Let’s continue the exploration into the fashion of Weun Academy: The Shadow Maker with exploring the official academy dress uniform.
Taking a page from military schools and organizations, students and faculty have a different attire when attending formal events versus their everyday learning and training uniforms.
A formal sport coat features a front flap and four decorative buttons. In the right light, onlookers can catch a subtle floral pattern across the purple material. Boards on the shoulders indicate their rank, while the same D’mok Classification pin is displayed on the raised collar.
For those with special duties or status, an honor sash or braided cord (“Aiguillette”) worn on the shoulder.
Matching the form and function of the academy jumper, the official and multi-function academy emblem is pinned to the chest. Completing the look, simple black pants bearing a single, vertical, purple stripe down each side are worn.
Fans have mentioned how vivid descriptions are in Weun Academy: The Shadow Maker. Among them are the descriptions of what everyone is wearing. Let’s dive into the behind-the-scenes thought process around some of those fashions!
Let’s start with the academy jumper. Uniforms are common among schools across our world. While controversial, some suggest they promote equality and reduce social pressure, reduce bullying based on appearance or wealth, build community and a shared identity, improve focus on academics, increase safety through identifying intruders, simplifying morning routines, and reinforcing discipline and professionalism.
The Japanese culture heavily influenced Weun Academy with their school uniforms along with portrayals in across manga and anime.
Looking to other beloved series, the first two Harry Potter movies used standard robes and uniforms. In the sci-fi space Ender’s Game (2013) was a heavy military focused school that had uniforms for their students. Every version of Star Trek had their students and cadets in uniforms.
It only seemed “logical” to design something for Weun Academy’s futuristic school for those with superpowers.
Here was the original design…
Because training was both academic and very physical, the uniform had to be versatile, cloth breathable. Footwear had to be classic and functional. I wanted to include the school colors including the purple tones. I wanted something that someone in real life could see themselves buying and wearing (at least to cosplay and at conventions)!
I also thought about ways students could could determine the classification of someone’s abilities. The pin on the neck represents one of six D’mok Classifications (the sprit, the body, the mind, the world, the universe, the beyond). Perhaps there could be a secondary connecting pin that could indicate more specific sub-classifications.
On the chest, the Weun Academy emblem would serve as a communicator, holographic emitter, localized computational device with embedded AI, etc.
The final design is inspired heavily by Star Trek DS9, TNG, and Discovery. I feel this result would be something that could fit well into that property while still being distinct.
It’s been a few days now. Weun Academy is fully released with all formats available on Amazon.
This feels like it’s been a VERY long time coming. For those have been keeping track, it has! So many things in my life and in the world have changed since I started writing it.
My son’s original start-of-3rd-grade school outing inspired the experience when Eisah arrived at Weun Academy. And the speech D’abar gives after the bad stuff happens (trying to avoid spoilers) was what I wrote to make sense of my sister-in-law Kristen’s passing. My son graduated from high school at the start of 2025… That is how much time has passed.
In my professional life I’ve moved between jobs. In my personal life I met someone wonderful who then became my spouse!
Oh and the world went nutz with Covid and politics…
When the book released I had one hope: this book would surpass the performance of my first book (D’mok Revival: Awakening) back in 2013. That book reached #18 in space opera before I very stupidly had KDP send out free books which yanked me from the paid ranking… A mistake that I never recovered from.
This time… I DID BETTER!
#15 on AMAZON’S BEST SELLER LISTING and…
WOW WOW WOW!!!! Over the moon on this. Considering I don’t have a developed follower listing, this is amazing. I really appreciate all my friends and fans of the original D’mok Revival series that made this possible.
Now… I get to do this all again for Toriko Tales. I DID push out the launch to the end of December versus the beginning. More time would be good to prepare everything more thoroughly.
