Post by Vapovile on Nov 25, 2016 9:10:28 GMT
Originally an extension of the English seamstress guild, the American seamstress guild was established on July 4th, 1776 by a lesser-known HW denizen; Betsy Ross. Seeing that she didn't manage to change the design of the USA's flag, she decided to do another patriotic action and renounce her membership of the English seamstress guild to establish her own American branch with the goal of providing quality clothing and textiles to the newly formed country, as well as training a new generation of Hidden World seamstresses. As the centuries have went on, the American guild has developed from its humble beginnings of supplying Union officers with uniforms, to creating extravagant outfits for the Hollywood actors of today, and everything in between. Today, the guild headquarters is located in California, close to the movie industry located in Hollywood.
Ideals
The guild strives for a simple goal; make other people look good. One's outward appearance is how they present themselves to the world, the image that countless people will judge them over based on first impressions. This isn't limited to clothing, however, as one's behavior, hair style, posture and speaking style are all factors that go into a person's image of how the world perceives them. It is the seamstress's job, then, to assist their clients as much as possible in projecting their desired image using the skills taught to them through their own skills with a needle and sense of fashion to guide the client to the desired outfit.
While the guild doesn't cater solely to the elite, many of the top seamstresses in the organization do almost exclusively take those contracts, for they are some of the few who have the skill and experience that those clients desire. However, the guild is also made up of seamstresses who work for tiny shops making prom dresses, or even designing optimal safety outfits for people working in (often times unglamourous) jobs. Prices between seamstresses vary, as in any open market, though members gain a wide array of benefits from being in the guild, ranging from training in fashion design, needlework, fabric choice and finding suppliers, to networking opportunities with top seamstresses whose connection could help increase a shop's sales.
While traditionally a sisterhood, the modern seamstress guild is an equal opportunity employer, though the gender ratio is still widely skewed toward females. As such, the titles of seamster and seamstress refer to males and females, respectively, should they ascend to that rank.
Ranks
Fashionista: The ground floor, a fashionista has little to no experience with needlework or design. At this stage, fashionistas are taught the basics of outfit coordination and fashion design, becoming a fashion critic once the training is complete. No actual needlework jobs are given to fashionistas.
Assistant: The true first step. An assistant has a competent sense of fashion critique and are assigned a seamstress in the organization to study under. Tasks for an assistant include basic sewing assignments, shadowing a seamstress as she(or he) works on an outfit, doing basic tasks for a seamstress, and sitting in on consultation between their seamstress and a client. It is at this stage where the student may begin learning how to integrate magic into their work, such as minor levitation spells to hold tools in the air and creating their first Kaspa.
Stylist: The penultimate step to a full-blown seamstress, a stylist takes an active role in designing their own outfits and getting them critiqued by a seamstress. A stylist works on complicated designs, studies the various fashion of different cultures around the world in order to suit many kinds of clients, and sometimes assists in mentoring fashionistas. At this stage, the stylist’s Kaspa is much larger.
Seamstress: Fully independent, a seamstress is a master at their craft, able to assist clients in creating outfits that make them look fantastic, while managing the business side of the craft by buying inventory, working with distributors, creating a brand, recording sales transactions, and doing taxes. While many stylists may have the skills of a seamstress, one can’t truly attain this rank unless they both understand the technical aspect of making clothes, and how to profit off of it.
Grand Matron: The head of the Seamstress Guild, normally appointed to the position by the the existing matron in a secret list of candidates she entrusts to a third party hired by the collective seamstress guilds. The grand matron possesses near unrivaled skill with a needle, able to weave the very elements of nature like fabric. These techniques are passed on from grand matrons, so she may choose to teach seamstresses the techniques should she feel inclined to. Being shown these techniques is a good indication that she is considering that particular seamstress for the grand matron position in the future. The grand matron manages the business side of the seamstress guild, collecting dues and organizing the various aspects of the guild. Truly, the pinnacle of the profession itself.
Ideals
The guild strives for a simple goal; make other people look good. One's outward appearance is how they present themselves to the world, the image that countless people will judge them over based on first impressions. This isn't limited to clothing, however, as one's behavior, hair style, posture and speaking style are all factors that go into a person's image of how the world perceives them. It is the seamstress's job, then, to assist their clients as much as possible in projecting their desired image using the skills taught to them through their own skills with a needle and sense of fashion to guide the client to the desired outfit.
While the guild doesn't cater solely to the elite, many of the top seamstresses in the organization do almost exclusively take those contracts, for they are some of the few who have the skill and experience that those clients desire. However, the guild is also made up of seamstresses who work for tiny shops making prom dresses, or even designing optimal safety outfits for people working in (often times unglamourous) jobs. Prices between seamstresses vary, as in any open market, though members gain a wide array of benefits from being in the guild, ranging from training in fashion design, needlework, fabric choice and finding suppliers, to networking opportunities with top seamstresses whose connection could help increase a shop's sales.
