Fuss and Feathers: Dressing up like an Indian

Our fashion-challenged guild has a fashion challenge yesterday. Sterkvark, as is his wont, was the instigator. It was called: "It Takes a Village (People)" and was meant to inspire fellow guildies to dress up like any of the six flamboyant characters from that musical group and belt out a rousing chorus of Y-M-C-A in Stormwind.

Well, some folks ended up in Ulduar and some folks ended up hiding from us, so it turned out that we had representatives for the Cowboy and Indian only when the big moment arrived. Hats off to my guildie Emereth who really got into the spirit of things and made the hottest space cow cow girl this side of Nagrand. As for Sterk, since he shelled out for a dye job and a new hairstyle to go with his Native American attire, this post will feature options to deck your toon out in warpath style.

If you are a Tauren or Night Elf, you have a physiological and perhaps even cultural advantage in looking like Pocahontas or Pontiac. Sterk is a bearded dwarf, but black hair, a short beard and barbarian braids helped to sell the look (and at level 80 cost him more than 11g at the barber shop).

The idea with Native American Garb is to find items that look suitably fashioned of hide and bone with little evidence of metal, or with motifs that evoke indian designs. You will end up looking like some Celtic nature priest or Conan if you are not careful in your selections, however. Here is how Sterk went about it:

As with most WOW looks, the Native American gear - that available to Allies at any rate - is really made by the right head piece. Clothies are stuck with headbands and gnomes can get mohawks, but for the rest of us finding a feathered headdress is the way to go. Sterk has several versions of these in his wardrobe (there are, all told, 2o available in-game), and this made it possible to coordinate colors with the rest of what he managed to come up with for his costume.

Sterk went with Murkblood Cover (of the Invoker) for the headdress to match the russet of his Aboriginal Vest which looks suitably like hide. Lacking the matching Aboriginal loincloth and able to wear leather, he went with the Ceremonial Leather loincloth. Outlander's boots make excellent moccassins ofr cloth wearers, with Pagan bands a suitable choice for bracers. For me, though, the crimson silk belt was an inspired choice both for color and design. A lumberjack axe already on hand made a decent tomahawk. The ideal pet proved to be the Dun Morogh Cub, and the slow Pinto mount from Stormwind was the horse of choice.

The feathers in the headresses can get lost in the shuffle, but on some heads they really stand out. I am sure there are other ways to skin this particular cat, but for a first effort I'd say Chief Sterkvark made decent showing in his Native American themed garb. For a bearded dwarf.