard archetype Rowling uses looks like Albus Dumbledore.
My conclusion now was that since this is the traditional wizard look, the appearance of wizards who obviously are more traditionally inclined (regardless on whether in a Malfoy sort of way or a Percy sort of way, who has very strict codes and values regarding rules and guidelines) would not correspond with the Muggle nerd (or the Muggle banker or the Muggle politician - in Lucius' case) but with the wizard equivalent.
And I do think that she didn't think this through to the end. She created the image of Percy as the archetype of a Head Boy and nerd, but not as the archetype of a wizard, which he should primarily be.
The "pants yes or no" question is more or less a by-product. But one that is always worth a thought *g*
no subject
Date: 2004-04-13 01:08 pm (UTC)In response to what you're saying, though, about JKR creating a traditional wizarding world: I always got the impression (though an impression is probably all it is) that the traditions at Hogwarts are fairly ancient. It rather reminds me of those old English boarding schools (which I've never seen up close, but anyway…) -- school uniforms, tight regulations, maybe even separate schools for boys and girls, while in the rest of the world, people are wearing jeans and getting weird haircuts and couples kiss in the streets. What I mean is that I don't really get the impression that Hogwarts reflects the state of the rest of the wizarding world; yes, it adopts the classical view of wizards in robes and pointy hats, but that's not the way it is in the rest of the world. (Except, perhaps, in certain old pureblood wizarding families.) Hogwarts feels like it's outdated compared to the Outside World. There's never any mention of wizards wearing hats outside Hogwarts, I think. It's more like a school uniform, both for the students and the staff. And I imagine they'd look pretty stupid in their school uniform while being outside the school, even while applying for, say, a job at the Ministry.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-21 02:19 am (UTC)Sorry for the belated answer. I was absent from LJ for weeks.
Anyway, I think that Rowling makes quite a point of stressing how different the lifestyle and fashion of the wizarding world are from those in our world. Regardless whether you pick out the pointy hats, the emerald cloaks or the swishy robes: Wizards look different from Muggles and they are not particularly apt in dressing like Muggles. At the Quidditch World Cup, Harry remarks that the campsite manager - Mr. Roberts (?) - was recognisable as the only Muggle - because all the others were dressed funnily. Wearing ponchos to pin-stiped trousers and stuff.
So, the point is not what exactly they wear (pointy hats or top hats is really rather interchangeable). My point is merely that traditional wizard fashion is different from traditional Muggle fashion. So, logically, a wizard who follows traditions and sticks to the rules should look like a wizard and not like a typical Muggle. Especially at the Ministry. It was the Ministry wizards at the world cup, after all, who had no idea how to dress like Muggles.