I can just make up outfits on the fly, rather than stopping drawing pages to design an outfit, but the resulting clothing tends to be extremely repetitive and bland. Much better to try and think the outfit through, and wind up with something that doesn’t look exactly like all the other outfits I’ve drawn Fruma in. (Although it’s clear that Fruma likes horizontal stripes, since I think this is the third or fourth time I’ve used horizontal strips in one of her outfits.) I haven’t shown Fruma wearing boots before, but this story takes place in the autumn, so I think boots make sense.
I like this outfit; it seems to occupy a point partway between frumpy and pirate.
In general, your styling is kinda “funky ultra” – something less consistent, more open that most Hasidic garb, but not Modern Orthodox – like you’d see among Lubavitchers or American ba’alei teshuva here in Israel.
Among these people, the snood is very 90s – much of the Orthodox world has moved on. If you want the styling to say “frumpy outdated mother” you’re right on.
Three currently popular looks are:
1. An adapted “do-rag/bandana” look that combines a kerchief/bandana/thick headband with a half-wig or fall. This is still a big look.
2. The return of small-brimmed cloches and WWI-era tocques (someone’s watching Downton Abbey…). The old standby berets have been replaced by mushroom-cap pillbox-on-steriod things, with or without a small flared brim. Sometimes this morphs into a newsboy cap big enough to cover a gathered bun of hair. Lotsa character opportunity here.
3. Here in Israel – where head coverings are more accepted – turbans are wound high up on the head. Sometimes more than one scarf is used to get height. The result is a funkadelic Nefertiti look. Probably not suitable for an American character or an Anglophone audience outside Israel.
This page shows several of these, and the website is devoted to scarves and hats for MOR Orthodox in Israel:
http://www.mitpachat.com/he/t/article1
Another page:
http://saloona.co.il/stylesti/?p=60
Thanks, Ben David!
I’m just made happy by the idea that you’re looking for the space “between frumpy and pirate” — a seldom explored fashion zone! :))