My, my, Nanami really does look like the little bee there, standing in her yellow and black gown.  I think that's going to be a new way to have fun thinking about Nanami, as a little queen bee, and I'm going to semi-crackishly run with it for a spell.  I believe I read that when the queen bee gets old enough or weak enough, or if there is a new bee in town, she can be challenged and overthrown.  All the worker bees below her are females, yet cannot procreate due to her jelly or hormones or something, etc.  Namami, at least in her own immediate clique/hive is semi-secure, for the time being.  Anthy, Utena, and Keiko are perceived threats, un-tamed or uprising worker bees, and Nanami does have her little hidden "stingers," the daggers she pulls out in her first duel against Utena.  (cough)  Despite that tangent, I'm with you on gold as a power-color and for the royal.

Riri-kins wrote:

No, although I think she would subconsciously off screen. Red represents power as well as sexuality.

I don't think I can see Nanami in red.  Despite her malice, lashing out, and the power-neckline you see there, Nanami strikes me as too innocent, too young to wear such a sexualized color that was utilized by her brother.  When I think of Nanami, when she's not trying to melt Anthy's clothes,  I just imagine her, waltzling around with that egg, singing in her high-neckline nighty, and then beating the snot out of Saionji, when he fries an omelette.  I think of the viciously driven girl that starts to sob in that duel against Utena (yeah, I know, after trying to stab her through.)  Red is more Touga's trick to me, and he has enough for both of them.  That's just my opinion.

I agree that the Black rose duelist had some of the least awkwardly colored uniforms; also surprisingly the white in everybody's uniforms seems to help the over all color scheme,a bit. But they could have used more black in general or perhaps gray.

I love the cool black top of Kozue Black rose duelist uniform; it looks really good on her and might make a neat jacket in real life. why are  Tsuwabuki's shorts so short and why are their black leggings/stockings underneath?

Also good points about Utena's uniform, it confuses me that her shorts seem to be sport/running shorts, that really does not fit in to the rest of the school uniform theme of business casual??

OnlyInThisLight wrote:

EVERYTHING THAT AKIO OWNS SEXUALLY IS RED.

I can see this being supported in the series (all of the traditional female school uniforms and student council have red trim); so was Touga's irrevocable destiny to become Akio's star pupil slash bed warmer due to his red hair or was that just a coincidence?


Mrs.Ohtori may have the best outfit on in the entire series; one long black dress. 

To resurrect this thread for a bit, I think I sort of figured out how the tablecloth dress at the end of episode three could work.



On first glance, it could be harkening back to ancient Grecian fashion, though other than the fact that both are made from a single sheet of fabric and the color, this dress is a bit more complex. Also, the green ribbons could also be seen as laurel like.
It could also be a bit of a reference to Shingo Sato's work, with the rose detail reflecting some of his designs.


There's also a pretty in-depth write up on the techniques (in a downloadable pdf called Free Cutting, if you're curious) by Julian Roberts found here. It also serves as a deconstruction of the construction of clothing as well.

Moving onto the dress itself, since Utena in show created this on the fly out of table dressing, it would act as insight to how she sees Anthy. It's miles above just simply shielding someone from embarrassment, she literally creates a spectacular gown that presents Anthy as a model of awe. This also borrows from the base archetype of Cinderella; a woman retrieves a dress for a ball. Since it's made from a tablecloth, and a surprisingly clean one at that, it also shows that Utena thinks of Anthy as someone uncorrupted and needing of protection and treasuring. Along with the ribbons, a remnant from the ruined dress, it gives Anthy an air of elegant innocence. Though it still is an assigned one, crafted from the hands of someone who still has a naive sense of the world.

Basically the dress could mean that Utena wants to be a savior and Anthy plays along with precision. I still really want to make this dress though.

Last edited by zeedikay (08-07-2016 09:10:55 PM)