Fashion

The Fashion Industry is one of our most prized cultural sectors of the economy.

We have three kinds of fashion, traditional and folk wear, Haute-Couture, or high fashion, both tailored and prêt-à-porter, and everyday wear. Any of them can be custom made to an individual

Traditional fashion is often either religious garb or ethnic folk costume, which itself was based on everyday wear albeit dressed up. The most elaborate and ceremonial for commonfolk to wear has been preserved in history, one example is the Bavarian folk costume of Dirndl and Lederhosen, or any so called Alpine wear (Alpentracht).

Haute-Couture in Auzkhia is in the French model, with Parisian tailors and designers being the most prized and celebrated, although, our own domestic high fashion industry is respectable in its own right, but the modern high fashion industry is a French import ultimately, but that is typical for all of Europe. France, the Empire, the UK, Italy are the big four of European High Fashion. Paris, London, Milan, and Vienna are the centers of many shows, models, and designers, even Berlin sometimes eclipses Vienna, they both share the cultural capital status. Other cities like Prague, Budapest, Munich, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main have a share of the high fashion industry. Our textile industry is centered in the Rhineland, which is the most industrialized region, but Bohemia has some too. Vienna served as the gateway between the original Couturiers and our own nation.

Everyday wear generally refers to mass produced clothing and or casual wear. Though clothing is optional in most cases here. Clothing is every really mandated in formal situations, which is why it's not uncommon to see some people only wear dresses or suits, if not military dress uniforms. Though one aspect of the everyday wear is professional use, how one's clothing can help one's work. Jeans that can hold tools or trousers that can be altered on hikes and carry gear. Often you would see jackets or vests that can give a person pockets. Some clothing had origins in modesty, but like it is considered to be more sexual to wear just lingerie rather than being naked. Clothing is usually not mandatory so often our clothes tended to be more elaborate.

Some of it depends on species. Humans often clothe up the most, mostly due to a lack of fur. Though humans can go nude if they desire. Ponies usually prefer to keep clothes for formal or professional things, though the most fashionable augment their look with some clothing. Most pants, skirts, trousers, dresses, etc have tail holes, some will have wing holes, and these can be accommodated in the designs. For example, air force uniforms typically have wingholes since most are Pegasi, but like they give everyone else, unlss they have wings, patches for their uniforms, likewise for humans without tails. A good portion of hominids do have tails and different ears, typically feline, sometimes canine or vulpine too. These get worked into hats and headgear, to work around ears and horns in the case of unicorns.

Unicorn hats have some room in the hat or they have a slit in the visor, though hats never get in the way of magical auras, only anti-magic artifacts can do so.

Religious wear is often ceremonial but some are relics and artifacts with special magic powers to them, only to be ever donned by the most skilled witches and wizards, and the most respected priestesses and priests. A priestly robe has symbols representing their intent or their deities they revere or work with the most. Some are more dedicated to one or few than others. Some religious wear is based on the classical elements of fire, air, water, and earth. Color can be meaningful. Red usually stands for fire, along with motifs of orange and maroon or black, and air has both yellow and red, water is blue, white, and gray, and earth is usually green, gold, and brown, and sometimes black. Typically, religious wear has been some of the most elaborate, besides maybe noble and royal clothing. Sumptuary laws used to exist, and colors were regulated. Brown and white were unregulated as they were basic fabric colors, and often they served as a visual reminder of class differences, even dictating uniforms and professional wear.

However, for some gender is irrelevant in the pursuit of beauty, mares can wear suits and stallions can wear dresses, and there are many trans and non-binary models and designers. Some consider genderfluid and androgynous models to be most useful as they can theoretically sign up for any call. However, some of them may stick with mostly feminine or mostly masculine coded clothing, though gendered clothing has never been the same, we are in a bit of an androgynous renaissance. Both high fashion and casual clothing alike have been seeking to subvert the old gender norms and roles.

Accessories are very important! We have jewelry typically made from gold or silver, but not all of them are. We have necklaces, bracelets, and even some that can augment the face, either with piercings or with collars, bridles, though that's a more recent trend, ultimately borrowing from the BDSM scene. But many designers were active kinksters and would incorporate some kind of bondage wear, subtle enough to get the look but not functional as a restraint.

Alternative fashion
We have punk, we have drag, we have trash-fashion, we have upcycling, we have DIY, we have vintage, we have folk modern, we have it all here. Some of these were pioneered in counter-culture, and artists especially new fashion designers that were independent of any established house will bring their alt-roots to the runway. A lot of these are from youth and young adults who want to truly test the limits of self expression. Some were done because of adapting or improvising with they had. This is still a rebellious undercurrent to established Haute-Couture makes, and some designers do both, especially ones that consider themselves artists before merchants.

Idiosyncratic fashion and style
There are some interesting quirks to go over, though they are not unique to Auzkhia, they do define how fashion is in this world.

Fashion and body mods can go together, fashion can be and often is influenced by magic. Personalization is more than just names, one can put their cutie mark (if they're a pony) on any clothing they own, though the clothes are recycled or at least taken off if they're disposed off or donated. Sometimes names on things exist too, or even more abstractions of a name like an initial letter or a pictograph representation of your name.