Way back in the most ancient days of 2016, I lamented FFXIV‘s overall lack of Eastern-themed gear, something that’s gotten a lot better since we’ve entered the Stormblood era. So, when I got my other Patron Request for a Shrine Maiden glamour, I figured I’d have an easy time of it, since there was bound to be something among all the new Stormblood stuff that would work! As it turns out, though, a lot of the same things we were lacking in the past are still things that we’re missing. Many of the options we have these days don’t play well with others, especially when it comes to dyes (and many of them are from seasonal events or the Mog Station, too), which really limits what we can do.

Since Shrine Maidens normally wear red and white, I figured my most obvious starting point would be to use one of either the Red or Redfly Lady’s Yukatas, both of which fit the general color scheme fairly well, even if they aren’t exactly the right style. But once I moved to choosing a long skirt to go along with them, I realized I had a bit of a conundrum: the red on both Yukatas doesn’t match any of the reds we have access to for dyes. It seemed really important to have cohesion in the colors, so I had to move away from the Yukatas and look for other options.

I thought perhaps that the Asuran Dogi of Aiming from Heavensward might work, but it unfortunately doesn’t keep any white when dyed. After that I considered the Arhat Togi of Aiming, which isn’t dyeable, but does have some red and white. As a primarily leather piece, though, it doesn’t really fit the desired style very well, and its most prominent color is brown, which really didn’t work. I considered the High Summoner’s Dress as well, which is pretty close to what I needed in overall style, but it unfortunately dyes in a really poor “two-tone” way. Other options, like the Eastern Lady’s Togi didn’t work well with a long skirt.

Glamour Components (Required Level: All Classes 1)
Weapon: Yochi Bow (Replica) (Dalamud Red)
Head: Amatsu Hachigane
Body: Amatsu Togi
Hands: Amatsu Tekko
Legs: Far Eastern Noble’s Petticoat (Dalamud Red)
Feet: Little Lady’s Clogs

So, I started to feel like I was going to have to compromise to make this one work, no matter what. I decided the main thing I needed was to stick to the color scheme, since the overall garb of a Shrine Maiden couldn’t be replicated very well in the game. I settled on using the Amatsu Togi and a couple of the pieces that go with it, because they fit the color scheme very well (and importantly, the red on them matches Dalamud Red pretty well).

Once I settled on those, I got out the Little Lady’s Clogs for the proper footwear (and thankfully they already fit in color wise). I did consider the Lady’s Clogs, but I felt like having the tabi on the others was pretty important. The last choice came down to the skirt. There were a number of options, with the Spring Skirt probably having the best type of fabric. The Spring Skirt was a little too short, though, which bugged me, since it left a lot of ankle exposed with the Little Lady’s Clogs. That didn’t look right to me, so I ended up going with the Noble’s Petticoat due to length.

The final touch, since this was meant to be a Bard glamour, was to add the Yoichi Bow. It’s always been my favorite bow, and it works really well alongside the Amatsu gear. I do really hope, though, that before the end of Stormblood, we get some more options for these sorts of looks. I’d really like to revisit and perfect this one using pieces that are a little more appropriate in terms of style!

This post comes by request of one of this site’s patrons on Patreon, David Haig, who asked for a Shrine Maiden Bard glamour. If you’d like to make requests yourself, either by voting for the monthly Patron-Only Glamour Spotlight or for the site in general, you can contribute to Fashion Ninjutsu’s Patreon.