theticklishpear:

Okay, Anon, I’ve been thinking about this all weekend because you’re right. Clothes in Victorian-era were vitally important and it’s just as important to think about this angle within fantasy.

I’ve seen transformations handled a couple of ways when it comes to clothing: 1) where the clothing shreds upon change; 2) where clothing vanishes upon change; 3) where clothing drops to the ground upon change. Option 1 obviously leaves one without clothes when changing back, and Option 2 has appeared both where clothing returns and does not return when changing back. I’m not sure if you’re trying to preserve the clothes through the transformation, or if you’re wondering how to handle a transformation back and they don’t have clothing in your world.

Your first decision is whether you want to play with the angle of someone transforming back and being naked in Victorian times. If you do, then you just need to decide if the clothes are going to shred (most likely, given that dragons are generally larger than the human form), or if they’re going to just drop off (less believable given size changes).

If you don’t–where do those clothes go? You could still have them drop off onto the ground and then your character is careful to transform back in a place nearby so as to be able to hop back into them asap. You could also have them vanish with the transformation and just cry, “MAGIC!” and hope that the rest of your world is believable enough that people don’t really question where the clothes are. That would be a built-in clothes option where they could reappear upon your character reverting back, or not, your choice. 

What if they keep a pack of clothes for emergencies? That could be a unique detail to try to work in that might be fun for your audience (albeit a bit of a logistical pain for you).

What if they have bunkers where clothing of all sizes and shapes is kept–the one place where nudity is expected and accepted because the only folks using it are these dragons, and they wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t an emergency, and the other folks there are in the same boat, so it’s just an area of accepted understanding. These bunkers could be all over the place, wherever potential dragon shifts could happen–ones maintained out in the woods in the middle of nowhere, ones in the more derelict parts of the cities, ones in the up-scale neighborhoods, ones outside villages, ones at the sea, ones halfway up a mountain, everywhere you could imagine suddenly needing to go for a safe place to revert.

You could also, and you know this sounds cool to me, have the clothes built into the design of your dragons. What if the clothes become a part of the physiology of your dragon once they’ve changed? There are a couple of ways I thought you could handle that. Maybe the clothes also go through a transformation and become a kind of armor gloss that would be an added benefit to them in their dragon forms. Or what if the clothing became spikes, or ridges, or extra scales, or some other aspect of their physiology. Or what if the clothes became a slight discoloration or change of hue in their scales, a darkening, or a lightening, depending on your preference; then they would have a “true” coloration that occurs when they transform without clothes on (imagine just stepping out of the shower) and a coloration for when they had clothes on at the shift.

Honestly, Anon, I don’t know if this helps at all with spurring some ideas, but I hope you can get something out of it. Good luck! -Pear

I would suggest also considering clothing that can adjust on the fly. Y’know, in the vein of that Cinderella transformation dress or some catwalk stuff that with the pull of a few sashes changes into a totally different garment.