🌸🌸🌸
Aerith
"Actually it's pronounced Aeriス"
Cloud and Barret look like soldiers 💪... Tifa is a barmaid brawler 🥊 ... And Aerith is a flower girl.🌸
That is: She's more of a normal girl. She's caring, she's sweet, she makes jokes,
[she can sense when people die], and she lives the slum-life to the fullest.
Aerith captures modern femininity through her design.
Despite some minor hangups, her look is completely iconic.
The challenge over the years was taming it into a style that could be, er, a little more adaptable into real life (...mostly the hair) and modernized for current fashion trends.
HAIR
'97 - First thing's first: Those bangs are HUUGE. The high bangs (where it spikes up then spikes back down) were big around the 90s
[1], but Aerith and Sephiroth might have reached new heights in anime hair with this. That said, I don't hate it -- I love that her face is clear and easy to see. (
I can hear my mum saying "get those bangs off your face so people can see your pretty eyes!"). Realistically speaking: It's strange, but I can't help but
love it.
I do have a theory! Maybe this style is a version of voluminous 80's/90's styles that got more exaggerated the more it got adapted
[2]. Internet detectives similarly pieced together how
Case Closed 's Ran might have evolved into her characteristic HAIR SPIKE from a SWOOP!
[3]... I'm not saying this is what's happened here, but it's the best I got. 🤷♀️ I think it's just 'cool 90s volume' cranked to an 11.
[1]
[2]
[3]
'20 - But the '97 hair just can't work in real life. Full stop.
Cosplayers have [accurately!] tried, and
it just isn't the same. Remake
Aerith instead has THICK curtain bangs that evenly parts in the middle to frame her face (the intent is to have her bangs lead your eyes down to her lips 👄). The rest is mostly unchanged: A twist braid is done up by a pink ribbon, and medium-length curls fall along the sides of her ears. It's clean and pretty.
...So I got beef here.🐮 Her curly locks on the sides drive me nuts, especially during a few big scenes in
Rebirth. It's odd when one part of her hairdo is curly while the rest looks straighter. it's weird seeing different curls on different lengths of hair, it makes her hair style look unfinished/messier than it should
[4] – no one really styles their hair like this lol.
In my opinion, her hair should be wavy all the way through.
Additionally, consistent curls would match Ifalna's hair better
[5], and Aerith SHOULD be the wavy counterpart to Tifa's straight hair.
But for my money, it's Aerith's Wall Market hair [2] and Amano designs [1] that do a better job incorporating more natural and realistic waves throughout her hair. In these artworks her side curls LOOK like REAL curls that taper off naturally (and look less like a chopped off braid that won't unravel
[6]), I'd also argue it's more accurate to the intent of the PS1 game's design (even being more asymmetrical)
[7].
So uh point is: "Hair Down Aerith" is better in Remake > Rebirth.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
It was always going to be hard working this style realistically. And even in
Remake it still looks...very cartoony lol. 🧐 I don't expect people to share my hangup here, and really it's me splitting hairs over something I generally think looks beautiful, even if it's not especially realistic.
JACKET
'97 - I won't lie: I like this more. The metal sleeves are punk AF and it suits the Aeris who grew up in the Slums. I LOVE the big shoulders and the high-crop . Shoulder pads are sorta "in" these days, but only with specific "power looks" (i.e. it's more high fashion than common). But big shoulders were already going out of style in the 90s, and I think the reason they're used here is legit that "hero factor" it gives off: It makes you look assertive, bold, and it more shape and "architecture" to the garment!
Don't worry, I'm not trying to sell you on shoulder pads, but here's an example to demonstrate the effect it has....
(
...but it also kinda looks like she's shrugging lol)
'20 - Now she has a more standard jean jacket with a relaxed fit, which suits her carefree attitude better and makes her look slender (especially now that her dress adds volume). The belt buckle sleeves make more sense than steel cuffs[!], and gold metals replace silver accents to keep things warm ('cause it's Tifa who gets silver accessories). I really love the
brand new star studs on the shoulders.
Red jackets are always chic.
DRESS
I basically found exactly what she's wearing, and this look has been around for ages – you couldn't ask for a more modern (or girly) outfit. It's the perfect contrast:
Those big chunky brown boots are perfectly complimented by a sweet feminine dress. It's cute and versatile – fashionable yet casual (...
fasual 😎).
'97 - I LOVE the old dress; it was EVERYWHERE in the 90s. Funny enough, these frocks often had floral print, which Aeris forgoes for a solid dark pink colour. But I love the full buttoned-down dress, and the slit halfway up makes it just a little dishy. From movies I remembered Julia Gulia from
The Wedding Singer wearing the full ensemble, and Marissa Tomei from
Only You (George Costanza's favorite movie!) who's wearing the buttoned-down dress like Aeris has on.
'20 - This fluffier dress makes her look more like a country bumpkin. There's frills, lace, and a bow at the waist – I am imagine this was to soften her up. She's a gardener, she's hangs with kids, and her new dress better matches her fluffy and sweet personality (Tifa's already got the real estate for being "the sexy one", and Aerith looks
really "va va voom" when her '97 dress is on a realistic model😳). Going from dark pink to a patterned light pink and white makes the dress
brighter (literally, and figuratively it feels more innocent).
It's a little froufrou for my tastes, but I like it for her!
ACCESSORIES (SPOILER WARNING)
Her '97 cuffs are now a set of 3 bracelets. A
rose gold ring with florals on it (
hmm), a
silver one with small bolts on it (
HMMM), and a plain
yellow gold bracelet (
hmm??). I think it's fine to take these bracelets at face value, but interpreting them is way more fun. I'm not sure what the '97 bracelet were going for, so this is a beautiful way to retool it while retaining the old shape/tiers/colours. This feels specific and personal.
The leather cord necklace is classic and modest. But the extra floral pendant in 2020s Aerith is a nice touch. You can
buy it officially too (and like
Yuna's necklace, I want them).
I think it's easy to see Aerith's design (and personality) as twee… and it kinda is, but at least they see through it pretty faithfully. Her outfit is so wonderfully normal, but an aspect of Aerith's appeal feels 'unreal' that the whole "world-saving florist with a heart of
rose gold" just kinda works. 🌹
I realize this went on long...but I dunno... Whenever I look at Aerith through her many renditions, I think it's safe to say Square Enix have
similarly laboured over designing her to be practically
perfect.
...In part, I think, to make losing her that much harder.
TLDR;
1990s Aeris is cool and kicky.
2020s Aerith is fluffy and sweet
TOO LATE / 10
Other Odds and Ends
Frog Aerith!! 😭 💕
A mod with Aerith's Advent Children attire (which is basically her '97 attire).
...It still suits her. :(
Brianna White does Aertith cosplay! She does such a great job voicing such an important and tricky character --- FF7 can be HARD material to work with. I feel it's easy to put on "soft airs" for such a passive girl, but Brianna finds a way to make Aerith sound natural, flexible, and at times adorkable.
Remember Adella Cosplay? She was probably one of the earliest cosplayers to totally nail Aerith's look (and she's quite a beauty herself), but even with that…you can tell why the hairstyle had to change.
My phone wallpaper. ♥ (And here's a clean, slightly edited version if anyone wants it)
Aerith's other looks....aren't great IMO. :/ The girl's consistent, but they're all just a little much. Her Ever Crisis bikini is the best one, but we got grandma's doily table cloth covering her up.