While traditionally a sisterhood, the modern seamstress guild is an equal opportunity employer, though the gender ratio is still widely skewed toward females. As such, the titles of seamster and seamstress refer to males and females, respectively, should they ascend to that rank.
Ranks
Fashionista: The ground floor, a fashionista has little to no experience with needlework or design. At this stage, fashionistas are taught the basics of outfit coordination and fashion design, becoming a fashion critic once the training is complete. No actual needlework jobs are given to fashionistas.
Assistant: The true first step. An assistant has a competent sense of fashion critique and are assigned a seamstress in the organization to study under. Tasks for an assistant include basic sewing assignments, shadowing a seamstress as she(or he) works on an outfit, doing basic tasks for a seamstress, and sitting in on consultation between their seamstress and a client. It is at this stage where the student may begin learning how to integrate magic into their work, such as minor levitation spells to hold tools in the air and creating their first Kaspa.
Stylist: The penultimate step to a full-blown seamstress, a stylist takes an active role in designing their own outfits and getting them critiqued by a seamstress. A stylist works on complicated designs, studies the various fashion of different cultures around the world in order to suit many kinds of clients, and sometimes assists in mentoring fashionistas. At this stage, the stylist’s Kaspa is much larger.
Seamstress: Fully independent, a seamstress is a master at their craft, able to assist clients in creating outfits that make them look fantastic, while managing the business side of the craft by buying inventory, working with distributors, creating a brand, recording sales transactions, and doing taxes. While many stylists may have the skills of a seamstress, one can’t truly attain this rank unless they both understand the technical aspect of making clothes, and how to profit off of it.
Grand Matron: The head of the Seamstress Guild, normally appointed to the position by the the existing matron in a secret list of candidates she entrusts to a third party hired by the collective seamstress guilds. The grand matron possesses near unrivaled skill with a needle, able to weave the very elements of nature like fabric. These techniques are passed on from grand matrons, so she may choose to teach seamstresses the techniques should she feel inclined to. Being shown these techniques is a good indication that she is considering that particular seamstress for the grand matron position in the future. The grand matron manages the business side of the seamstress guild, collecting dues and organizing the various aspects of the guild. Truly, the pinnacle of the profession itself.
Guild Members
Grand Matron: Miranda Adaway
Name: Miranda Adaway
Age: 49
Miranda is a legend among seamstresses; being head of both the American Seamstress Guild and the illustrious Adaway Academy, a school for young children to teenagers that teaches them various trades, including but not limited to; cooking, singing, drawing, instruction for certain instruments, and most of all, needlework. The academy is widely used as a trade school to train children in certain crafts from a young age, and is widely sought after by various parents from all over the world. While most of the students come from parents signing their kids up, a certain portion of the class roster is reserved for less fortunate children, sometimes from low income houses and even orphanages, offering them a free ride at the school if they maintain a high enough grade point average. Miranda believes that one of the only ways to pull people out of poverty is to give them skills, and as part of her philanthropy, offers these spots to pull children out of poverty.
The grand matron's appearance looks much younger than her age suggests, though that is mainly due to the carefully applied makeup and magical charms she uses to keep herself looking youthful. She has dark red hair, the style of which frequently changes to fit with current fashion trends. In terms of personality, she is normally kind to the people she meets, but has a certain firmness to her voice that comes with running a successful business for as long as she has. She normally wears a wide variety of shirts, skirts, pants and dresses, not many people able to report her wearing the same outfit combination twice.
While not many people have seen her use magic, it is theorized that Miranda is able to weave certain aspects of reality like thread, able to create dresses made entirely out of water or shortening the distance between two objects by temporarily weaving together two points of space.
Seamstress: Haruko Miyata
Name: Haruko Miyata
Age: 23
Having begun her seamstress career in the illustrious Adaway Academy at the age of 8, Haruko spent 6 years at the academy learning both school subjects up to high school level, and a special focus in their needlework program. Haruko was one of the people invited by Miranda herself at the orphanage Haruko was at, and since then, Haruko has turned into an outgoing woman who loves to socialize with friends. One amusing detail that Haruko's friends soon figure out is she has a horrible sense of direction, often needing to use Google Maps to get to most places in her own town. When not running her successful shop on the California coast, Haruko likes to play a few video games casually, some of her favorites being Pokemon(third generation onward, controversially), Monster Hunter and Mario Mart. In the past few years, Haruko adopted two young girls; Kate and Cosmina. While Kate has no interest in needlework, Cosmina is currently working for Haruko as her assistant in the guild, learning the trade and hopefully will become a seamstress in time.
