Talk:Dynastic Fashions
Panoplies of Fashion
Those with experience in modern reality might consider it normal for the wealthy (and the poor who wish to feel wealthy) to wear clothes once or twice and then discard them, or for the famous to be provisioned with a different grand garment for every social occasion by fashion houses eager for advertising, this is not the case in Exalted... such a thing is intimately linked to the current economic and cultural systems, an expression of wealth and power through the lens of overwhelming consumerism. In Exalted, Creation is home to those with wealth and power, who wish to express this, but the culture surrounding that expression is a different sort of thing.
Good outfits, like works of art or artifacts, are treasures, and are treated as such by those who wear them and those who admire them. A set of court robes might have been handed down across several generations of Dragonblooded, each of whom lived storied centuries and who pass that reputation on to the garments associated with them as much as their clothes.
The Immaculate Order, though rarely embracing the opulent, sometimes smiles on this tradition, for the peasant whose threadbare tunic has been passed down from his grandfather can be told they walk in the footsteps of the Exalted should they dare gripe over the rough hemp against their skin while Dynasts enjoy silk.
Of course, not EVERY garment has a story, just as not every sword bears a legend. In addition to the most valuable heirloom garments and the hugely expensive court attire demanded by the Scarlet Empress, there are lesser clothes worn by the Dynasty. A cotton robe for practice or after bathing, when stained with sweat and dirt, can be laundered or can be discarded as a donative to gird Immaculate monks or household servants and their families... indeed the payment of some staff includes provision of such hand-me-down garments. But such disposability inherently speaks negatively to quality, for if a garment were truly valuable, it would be worn often and never given away.
