Takemichi
Takemichi has never given much thought to what he wears.
All of his childhood, youth, and adult costumes served only one specific purpose - to make him comfortable. He knew immediately that clothes were his when the fabric touched his skin and didn't constrict his movements.
Of course, like any boy, he wanted to look stylish and cool at the same time. Too bad those things didn't go hand in hand by default. It wasn't like his parents had instilled in him thoughts of good taste in clothes from a young age.
Wasn't it enough that he was comfortable in it? Though now he could admit that not being so young, wearing a fluttering superhero cape might not have been the best decision aesthetically...
He might be a little embarrassed(?), but not much! It seemed like a really cool image at the time.
They say a person's taste in clothing gradually changes over the years, transforming and maturing.
While kids are willing to wear anything, adults were much more choosy about it.
Well, at least that's what people say.
A child's wardrobe is uncomplicated, many parents just take the first thing they find cute enough on their child, or, as is often the case, listen to their child's preferences - what shirt to get - in 7 cases out of 10 this leads to a cluster of wardrobe items that don't match much.
From this point of view, Takemichi's wardrobe could truly be called a child's wardrobe. Individual items that he liked at different times, which did not fit together in any way, eventually took up all the shelves in his wardrobe.
Takemichi probably dressed even slightly more mediocre than any ordinary kid in the neighborhood.
Average.
And, naturally, he was not even remotely comparable to teenage girls. Some of them might refuse to enter a certain middle or high school simply because their uniforms hurt their sense of beauty. Upon entering Mizo High School, their gakuran was probably the last thing Takemichi was worried about.
It's also said that you can tell a person's self-expression by their hairstyle. Here, Takemichi used the same principle as he did on everything about his outward image - if it looks cool, then it's good.
Slicked back, bleached hair - teenage Takemichi thought he looked imposing, like a true delinquent.
As he got older and his youthful fervor waned, attracting the kind of attention he once wanted - look, I'm a delinquent! - no longer seemed a good idea to him. The idea of a cool image that the whole world of delinquents would be in awe of.
Takemichi would never call his wardrobe bad or tasteless, but the vast majority of his friends disagreed with his opinion.
And he still can't figure out why.
Draken
Not that Draken had ever given much thought to what he was wearing.
It was a dual situation where he didn't care much about how he looked in anything, but at the same time he wouldn't say he had no taste. Like, for example, Takemichi.
He just knew what would look okay and what wouldn't.
Having been raised in a brothel since childhood, under the patronage of love priestesses of all kinds, the concept of looking good was imprinted on his subconscious.
Ordinary people might say that the cheap women of the Red-Light District had vulgar behavior along with their appearance, but Draken could clearly tell that this was an absolute lie.
To interest a client in a certain service, it wasn't enough to just have a beautiful body. It was a combination, a symphony if you prefer, of many determining factors: place, time, clothing in the right places, nudity in the necessary ones, suitable jewellery to emphasize or draw the eye to certain parts of the body, and, most importantly, aura.
A woman's simple confidence in her seductiveness convinced men of the same, who cleverly fell for simple visual traps.
But it was necessary to know how to make the trap attractive.
Without the necessary skills in presenting her appearance was absolutely impossible the way some of the most successful maidens collected entire fortunes on the sale of their appearance.
Being able to determine what looked good and what didn't was a basic skill for a child raised in a brothel. It also helped that his innate natural data didn't disadvantage him in any area. Tall, fit, attractive.
Part of the reason he looked good was that natural confidence was one of his characteristics. It seemed that putting him in even a clown costume would at least make him look less silly, at most raise the prestige of the clown image.
After all, if such a person is called an unsightly clown, who would dare to be called a hot handsome man?
Mitsuya
That Mitsuya had flavor, no one could deny.
What made it so, however, no one could just as easily say either.
As an attentive older brother, Takashi had always been very reverent about his younger sisters' appearance.
He had developed a habit of keeping an eye on the appearance of not only those close to him, but himself as well.
Over time, it turned into thoughts along the lines of: "What would be, combine this with...".
The subconscious habit of noticing other people's appearance stayed with him for years.
Not that Mitsuya judged people by their appearance. He wasn't a lookist. At least not in that particular sense.
He was interested in more practical things. What would suit this person's skin colour, body type, hair colour...
The driving idea behind his sense of taste was not primarily to judge other people by their clothes, but to try on what that person might look good in. This could even be called a modeler’s flair.
Therefore, dressing well was not a problem for him.
