Fashion

A Exploration of Karen's Fashion Sense

One of the most unique characteristics about Karen is her sense of fashion. Many of the female characters are limited I their clothing choices because they are students who must wear school uniforms and because they associated with a particular type of spiritual center that has them wear ceremonial gowns. As a professional with an apparently comfortable income, Karen has money to burn on clothes. Furthermore, her work calls for a particular style of clothing.

Karen is probably best known for wearing negligees of various styles. In fact, aside from her nude scene, she spends the entire movie in a black and red negligee, flimsy robe, and slippers. (Series and manga Karen is far to sensible to show up for battle in a state of undress, but apparently movie Karen did not have time to dress sensibly.) In the scene where the reader first sees Karen perched on top of a street light, Karen is wearing a shear, black teddy with lovely lace detailing on the top and a long, flowing bottom along with lacey, black underwear, shear, black stockings, a frilly garter, and no shoes. In perhaps her most famous scene in which she introduces herself to Arashi and Sorata, she wears a light colored one piece with matching stockings. Although these are the only two scenes in the manga in which she wears negligee, in illustrations, she is often wearing some sort of either negligee or semi-bondage wear. This sort of clothing emphasizes her job, but also her sexual nature which is also a part of her character. She wears these clothes with confidence and grace. She is not embarrassed to appear in public places wearing this type of clothing, although it is not her only style of clothing.

Usually when Karen goes out in public, she wears relatively normal clothing, meaning actual clothes, not undergarments. Of course, because Karen is so stylish, her clothing is nothing that the average woman would call “normal”. Generally speaking, Karen wears dresses that have long skirts with slits that go up her thigh to emphasize her lovely legs. The tops vary—sometimes she wears tops that have a high neck and long sleeves, other times they have a high neck and no sleeves, while still other times her dress tops are low cut with thin straps. Her dresses emphasize her figure—revealing her best features while covering up enough to keep her style tasteful. Her clothes suggest maturity, class, and good taste while still being flirtatious and vibrant. To a certain extent, she looks even more sensual in her clothes than she does in her lingerie.

Karen also is not afraid to accessorize. Of all the female characters, Karen has the best shoe collection, despite her early appearances in which she goes barefoot. Perhaps her best pair of footwear are the boots she wears when she meets Kamui for the first time. They are high heel, lace up boots that go up her ankles, but what really makes them cool is the detailing in the stitching. Other shoes she wears include a pair of black pumps with a cute band that goes around her ankle, red pumps, silver high heels that strap around her feet, and some really amazing boots that go up to her knees. She also wears a chain with a cross, although it is unclear if she wears it all the time and keeps it hidden, or if she only wears it occasionally. Sometimes she wears a little bracelet or a stunning belt, but those really depend on the outfit.

Fashion is not the most important thing about Karen, and she would certainly still be an interesting character if she only wore one outfit the entire time (though one does have to question the logic of wearing lingerie and bath slipper to a battle for the fate of mankind), but fashion is an element that make Karen more fun. Whenever Karen shows up, she looks fabulous.

CLEAR