When I set out to design the look of Sea Princess Azuri, I wanted to do something more than what people have traditionally seen. I wanted to redefine mermaid fashion, but I also wanted to keep it practical.

What I discovered right away is that mermaid clothing needs to be tied down in all directions or it will tend to float around in all the wrong ways. A fancy dress might be good for a fancy ball, but not for regular everyday wear because it will get in the way. Mermaid casual fashion needs to be hydrodynamic (that means it slices through the water easily) so it needs to stick close to the body.

Here are some sketches of some of the fancier outfits I designed. (They're scattered throughout a bunch of older sketchbooks so I'm searching through all the CD backups for any scans I can find.) For regular everyday outfits they usually just end up wearing some jewelry, especially surfer jewelry!

(Click on a thumbnail to see the full sized image.)



Azuri's room

Orcan popstars

Azuri's ceremonial armor, sketches

Azuri's ceremonial armor, turnaround
(Yes I did go totally overboard on this one. Bah, it was fun.
The outer pieces are designed to be removed, so that an elegent outfit is revealed underneath. I was thinking of butterfly wings when I drew this.)

Azuri's ballroom gown, design sketches






This particular outfit drove me nuts, I couldn't quite decide on just one. I ended up going with none of them and just gave her some armbands, a belt, and that cool purse for the opening scene in volume 2.

Yes. That purse is totally inspired by Rainbow Brite.

And a few random scribbles of mermaids in pajamas! Because whynot.

More outfits can be found under Character Evolution, in the older turnarounds.