Most people don’t often think about video game fashion—you mean a plaid shirt and a Zelda triforce tee, right? but Offworld contributor Gita Jackson has a delightful eye for clothing detail, like the zombie-spattered denim of Resident Evil‘s Claire Redfield.
In the latest installment of her unique “Wardrobe Theory” feature at Paste Magazine, Jackson waxes thoughtful about the role of denim in the post-apocalypse:
I imagine that Claire buys things to last, especially with her newfound maturity and the whole zombie apocalypse thing. Gone are the days of the denim cut offs from Forever 21—I feel like she’s probably in raw denim. Raw denim—so named because, well, it’s essentially unchanged from it’s raw form—is going to be a little pricier than what I’d normally spend on jeans, but it’s absolutely a better value.
When you can afford to, it really pays off in the long run to spend a little more on high quality clothing. If I were living in a post-apocalyptic hellscape where just going out and replacing my pair of BDGs when they get that hole in the crotch after a year wasn’t an option anymore, I’d certainly want to be in raw denim.
There’ve been plenty of “game-inspired” fashion lines in the past, and some weird direct brand tie-ins, but Jackson’s fun fashion critiques of games are much-appreciated. It’s always exciting when video game characters’ style veers outside the ubiquitous nu-metal longcoat and Hot Topic catalog looks.