Given my frustrations with Pure White Dye, my glamours that use it tend to be fairly rare. Because it’s always a background goal for me to have good white glamours for Alahra, though (her title is “The White” after all!), if I do manage to get a couple of them that work, I have to fight the compulsion to make all of her glamours Pure White. In the past, that impulse lead to most of the glamours that adorn the site’s banner at present, since so many of the Shire pieces from the end of Heavensward worked really well in Alahra’s favored color.

So far, in the Stormblood era, I haven’t managed as much in Pure White that really works for me the way the Shire gear did. However, with both of Alahra’s main jobs featuring Artifact glamours in Pure White, that old nagging feeling had been swelling up again lately, and it was really getting to me that her Red Mage glamour wasn’t white, too, since, outside of everything else, it’s the job I’m playing most for the time being. Even before I put together her last one, I’d been somewhat fixated on using the Anemos Duelist’s Breeches in Pure White, as I really like their style (and it’s so rare that I like pants in FFXIV that it seemed really important to make use of a pair that I do like as much as possible).

Unfortunately, I couldn’t follow the trend I’d been following with Monk and Ninja and go with a Pure White Anemos Duelist’s Tabard, for a number of reasons: it dyes poorly in Pure White, with a frustrating amount of grey; it’s overall kind of…frumpy, which looks really weird on Alahra; and to top everything off, it has frustrating tail clipping issues, too (tail toggle when, Square Enix?). That really imposed a lot of limitations on what I could do in Pure White, as so little caster gear actually works well in the color. I got something put together, but it’s a bit standard, leaving me really itching for something more.

Glamour Components (Required Level: RDM 70)
Weapon: Murgleis Anemos (Pure White)
Head: Anemos Duelist’s Chapeau (Jet Black)
Body: Serge Gambison of Casting (Pure White)
Hands: Marid Leather Gloves of Casting (Jet Black)
Legs: Anemos Duelist’s Breeches (Pure White)
Feet: Expeditioner’s Thighboots (Jet Black)

None of these pieces are really surprising, are they? I’ve used the Serge Gambison in combination with most of these at some point or another, having featured it in a number of Red Mage and Casting glamours already. I really did try to mix things up a bit, though. When I set out to use the Duelist’s Breeches, I ideally wanted to use shorter boots, with the Halonic Exorcist’s Thighboots foremost in my mind. They caused trouble with the Serge Gambison though, as the Gambison itself doesn’t dye entirely white—around the waist, it’s got somewhat of a weathered look, which didn’t play well at all with the very pristine white of the Duelist’s Breeches.

I experimented with a number of other body pieces, like the Scion Adventurer’s Jacket, the Uraeus Coat, and the Shire Philosopher’s Coat, but nothing really seemed to fit the Breeches. The closest I got to another option was the Archaeoskin Jackcoat of Crafting, which had a good fit in terms of profile, but it was far too “rugged” to go along with the otherwise fashionable Red Mage set. With a heavy heart, I decided to stick with the Gambison for the time being, which then meant I had to find a pair of taller boots to replace the Halonic ones, since I needed to obscure some of the white on the Breeches to make sure things blended well enough.

Unfortunately, Casters have really terrible options for thighboots. I had three choices, more or less: the Shire Philosopher’s Thighboots, the Scion Healer’s Highboots, and the Expeditioner’s Thighboots. The Shire ones were way too bulky, and Y’shtola’s boots, while easily the best pair in the game, have the spot of red that didn’t work with the rest of the look at all (which is the same problem the Duelist’s Thighboots have as well). The Expeditioner’s Thighboots only work by virtue of not clashing in any significant ways, and I’m not especially happy about using them here.

As usual, once the boots were set in stone, gloves were more or less decided as well. I’ve used the Warwolf Gloves of Casting in the past with the Gambison, but with the bit of brown (for the knife) on the Thighboots and the bits of brown here and there on the Gambison itself, nothing outside of the Marid Leather Gloves seemed to work (though they have that persistent bit of blue that does make them bothersome at some angles).

In the end, while I’ve got a complete (and functional) look here, I can’t escape this feeling that I’m missing something obvious. I’m probably going to be focusing on Bard for a little while, since I’ve (mostly) decided to aim for the Anemos Storyteller’s gear as my next Eurekan goal, but I’m going to have to keep Red Mage in the back of my mind even so. If I can just find the right top to pair with the Breeches, I’ll be able to do something a lot more exciting…it’s just a matter of figuring out whatever that actually is!