In Defence Of Puffy Sleeves

Probably the single most commonly and extensively mocked aspect of Tenkuu no Escaflowne is Allen's puffy sleeves. Okay, and Allen's boofy hair. Okay, and Allen's entire costume, appearance and demeanour. *sweatdrop* This mockery tends to come firstly from guys, who are obviously just jealous of and threatened by his sumptuous yumminess (and probably don't like Legolas either), and from misguided Van fans who are simply trying to make their idol look better by mudslinging at his competition. However, they try to assert that they actually have rational objections to Allen's style, such as that he is a Fabio wannabe, or that it makes him look gay, or that it's simply not a sensible way to dress. (If you can call those rational.)

I can refute all of these. Fabio first. What nonsense! These people are misindentifying the true phenomenon at work - that Allen represents the romantic male archetype to which Fabio aspires. (Fabio is, in my opinion, unsuccessful, especially since he's just after the image, whereas Allen personifies the essence.) Any similarity between the two is instantly dismissed upon reflecting that Allen would never get hit in the face by a goose while riding a roller-coaster in Virginia, because he is Too Cool.

Then there's the 'it makes him look gay' camp. (Ha ha, camp.) Well, apart from the fact that I've known quite a few gay boys and none of them have dressed remotely like Allen (although one was sort of shooting for his hairstyle for a while, before he got fed up with maintaining it), this viewpoint is based on a basic misapprehension: the notion that flamboyantly puffy sleeves are effeminate. (Again, it's not necessarily true that gay men are effeminate, anyway. The friend I referred to is a kickboxer, and not bad with a sword either.)

Please, look at the sleeves in the context of Tenkuu no Escaflowne, as part of the global production design. They're not effeminate, they're simply Asturian. They are a part of Allen's military uniform. Gaddes is wearing them too and no-one calls him girly. (Which always makes me wonder if Millerna considers her pink-blouse-and-capri-pants outfit to be tomboyish military chic *^.^*) In fact, you can even pursue this thread further to point out that it is not fair to make assumptions about Allen's personality based on the sleeves of an outfit he didn't even choose. (Any more than it is to assume Folken would be squeaking around in full-body black leather if those weren't his work clothes. I'm sure Dilandau would, but Folken? Nah.)

In the only scenes of the series where we can assume Allen did choose his outfit, because he is in civvies, such as the morning after he rescues Hitomi in the swamp, and the bit where he is sitting at home alone when *ahem, spoiler, spoiler* arrives in Dilandau's clothes, he is wearing a shirt with straight, if loose and full, sleeves. So you cannot logically argue that the puffs represent something about Allen's character in particular - especially not gayness, which is a pretty daft innuendo to make about Mr Rampantly Heterosexual over here. (The male members of this group are probably threatened by that, too.)

The third school of thought is the one that comes closest to rationality, as my friend Kevin will be glad to hear, since he is one of its leading proponents. (At least, I certainly hear enough about it from him.) These Allen-detractors allege that puffy sleeves look silly and are impractically formal, especially for a knight on active duty. Who can fight well when they're so dressed up? Kevin does approve of Van's clothes because he wears the mediaeval equivalent of jeans and a teeshirt, which if Kevin ruled the world would be the planetary uniform (except for girls, who would have a choice of kimonos or sailor suits if they preferred). And yet you'll notice jeans and a teeshirt get whipped by puffy sleeves every time the two of them get to finish a fight! Suave style pips casual scruffiness at the post nine times out of ten.

This is why grunge didn't last, but lounge is eternal.

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