Designing a uniform turns out to be more difficult than I imagined.

Academy stories have always been my comfort trope and I tend to indulge in any tales that revolve around a magical school. So it comes as no surprise that I would like to create a story centered around it.

The current plan was to have two different age categories, one with an older age range and one with a younger age. The whole point was to be able to explore different themes and feelings based on those age groups. (Honestly, it’s just for own indulgence)

For this post, I’ve decided on designing the children’s uniform first as I find that has a clearer direction.

During the process, I had set myself three guidelines to follow:

1. Simple and Easy

The uniform needs to be something that is easy to draw. I am not a very good artist and I do not have enough money to be able to hire other wonderful artists. As much as I would love to have beautiful and intricate details like those in Black Butler, I do not have the skills nor time to do it.  

2. Iconic Piece

Uniform has been one of the many iconic statements for a show. For example, Vampire Knights, Alice Academy, and many more have a specific design that the audience can easily identify which stories it belongs to. Therefore, the uniform has to be distinct for this story.

3. Capes

Ok….. This is a personal, selfish choice of mine. I love a good cloak and I just wanted to have the kids wear one. 😀

During this entire process, I kept thinking about the TV show ‘Madeline’.

I had this idea of the children living in a dorm or an orphanage. The kids are either there because they are orphans or that their parents did not have time and the money for their child. 

Back to the topic at hand, colours had been quite a tricky aspect to play around with. There are many shows in which the uniforms are either black or dark in colour. This was done on purpose to allow the different hair colours that the characters had. However I had fallen in love with the colour red on these capes and decided to just stick with it. 

I had done a quick experimentation with drawing different hair colours and it still works fine. Orange is something that I would have to avoid. 😛

Other than that, pinterest has been my source of reference as I tried out different designs.

Since the school is more like a daycare centre, I had to make sure that the uniform does not look too formal. It is important that the children’s design still kept that free natured aspect to it.

In the end, this is the design that I have settled with. I am delighted with the outcome so far although it did take longer than I imagined. (Again, not a fashion designer, but I did the best I can)

I hope that you enjoyed it!