Some cosmetic items just make me scratch my head. Every once in a while, I’ll post one of these conundrums and ask you what you would do with them, after providing a couple of examples of my own coping mechanisms.
First up is the Long Elven Robe, a brightly hued robe purchased (if you dare!) from the outfitter in Celondim. In its undyed state, the robe is knee-length, white, with neon green flowers and an unfortunate wide band across the rear end, as well as a sea blue under-robe and a violet layer beneath that. Plus a violet belt with a center detail. It is, in brief, a whole lotta look.
To make matters more challenging, dye only changes the underlying white of the over-robe, meaning that you’re stuck with the neon green, the sea blue, and the violet no matter what.
First idea: Embrace the madness.
You want color? We’ll give you color! Don’t make me turn this swan-boat around! This isn’t really that colorful, but I liked the neckline where purple, red, green, and blue all collided.
Yeah, I'm wearing a gold day pack. What's your problem?
Just get it off me already. We like to blend with nature, not shout at it. SIGH.
Second idea: Bring it down a notch.
Sea blue dye on the robe makes it far less garish, and a plain cloak and plain quilted shoulder pads of the same color bring down the visual chaos quite a bit. Simple shoes dyed Rivendell green blend with the leggings to keep it sleek. It isn’t a dramatically different look than the one above; I just can’t go full-out crazysauce. This one does hide the strange horizontal butt-panel, though, and I think that’s a big improvement.
I get to wear a circlet here. I dig circlets.
I would like to change into some green flowing thing made out of leaves now, please.
Finally, lest you think Hithien always looks this way, here she is in her normal guise:
This is me when I'm not a rodeo clown.
Here’s another option with the robe, by the talented Starry Mantle: Elven-wise. Maybe everyone likes this thing, and the conundrum bit is just me!
That said, now it’s your turn! What would you do? Links to your blog, or links to flickr or photoshop are just fine. Help all of us with this Troublesome Item!
Landroval Style 
Thanks for the shout-out, Laenlis! It’s great to find a new LOTRO cosmetics blog to enjoy. I’ll be following with interest. 🙂
As for the robe, I’m quite a fan of it, but then I do sometimes enjoy a little cray-cray in my outfits. 😛 I think it also looks really nice dyed burgundy!
Ooh, burgundy. That would have been much more colorful than “two slightly different hues of blue.” 😉 I have never been good at the cray-cray.
I like how you dyed it sea blue. Still colorful, but not overwhelmingly so. What’s the name of that circlet?
Ariel, that’s the Turquoise Summer Circlet, which is usually available during the Summer Festival. It’s purty!
It is purty! I’ll have to be sure to pick it up during the Summer Festival this year!
actually, maybe I’m damaged, but I think the sea blue dyed Long Elven Robe actually looks good and not even crazy 😀
Haha! Not damaged at all. I used to think the sea blue was SO eye-searing, and now I go back to it again and again. It’s such a great springy color too.
I’m not even sure what I would DO with such a robe. I probably wouldn’t even be able to coax my characters into wearing it without getting punched in the face for my choice (My characters love to look stylish. ;))