Quote Originally Posted by Laphael View Post
As a male AuRa Healer i can either look like a crossdresser or glamour non healer gear.
There are 1 or 2 Healer robes that don´t look awful on males, but thats it.
Personal taste is going to vary, but considering that male Auri "traditional dress" - as the lorebook describes the starter gear - involves a skirt and midriff-baring top... well, canonically they're not exactly adhering to (modern Western) masculine dress in the first place.

I realise it's different if you're dressing the character in clothes you want to wear, particularly if it's your primary character, but I do have a male Raen alt and I feel like he suits all the weird glamours that I wouldn't put on my other characters. But then again I'm approaching it as 'character design' and thinking "what would he wear?" (A: things that resemble the design of the starter gear) and not "what would I wear?"...


But I do find their unusual body proportions make a lot of gear fit them oddly because of how it's scaled rather than re-modeled for different characters. Wide collars end up a lot bigger and bulkier than they do on other races. Tight-fitting collars are better and lower necklines avoid the issue.


Though I don't really understand why it's an issue to have to glamour non-healer gear if it makes your character look good? You can still build sets that look like healer sets without necessarily using healer gear. Or combine a generic body piece with healer gear in the other slots for something that's still uniquely a healer costume.

If I can show off some examples I'd made with my Elezen alt... RDM with all caster/RDM gear except shirt; AST with only relic sleeves and all-class gear; WHM entirely with Lv1 glamour gear except the crown. In all cases I think it works as looking distinctly like that class, and (other than the WHM) relies on gear that is specific to that class, without being limited to only using that class-specific gear.

Bonus: my Au Ra as SMN using the Lv50 relic pants/skirt and Pagos shirt, which is maybe not so instantly summoner-ish but it's a bit like the Lv70 relic drapey-shirt-thing (aetherial tattoos and all) though without the stab-you-in-the-face pauldron.

Bonus bonus: stealth healer (for sneaking into imperial castrums), deliberately going against a normal "healer look" while still using healer-specific gear where possible. As well as the Ironworks scope, it uses the Makai healer gloves and boots. May upgrade to healer-specific pants if I can find some that look right.


I do also wonder if there's an issue of people wanting to stick to - or simply looking from the perspective of - "modern fashion" rather than the fantasy setting gear? Because that affects the sense of what is 'male clothing' a lot. eg. I recently got the Rabanastran mage's tunic, and when I tried it on my female character, I think she looks like she's wearing male clothing. That's my instant reaction looking at it. But I'm sure other people must say "it's femininine! it's like a dress!"

I feel odd dressing my characters in modern-looking costumes. (well, other than that stealth one for a joke, but still looks odd outside of running MSQ roulette.)


As much as the glamour restrictions are annoying, I think I do enjoy the challenge of working around them. Up until there's that one thing I really really want to equip, anyway....