Middle Earth Challenge, Day 8

Favourite Costume

Och... and now we are back to hard ones! One of the many things I really admire about the Jackson films is the costumes. They are fantastic. It isn't just that they are beautifully designed. It is that they don't look like costumes - they look like clothing. You can tell the characters wear those clothes. They look lived in. And I really appreciate how the clothing of each culture helps to define it. 

The hobbits wear cheerful, homely, comfortable attire, that could only have come out of the Shire:

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The people of Rohan wear rich but rough garments - homespun wool and leather, and golden accents, as rough and as rich as the land they spring from:

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Then there are the elves, in their flowing, gleaming, ethereal robes:

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And the Gondorians, in fine, stately blue and grey:

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that it is very difficult for me to narrow down a favourite costume. As a matter of fact, after I have watched the films, I tend to dress in clothes that make me feel all Lord of the Rings-ish for a good while after... I suppose that the costume that I am most likely to wear is that fine brown dress Eowyn wears during the journey to Helm's Deep:

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I am also particularly fond of the costumes that the hobbit wear on their return to the Shire at the end of The Return of the King. They are so handsome:

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But my absolute favourite of all the costumes, has to be the one Boromir wears in The Fellowship of the Ring.

I love everything about it. I love the colours, the little touches of elegance, from the embroidery on the sleeves to the silver clasps in the black surcoat. I love the vambraces, with the Tree of Gondor stamped upon them. I love his shield, and his hand-and-a-half sword, and the tooled leather that his belts are all made of.  It is all very fine, and yet very practical, with the chain maille, the leather surcoat, and the heavy cloak. If I were going to spend my days tromping about the wild, this is the uniform I would want to wear. 

If you are interested in finding out more about the Middle Earth Challenge, click here.