Edo Japan Clothing

Realistic speaking, the first half of the project is designed around character creation therefore I only researched into clothing images - this was because I found all other reference images to be irrelevant at this moment in time and unnecessary. Found below are images I believe will be of use:

Whilst researching into clothing I found some interesting articles based around Kimonos. These traditionally robe like outfits were first founded during the Edo period and are still being worn today.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/h/a-history-of-the-kimono/

"The kimono developed into a highly expressive means of personal display, an important indicator of the rising affluence and aesthetic sensibility of the chōnin.There were even fashion contests between the wives of the wealthiest merchants, who tried to outdo one another with ever more dazzling displays of splendid costume.Such excesses troubled the shogunate as they threatened to upset the strict social order and sumptuary laws that restricted the kind of fabrics, techniques and colours used by the chōnin were periodically issued." 

These are women of the Edo period wearing various styled Kimonos.

KIMONO REFLECTION 

I'd like my final pieces to be somewhat realistic, despite kimonos designs being relatively straightforward and repetitive it's something which could be incorporated with other fashionable clothing styles of the time. Or I could think of more extravagant styles to be used.

SAMURAI 

If I were to go with a character such as the solider (who'd be a Samurai of the time) there a great deal of different styled armours to chose from as a basic starting point. Above, we've three different warriors all of the same status in varied protective gear. 

Here is another image I found interesting, above once again we have a group of Samurai's but these wearing minimal protective gear.  

SAMURAI REFLECTION

What I found interesting is that there are different types of Samurai's. Typically, when the idea comes to find I imagine extravagant clothing which visualises importance, but after research I found this isn't always the case. 

At this point, I'm not going to do a huge amount of research into clothing as I'm only looking for a rough starting point. When I start my final piece, it will be then were I look into further items such as accessories and hairstyles.

Next step - the next step forward is character creation. I have enough information now to rewrite Christians story, chose a character and start developing that character.