I’ll be generous and forgive the cut of the coat. Except nothing says, “I STOLE THIS,” with a side helping of “LOOK AT ME,” like that jacket. It’s a bit like the costuming from Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd-completely over the top, not exactly evoking a particular era but vaguely Victorian-ish. Sure, the collar is completely wrong-Victorian collars were much shorter, and usually pressed flat at about a quarter inch-and the pulled threads and stained whites don’t make this outfit look any less expensive, but they’re trying. It’s generic on top of being inaccurate-Jacob Frye, the main character, wears a waistcoat in an emerald brocade, with a red necktie over a workshort. This was the era of dandies and boots with spats and Ubisoft chose to just transliterate Aiden Pearce’s costume to Victorian London. This was the era of men being able to wear capes in public. We no longer think the kinds of men that wear that many vests are interesting or sexy, let alone remotely dangerous. It’s a convention that’s tired at this point. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is going for an American McGee style of cool, a decidedly early 2000s, From Hell with Johnny Depp, look-how-grim-and-gritty-we-are bombast. It’s that what people were actually wearing in the Victorian Era was actually a hell of a lot cooler. It’s not even that the jacket is incredibly ugly, though yes, it’s fucking hideous. The most frustrating part of the costuming here isn’t that it’s so easy to figure out what’s so wrong with it, though yes, that’s really annoying. That jacket, the least conspicuous jacket a poor assassin could possibly wear, likely would have cost more than his entire family for several generations back. The trailer for this game goes out of its way to establish that the character wearing this jacket is working class. On top of that, it’s fucking quilted, which would likely have to have been hand stitched, if quilting leather was even a thing they did in 1868. On top of that, it’s a frock coat, so it’s a lot of leather. But I do know this- Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is set in 1868 and the quality of leather that character wears would be atrociously expensive. My knowledge of historical costuming is about as much as anyone else who has watched the BBC miniseries version of Pride and Prejudice a bunch of times and has idly thought about how one would construct the costumes from various videogames. There was a trailer for a new Assassin’s Creed game, and the main character is wearing a quilted leather jacket.Ī lot of things about that trailer are irritating-trains, the writing, that English accent that sounds like it’s really trying to be Northern but can’t quite make it-but that quilted leather jacket makes me furious.
An important thing happened, and it is taking up all the space in my brain.
I do not have a style guide for you this month.