Besides, he had noticed more than once how differently people could be treated because of their appearance. It was because of society's need for it that dressing according to good taste became the norm for him. It was so deeply ingrained into his bones that dressing ugly had already become uncomfortable for him.
Purely in theory he might be able to tolerate it, but... not without emotional loss.
Chifuyu
When it came to clothing, Chifuyu probably preferred comfort. And, undoubtedly, an idea. Specifically, the idea of cool.
A person would be good at whatever had a cool idea behind it, right?
In fact, no one had ever insulted Chifuyu for his taste in clothes. So, he could vouch for the fact that the clothes his mum bought him were cool enough. Not that anything in his wardrobe was this undeniably crisp, nevertheless he could wear those clothes without complaint. It was okay. Perhaps not as good as if he had chosen it himself, but acceptable. He would wear it.
And maybe sometime in the future he'll wear something that he chose himself, and show everyone what a real sense of taste is.
Koko
Koko loves money. In all its forms. And what could be the best expression of money but appearance?
All people can be evaluated by their appearance: that guy is not well off, he is wearing a worn suit, judging by the nature of the creases and rubbing on the knees and elbows; that man is clearly richer, black shoes may seem simple in the first glance, but the quality leather from which they are made has not yet shown signs of noticeable deformation under the toe.
What-so-ever, but to evaluate potential customers and partners for Koko was not a problem and became a professional habit.
Appearance is important.
If you don't look solid, you will simply be trampled in the business world.
So, his choice of clothing and image was guided by a simple principle - look like you can't be looked down upon.
And his way to achieve this was as simple as cheating an elementary school student out of money - to look spectacular.
From his hair to his shoes, he favored flashy suits: red, gold. If any of the business leaders liked to dress more modestly to confuse their opponents, Koko, on the contrary, liked to warn them who they were dealing with.
The dragons embroidered on his robes were very un-European for nothing. They suited his temperament much better than the Oriental ones - calm and majestic. Koko, on the other hand, was much simpler. Down-to-earth. Dangerous. Greedy.
The only thing he could attribute to the mythical reptilian traits that embroidered his silk was an unusual equanimity. The directness with which he handled such masses of money was no joke.
He was a dragon, a cold-blooded, callous reptile.
One that would multiply its treasures and guard them carefully.
Inui
Handsome. Was the first thing people who looked at him would think of.
Cold. Was the second.
At least that was what those who were 'outsiders' in his worldview thought. Heartless with outsiders, warm with loved ones - a dualism that described Inui Seishu.
Inui knew that he was at least better looking than most other people. It wasn't anything surprising. His family's genes were impressively good.
As for his choice in clothing, well... Suffice it to say, he despised a great deal of what people could put on themselves.
Seishu wouldn't call himself an ardent fan of fashion or the latest in the world of taste, but for him it was enough just to know instinctively what was unacceptable to wear. He only wanted to dress in a way that didn't offend his sense of beauty.
Sometimes it asked for something more grotesque. Like stiletto heels.
Sometimes something more austere. Like a monochrome coat.
Simple yet so contradictory logic described his wardrobe, or perhaps his personality, and, he could swear, he didn't look bad in anything in his wardrobe.
Ran and Rindou
The Haitani Brothers.
The phrase was usually enough to let the interlocutor know exactly who they were messing with. And they didn't even have to introduce themselves to let others know who they are.
Their image spoke for them, and oh, how easy it was to recognize them by it.
The impression they gave wasn't just covered in blood with the sound of dislocating joints.
It was perfectly complemented by the visual of what they looked like when they were covered in blood at the sound of dislocating joints.
If one knew them worse, one might have called that image appealing. There were no such brave men, however, though they might have been glad to hear such last words.
What Ran and Rindou loved was not so much the style, but how that style matched them.
Even if it was the best suit on the continent, what was the beauty of it if it didn't look frankly gorgeous on them?
The Haitani brothers liked to stand out, and it showed in everything: from Ran's eye-catching braids to Rindou's defiant appearance hair colour.
Their individual appearance added to the whole image of who the Haitani brothers were.
However, it was not their intention to include outsiders in that definition of wholeness. Though this was a corporate style they could accept as well. For that reason, Ran and Rindou fit the wholesome puzzle of the factions they belonged to, but they were unwilling to merge into that field of hom*ogeneous parts.
Therefore, refining the details of exactly how they dressed was bound to show up as they moved from group to group. They had to show that they were Haitani brothers.
And because of the status of who they were in all these gangs, the unique privilege of choosing exactly how they wanted to look was never denied to them.
