I’ve been getting the itch for more black and white ensembles again, which actually means a good number of my current glamours are potentially up for reworking. Of course, with Patch 4.2 very nearly on the horizon, my highest priority is figuring out a new Ninja glamour, since I always like to go into the new Main Scenario Quests with an appropriate look (and as much as I like my last one, I’m not sure how I feel about going into cutscenes with Lyse wearing her old clothes!). As of yet, though, I haven’t been able to find anything that’s really grabbed me, and for now I’ve gone to a slightly modified version of my first real glamour for Ninja in Stormblood.

In the meantime, I’d also been thinking about putting together a new Bard glamour, since of all the ones I’ve got right now, my previous glamour for it is about as far from a black and white look as I can get. Though I started out considering the use of the Skallic Jacket of Aiming (still the only usable body piece I’ve gotten for that godsforsaken sunken city), I ended up going in quite a different direction and not using anything from Stormblood at all!

Glamour Components (Required Level: BRD 50/60 with Weapon)
Weapon: Augmented Shire Longbow (Pure White)
Head: Augmented Choral Chapeau (Jet Black)
Body: Warwolf Jerkin of Aiming (Pure White)
Hands: Bogatyr’s Gloves of Aiming
Legs: Direwolf Skirt of Aiming (Pure White)
Feet: Bogatyr’s Thighboots of Aiming

Outside of the Shire Longbow (which is by no means crucial to the look—it was just the best simple fit I could find after putting the rest of the look together), every piece for this one is drawn from A Realm Reborn. It’s actually been awhile since that’s happened. For the most part, I exhausted my personal possibilities for the game’s original gear sets a very long time ago, so most of the time, when pieces from 2.x show up these days, it’s to fill in things like gloves or boots for glamours otherwise based on newer gear (and of course, I’m doing what I can to focus on Stormblood pieces).

The Direwolf Skirt is a new piece for me, though, since I actually didn’t pick it up until recently, and it actually opened up this look, which is something I had put together quite a long time ago in ARR but never finalized because I never settled on a piece for the Legs slot (and PvP items were really expensive back then!).

I spent awhile using the Augmented Choral Tights, as you can see (and the only shots I could find of the look have glasses instead of the Choral Chapeau, though I distinctly remember using it). I very nearly went back to them for this one, but time hasn’t been kind to the partially exposed midriff the combo of the Jerkin and the Tights creates in my eyes.

The Direwolf Skirt works really well with the Jerkin, though, and let me keep the rest of the look without any real trouble. I did considering using the Cashmere Skirt of Aiming in its stead, since the gold buckle on it better matches the gold pin on the Choral Chapeau, but in terms of patterns, the Direwolf one fit the top much better, so I stuck with it. The rest of the items really don’t need any explanation at this point, though I did consider using the Oschon’s Gauntlets and Sollerets instead of the Bogatyr’s stuff briefly. Since the Gauntlets don’t mesh very well with the top, though, I stuck with the Bogatyr’s pieces.

We’re just a few days now from 4.2 and new gear to play around with. I’ve got my eye on some of the new PvP gear for sure. I’m surprised we haven’t seen more gear previews, honestly (which is a little worrisome if I were to be honest), but hopefully there’s lots of great new stuff!

In other news, Fashion Ninjutsu is now two years old: the very first post was made on January 25th, 2016! The site’s second year saw the launch of its Patreon, which has gotten a lot more support than I ever thought it would, allowing me to get rid of advertisements and also start reliably writing up reviews for Mog Station items. I’ve been really enjoying myself, and the site’s a big part of what keeps FFXIV interesting to me, so I really appreciate everyone who reads the site, shares stuff on Twitter, and especially those of you who keep the site ad-free through Patreon! Here’s to another year!