While Haruko herself has little in the way of magic ability, she does have a magical girl form that she is learning how to combine with seamstress related magic to try and prepare herself should Miranda ever offer to teach her some of her amazing magic.
Seamstress: Iris Thorne(Iris)
Name: Iris Thorne
Age: 21
A sharp tongued, passionate, elitist, Iris Thorne thrives in the Seamstress guild that she sought out for its fashion enlightenment. Taking her adoration for the art of the Seamstress to a whole new level, Iris tends to look down on individuals who produce mass clothes without feeling, or who seek just to impress others, her beliefs being that a body is a canvas for the artistry of clothing and clothing should be treated with much more respect. Her goal is to become the best Seamstress in the world, often leaving her consumed and work and with very little friends, the main exception being Haruko, another Seamstress.
Stylist: Aimi Maki(TimePuppy)
Name: Aimi Maki
Aimi is a cheerful, open-minded kitsune who loves spending time among humans. She considers them to be interesting creatures and she likes taking on a human form even when not in public. The only thing she doesn't like about the human form is that they don’t have the ears and tails that kitsune are proud of, so she keeps her “accessories” behind closed doors. She loves studying humans, their behavior and the history of humanity, despite living through most of it herself. She likes partaking in crowd watching
Aimi can come off as lazy at times, since she is rarely found working. But it's not that she's lazy, it is just that with her kitsune powers she does everything quickly and has a lot of spare time which she uses to interact with others, to go to fast food joints, to go to parks and to events where lots of humans gather.
Despite enjoying the present, the clothes she makes are inspired by all the ages she's lived through and as such have an old-timey feel to them.
As a kitsune, Aimi has access to all kitsune abilities, such as: superhuman physical abilities, shapeshifting, illusions and dream manipulation, possession (of weaker animals), fox-fire manipulation, and several others which her mischievous fox spirit nature demands she use to pull harmless pranks on people.
Stylist: Leone Fleury
Name: Leone Fleury
Age: 23
Attending Adaway Academy in the same class as Haruko, Leone was one of the top students in her entire class, doing all of her design work as a perfectionist with hours spent making each line on the document as straight as possible. During their time at the academy, Haruko and Leone became friends, constantly competing with each other to see who could score the most points on their assignments(they frequently tied with full points). However, after they both graduated, Leone decided to take a different path and became a mercenary for hire, frequently taking government contracts to help out the United States, and having had a fondness for fighting and machine guns.
While Leone easily possesses the required skills to become a seamstress, she instead chooses to get most of her income through mercenary work instead of via making outfits, thus she can only rise to the level of stylist. In terms of personality, Leone believes in needing to look good while out in public, especially out on contracts. She is somewhat of a tomboy, liking to participate in fights with people or make jokes that sometimes can seem crude. Her outfit is woven from a special material that makes any blood, dirt and the like roll off her clothing like a hydrophobic surface, and she carries a briefcase that transforms into various weaponry she may need on a mission; sniper rifle, set of pistols, two sub-machine guns, or her favorite; a minigun. She is a versatile fighter, having multiple compartments in her outfit that hold items such as grenades, lighters, tasers, and a variety of other objects one would need while dealing with Hidden World criminals.
Assistant: Cosmina Miyata(HungryHunter)
Name: Cosmina Miyata
Cosmina is a young seamstress of equal parts ego and skill. While she is mature for her age, it's not as much as she pretends, as her rivalry with her sister shows. Still, she's loyal to her mother and an avid learner, intent on becoming a full member of the guild asap. She has a particular focus on hats and is never seen in public without one.
Name: Miranda Adaway
Age: 49
Miranda is a legend among seamstresses; being head of both the American Seamstress Guild and the illustrious Adaway Academy, a school for young children to teenagers that teaches them various trades, including but not limited to; cooking, singing, drawing, instruction for certain instruments, and most of all, needlework. The academy is widely used as a trade school to train children in certain crafts from a young age, and is widely sought after by various parents from all over the world. While most of the students come from parents signing their kids up, a certain portion of the class roster is reserved for less fortunate children, sometimes from low income houses and even orphanages, offering them a free ride at the school if they maintain a high enough grade point average. Miranda believes that one of the only ways to pull people out of poverty is to give them skills, and as part of her philanthropy, offers these spots to pull children out of poverty.
The grand matron's appearance looks much younger than her age suggests, though that is mainly due to the carefully applied makeup and magical charms she uses to keep herself looking youthful. She has dark red hair, the style of which frequently changes to fit with current fashion trends. In terms of personality, she is normally kind to the people she meets, but has a certain firmness to her voice that comes with running a successful business for as long as she has. She normally wears a wide variety of shirts, skirts, pants and dresses, not many people able to report her wearing the same outfit combination twice.
