Describing Clothing
July 13, 2022
It’s not a monumental discovery to say that characters wear clothing. Unless told otherwise, your readers will automatically assume that a character is wearing clothes. However, if you don't describe their clothing, your readers won’t know if your character is wearing a ballgown or a bathing suit.
When should you describe clothing?
The most obvious time to describe clothing is when a character is first introduced. It’s a good time because you are able to insert an accurate depiction into your reader’s imagination. That way, they are less likely to experience a jolt when twenty pages in, they discover that the character’s beautiful dress was actually shorts and a t-shirt.
A good way to work in a clothing description is within the characters’ physical description. You can also note a change of clothes at the start of a new scene or sprinkle in the description throughout the story. For example, you could note a character tucking a note into their hoodie pocket or stepping in a puddle that splashes mud on the cuff of their jeans and makes their old sneakers squish as they walk.
How to write good description
I find it best to begin by stating exactly what a character is wearing. For example:
She wore a wrinkly, oversized band t-shirt and ripped jeans. Her white high tops were covered with colorful little sketches. She had a thick series of silver bracelets stacked along her wrist.
This description is quite choppy and telly. However, it is very informative (albeit dry and unimaginative). While it would never work in a final draft, it is a good foundation. The exact description is right there so that in editing, you’ll know exactly what you need to describe in a clear and exciting way.
So how do we make dull descriptions vivid and imaginative? Look at this piece of dull description.
A woman wore a long, black dress.
As a base description, this sentence is perfectly fine. However, it is more of a statement than an actual description. Imaginative description needs detail. Don’t just tell us what a character is wearing; make us see it. Look at this rewritten sentence.
She wore a black dress that hugged her slender frame, the hem of its skirt pooling on the floor like spilled ink.
The additional description gives you a better idea of what the dress looks like, and the comparison to spilled ink puts a vivid image in your mind. However, there is one more step to make this description great.
Good description should show, not tell. One way to make sure you aren’t being too telly is to avoid the words such as “wore,” “were,” “was,” “that,” and “had.” Now, all of these words have their use. And, sometimes their use is to describe things. But they can also drag a description down and make it telly.
Let’s go back to the description of the woman’s dress.
She wore a black dress that hugged her slender frame, the hem of its skirt pooling on the floor like spilled ink.
Now let’s look at it without “wore” and “that.”
A black dress hugged her slender frame, the hem of its skirt pooling on the floor like spilled ink.
The second sentence is so much better. It shows readers what this woman is wearing. Again, there are times when words like “that” are needed. My best advice would be to use your judgment and experiment with different words. Find what makes your description pop! Remember, you want to show these outfits to your readers by putting a clear description into their minds.
Go Deeper
Like pretty much everything in writing, describing clothes puts you in danger of info-dumping. For those of you who don’t know, “info-dumping” is when you flood your readers with information, overwhelming (and possibly boring) them. No matter how good your description is, if you simply describe an outfit, it can become too much.
In these cases, I would recommend mixing clothing descriptions with actions. Observe:
She nodded, toying with one of the frayed holes in her jeans.
Is way better than:
Her jeans had frayed holes.
Adding action made the description interesting and helped show readers that this character is probably nervous or uncomfortable.
Clothes can tell us a lot about a character’s life and personality. Let your description give the reader a glimpse into who the character is, rather than what they wear. Likewise mixing in movements can help make clothing descriptions exciting.
Stretch it Out
You don’t want to shove all of your description in one paragraph. Yes, you want to properly introduce a character and their clothing before the reader makes up their own idea of what the clothes look like. However, you also don’t want to info-dump.
When you introduce a character, hit the big details first. Whether she wearing a ballgown or blue jeans is far more important than the color of her earrings. As the scene goes on, you can sprinkle in more details, deepening the reader’s image of your character.
Remember: As important as clothing description is, there will always be wiggle room in your readers’ imagination. They won’t imagine every detail the same way you do. Over-stressing the little things will only slow down your writing. Whether it’s to paint a picture, deepen character, or just throw in the fact that your OC wears a pineapple necklace, your clothing description should be treated as any other part of writing. Share what needs to be shared. Your reader’s imagination can carry them the rest of the way.