There is a series of posts by relaxxattack on ashen fashion and quadrant fashion more broadly (including stuff on his “Grumblr” blog) that is a well of inspiration for me. I highly recommend checking out these posts. Granted, he took some inspiration from me as well. The cyclical nature of artistic inspiration is awestriking.
As portrayed in the above post, I really like the idea of chains being used as ashen iconography! Chains, chailmail, chainlink fences, flower chains/crowns, braids, knots- it all makes a lot of sense to me. Flower chains made of white clover are a special favorite of mine. I’ll state on record that I think white clover make great flower chains! That mixed with the similarity between an average clover and the clubs symbol just makes them too perfect of an icon for auspisticism.
Jumping off from other ideas introduced in those posts, I think a fun overdone ashen trope would be a nurse in scrubs sort of aesthetic, leaning into the idea of auspistices carrying medical bags and first aid kits. It’s an amusing notion to think that a “sexy nurse” in troll culture would be someone in full scrubs, like they’re about to go into surgery. I think it fits!
On a similar note, I think decorative bandages and bandaids would work really well in ashen fashion. Somewhere between people in decora fashion wearing bandaids over their noses and boxers wearing hand wraps around their hands and wrist is where I want to land with this concept. While I think it’s easy for messy or sloppy bandages to get clocked as pale, in a way where you can’t even tend to your own wounds, that’s so pitiful, I think neat bandages, particularly around the fists, screams that you found a fight and you’re looking for another.
I like relaxxattack’s idea of popular fall suitable fashions being common in ashen fashion. As an alternative to relaxxattack’s suggestion of a sporty look, I would suggest something akin to dark academia aesthetics. I’m thinking sweater vests, long sleeve button-ups, and crispy, ironed pants. Like you’re ready to schedule a series of what will be tenuous and irritating meetings down to the minute. Planners, calendars, color coding, and sticky notes- signs of being an organized auspistice.
I’m going to leave this post here. I could dig deeper into some of this, like about braids and how they lend themselves to date ideas, but that exceeds the scope of fashion! Thank you for reading and let me know if there’s anything here that you’d like to see me write more about.
