Ok, this was brought up a while ago, but I ignored it as I was going back and forth on a couple of the choices.
The default Agency uniform is black and white – however, as a One Uniform policy would lead to the tropey “men in black” look, and indeed make them harder to identify for people who need to spot them (fae) in amongst the other random business people, it was long ago decided that each Agency uniform also requires a feature colour.
It also means that Solstice who move between areas are less likely to immediately spot Agency people as they would have it ingrained to (for example) look for “blue vest” rather than “black vest, blue highlights” or whatever).
Now, as there are only so many colours, a few major colours have been chosen, then the Agencies of the area use either the feature in a different way, or use a different shade.
Agency Feature Colours
Oceania – Blue – for, um, the ocean. Yes, there is a lot of jealously amongst Agencies that Oceania gets blue, when it’s felt that blue should belong to the Agency as a whole.
The Americas – white and red – the official feature colour is red, however there are many Agencies in the US that have moved away from including red, essentially having white as the default feature colour. This was done in a deliberate way to invoke the “men in black” image. For South America and Canada though, there is the usual percentages of high-use/low-use of the feature colour.
Middle-east – black – this is essentially the opposite of the policy above – with white being a usual predominant colour, leaving black as a feature colour.
Asia – Green – for jade. There was the option for yellow, due to the association with royalty (and then the further connection that Asia holds the Court of Kings) however…yeah, I’m not going to use “yellow” for Asia. -_-
Europe – metallic silver and purple – metallic silver is the primary colour, with purple generally being the highlight colour – this is both as a callback to knights in armour (remember, to this day, the French are the dragon hunters) and the purple as a callback to grapes/Greece and the influence on the modern world.
The Russian Exception – Whatever Grigori feels like wearing. His recruits use standard training outfits, but tend to avoid uniforms in public.
Africa – Yellow – inspired by the sun, as this is important healdry/symbolism for the Court of Life, whose seat is here.
Antarctica – rainbow – the lone primary agent here has a rainbow as his feature colour, as do the Court of Desolation reps who use his Agency as a secondary work area.
ACCENT color. Okay, that makes so much more sense.
Here, I’ve been imagining the average american Agent looking like this
http://www.exclusivesuits.com/images/P/GIANNI%20RED.jpg
and of course, the director
http://www.santahollywood.com/photogallery/RedBusinessSuit.JPG
…my mistake, I should have been clearer before.
…are the colours of my crutches (with black added in). I have Agency crutches! :p
I totally agree with the leaking pen, I was reading through the post and wondering how on earth Agents will look with red, purple, silver, yellow… I’m thinking the Romanian Agency has their ties with silver and purple, and the suit is boring old black and white. But some Agencies could have silver suits if the fashion there is more liberal.
Come to think of it, my class counselor in high school had a silver Armani suit… hmm…
What Stormy and I had been thinking for a while anyway was more of the accent color as being the vest and tie and whatnot. Basically, anything in Stef or Ryan’s uniform that is blue would be the other appropriate color for the given region.
…and they’re pretty well justified, IMO. But some colours can be pretty difficult to pull off. Agents should blend in, and wearing a vest that’s silver or purple in the middle of the day will stand out, hence me thinking that having just a coloured tie would be the feasible option.
There’s also going to be a certain amount of discretion allowed for various Agencies/Agents, as evidenced by the MiB vibe some of the American Agencies go for.
pocket squares, flowers in the button, watches, rings, briefcases, lots of ways to add the accent color and still be seen as normal by normals, but local fae et all will look at the color and go, AGENT!
…true. Come to think of it, if there’s anything that would be effective, at least for Romania, it would be the bling. Rings, watches, lapel pins, even necklaces…
Ah, that’s what those things are called. >_> I’d never bothered to look it up, so I always think of them as “suit handkerchiefs” or “false handkerchiefs”…which, while stupid, isn’t quite “sea pancake”.
…people would probably think you’re part of a wedding party. 😛
…for making it a three-piece suit with an accent colour was because I didn’t want people to think I was ripping off MiB/Matrix, but more importantly, so that everyone could wear their suit slightly differently.
Ryan wears the full outfit, obviously. Stef sheds the jacket, giving her a different look, whilst Curt (post-BD) is going to be comfortable enough to not wear the vest, so that whilst they all wear the same uniform, it gives each of them a unique look.
Magnolia just wears whatever the hell she wants (so long as it allows her the movement required for whatever she’s planning on doing)
Taylor would wear nothing at all if he could get away with it. Clothing can be grabbed onto.
Jones wears nerdy shirts and a labcoat. I have photographic proof of this, too.
Vincent… He wears the standard Agency uniform, but he hates the red color, so while his tie is red, that’s really the only red thing he wears. He GREATLY envies the blue colours of the Brisbane Agency, which will be covered in a later draft of book 2, or maybe a side-chapter. Vincent’s suit is just slightly too small for him, but he happens to like that, because the tightness of it allows him to be a tiny bit more sensitive to things like changes in the wind or subtle touches or fae pickpockets.
Spencer (who is a character planned for book 3) is taller than Vincent, and wears an open duster, rather than the standard jacket.