New Rome Court Fashion
The fashion of dress worn by courtiers at the Imperial Court of Christ Pantocrator is sometimes referred to as New Rome court fashion. It is quite static, and is virtually unaffected by variations in fashion in Pantocratorian society as a whole (although fashions relating to hair and make-up do creep in). It combines elements of Western European fashion from the 17th, 18th and 19th century. New Rome court fashion is the most formal court wear in all of Pantocratoria, and while it forms a basic template for all noble courts in the Empire, there is considerable variation amongst the derivative formal styles. It is unique in that it is always worn at the Imperial Court of Christ Pantocrator, whereas other formal court styles are worn only on special occasions (at the Despotic Court of New Constantinople for instance, the formal court style is only worn when greeting special visitors, and even then it is substantially less formal that the New Rome fashion).
Female Fashion
Women of the Imperial Court of Christ Pantocrator wear impressive, highly decorated gowns. A hoped underskirt is worn to create an exaggerated bell-shaped skirt. The dress includes a tight corset around the midsection, reducing waist size by about four to six inches. Mercifully, girls are not expected to wear corsets until their early teens, meaning that they do not experience the development difficulties associated with extremely small Victorian-style corsets (than which Pantocratorian corsets are much more moderate), for which a girl had to be prepared throughout her entire childhood with increasingly small corsets. The dress itself typically has a light base colour, and is usually ornately embroidered, usually in a geometric or floral pattern. For particularly high-born women, the dress is often set with a tasteful number of precious stones, usually pearls. The tight-fitting sleeves of the gown continue down to the woman's wrists, where it usually ends in frilly lace or some other large, puffy decoration which serves to exaggerate the smallness of the hands (this is a hold-over from the pre-French influence Pantobyzantine fashion). The style leaves the woman's neck bare, but covers her shoulders and reveals nothing of her cleavage.
The make-up worn by the women of the court is intended to make them appear very fair-skinned; it is essentially modern in style. When the style was first introduced in the early 18th century, women were powdered from head to toe before being dressed so as to make their skin appear to be pure white. In this aspect at least, the court fashion has been influenced by the outside world, although the intended effect is similar (besides which, increased Western and Northern European immigration has meant that the average complexion at court is somewhat fairer than it was two centuries ago). Women's hairstyles tend to be done up in disciplined curls, which are allowed to fall about their necks on either side, complementing their dangling ear rings to create an impression of delicate vulnerability.
Male Fashion
The daytime wear of men of the Imperial Court of Christ Pantocrator consists of decorative jackets, which end half-way above the knee, with exaggerated sleeves (a Pantobyzantine influence) and ornate embroidering, usually gold or silver thread. Jackets are usually worn open, with a loose fitting, sometimes puffy, shirt underneath. Some men wear a vest over the shirt underneath the jacket - the vest tends to be similarly decorated to the jacket. They wear fairly plain but fairly tight trousers, and knee high boots. The Emperor occasionally wears a black jacket of this style covered in diamonds when he wishes to make an impression without wearing full regalia. The clothing is fairly unrestrictive, and courtiers are relatively unencumbered by their attire, allowing them to engage even in fairly strenuous activities, like riding and hunting. The evening wear of men of the court tends towards tuxedos of the like worn outside the court in high society circles.
Until the early 20th century, the court style included a long-haired, curled periwig, which is still worn for special occasions (for instance, the opening of the first session of a new Imperial Parliament), but is otherwise a thing of the past.