While not many people have seen her use magic, it is theorized that Miranda is able to weave certain aspects of reality like thread, able to create dresses made entirely out of water or shortening the distance between two objects by temporarily weaving together two points of space.
Seamstress: Haruko Miyata
Name: Haruko Miyata
Age: 23
Having begun her seamstress career in the illustrious Adaway Academy at the age of 8, Haruko spent 6 years at the academy learning both school subjects up to high school level, and a special focus in their needlework program. Haruko was one of the people invited by Miranda herself at the orphanage Haruko was at, and since then, Haruko has turned into an outgoing woman who loves to socialize with friends. One amusing detail that Haruko's friends soon figure out is she has a horrible sense of direction, often needing to use Google Maps to get to most places in her own town. When not running her successful shop on the California coast, Haruko likes to play a few video games casually, some of her favorites being Pokemon(third generation onward, controversially), Monster Hunter and Mario Mart. In the past few years, Haruko adopted two young girls; Kate and Cosmina. While Kate has no interest in needlework, Cosmina is currently working for Haruko as her assistant in the guild, learning the trade and hopefully will become a seamstress in time.
While Haruko herself has little in the way of magic ability, she does have a magical girl form that she is learning how to combine with seamstress related magic to try and prepare herself should Miranda ever offer to teach her some of her amazing magic.
Seamstress: Iris Thorne(Iris)
Name: Iris Thorne
Age: 21
A sharp tongued, passionate, elitist, Iris Thorne thrives in the Seamstress guild that she sought out for its fashion enlightenment. Taking her adoration for the art of the Seamstress to a whole new level, Iris tends to look down on individuals who produce mass clothes without feeling, or who seek just to impress others, her beliefs being that a body is a canvas for the artistry of clothing and clothing should be treated with much more respect. Her goal is to become the best Seamstress in the world, often leaving her consumed and work and with very little friends, the main exception being Haruko, another Seamstress.
Stylist: Aimi Maki(TimePuppy)
Name: Aimi Maki
Aimi is a cheerful, open-minded kitsune who loves spending time among humans. She considers them to be interesting creatures and she likes taking on a human form even when not in public. The only thing she doesn't like about the human form is that they don’t have the ears and tails that kitsune are proud of, so she keeps her “accessories” behind closed doors. She loves studying humans, their behavior and the history of humanity, despite living through most of it herself. She likes partaking in crowd watching
Aimi can come off as lazy at times, since she is rarely found working. But it's not that she's lazy, it is just that with her kitsune powers she does everything quickly and has a lot of spare time which she uses to interact with others, to go to fast food joints, to go to parks and to events where lots of humans gather.
Despite enjoying the present, the clothes she makes are inspired by all the ages she's lived through and as such have an old-timey feel to them.
As a kitsune, Aimi has access to all kitsune abilities, such as: superhuman physical abilities, shapeshifting, illusions and dream manipulation, possession (of weaker animals), fox-fire manipulation, and several others which her mischievous fox spirit nature demands she use to pull harmless pranks on people.
Stylist: Leone Fleury
Age: 23
Attending Adaway Academy in the same class as Haruko, Leone was one of the top students in her entire class, doing all of her design work as a perfectionist with hours spent making each line on the document as straight as possible. During their time at the academy, Haruko and Leone became friends, constantly competing with each other to see who could score the most points on their assignments(they frequently tied with full points). However, after they both graduated, Leone decided to take a different path and became a mercenary for hire, frequently taking government contracts to help out the United States, and having had a fondness for fighting and machine guns.
While Leone easily possesses the required skills to become a seamstress, she instead chooses to get most of her income through mercenary work instead of via making outfits, thus she can only rise to the level of stylist. In terms of personality, Leone believes in needing to look good while out in public, especially out on contracts. She is somewhat of a tomboy, liking to participate in fights with people or make jokes that sometimes can seem crude. Her outfit is woven from a special material that makes any blood, dirt and the like roll off her clothing like a hydrophobic surface, and she carries a briefcase that transforms into various weaponry she may need on a mission; sniper rifle, set of pistols, two sub-machine guns, or her favorite; a minigun. She is a versatile fighter, having multiple compartments in her outfit that hold items such as grenades, lighters, tasers, and a variety of other objects one would need while dealing with Hidden World criminals.
Assistant: Cosmina Miyata(HungryHunter)
Cosmina is a young seamstress of equal parts ego and skill. While she is mature for her age, it's not as much as she pretends, as her rivalry with her sister shows. Still, she's loyal to her mother and an avid learner, intent on becoming a full member of the guild asap. She has a particular focus on hats and is never seen in public without one.
