Fashion Sense

Nami found it lamentable that one could never just buy clothes off the rack and expect them to fit Brook. If it was the right length, adjustments had to be made so that the skeleton wouldn't just slip out the neck line or fall out a pant leg. And if it was the right girth, there was a necessity for extra cloth for at least his midsection as their musician turned full length clothes for normal people into shorts and half sleeves with an exposed midriff, which looked terrible when there was only spinal cord for show.

There was the option of special ordering clothes for Brook, but that was semi-expensive (bargains and haggling weren't out of the question when there were enough odd body shapes in the Grand Line that any clothing shop had an attached seamstress or tailor) and for all that pirates are rumored to plunder and have stores of gold, the Straw Hats tended towards poor with little spare cash so much went into buying food.

Which meant that more often than not, when it came to getting Brook new clothes it was easiest and cheapest to just buy the fabric and sew it all themselves. It was annoying to have to put in the work, but if Robin could be cajoled into sewing it, it didn't take long, and Brook's sizes were never going to change at least, since he had no muscle or weight to gain or lose. Nami just supposed their coffers were lucky that Brook had no problem putting together serviceable outfits from whatever prints were on sale or in the bargain bin, even if they didn't seem to go together at first glance.

Case in point:

"How about these, Nami-san?" Brook offered, holding up a bolt of red and white stripes on one arm and a bolt of white stars on a blue backdrop on the other.

"And thread?" Nami asked because while it didn't take much more fabric to cover him than Zoro, it did take a great deal more thread when the seams were nearly twice as long. She didn't question the prints Brook had selected, he could be trusted with that. After all, this was a man who had pulled off stripes and polka dots during their stay in Zou without looking any more offensive than his loud colors usually made him.

"White thread is on sale and goes with both fabrics!" Brook cheerily reported, uncurling a hand slightly to show the thread there that blended in with his bones.

"Good! Now we just need a sturdy, red fabric to make a new cardigan for Luffy."

"There was a red bolt in the sale section, though I'm not sure it qualified as sturdy," Brook offered, shifting his picks to one arm.

"Might as well take a look," Nami sighed.

It was a bit odd, Nami reflected, that out of all the crew, her pick for clothes shopping partner if she couldn't get Robin was Brook. With a glance at the crew, most would probably guess Sanji as her second choice with his nice suits. It wasn't that Sanji didn't know how to pick clothes well, but that their cook was prone to praise anything a woman wore and wasn't always good about arguing a selection for the boys against Nami, which sort of nullified the purpose of bringing someone else along for a second opinion. Brook, on the other hand, had no problem speaking his mind or making a point and while his fashion tended to be somewhat unconventional (whether he'd always been like that or his tour had done it to him was up for debate), Brook had a good eye (except he doesn't have eyes, yohohoho) for clothes that made browsing the sales and bargains worthwhile.

Now if only she could install Brook's fashion sense into the rest of the boys.

Author's Note

This is inspired by the fact that Brook does pull off polka dots and stripes together, which I remember being taught is a fashion no-no, along with other unconventional pattern pairings. Now I'm no seamstress myself, but I think clothing Zoro and Brook require about the same amount of fabric based on the fact that Zoro is very muscley while Brook is super skinny, so where Zoro's wider, Brook is taller. I am at least sure of the seams comment because those are all height based. Also, unless I'm mistaken, unless you're American, people don't consider pairing stars and stripes for clothing (because we're so proud to wear our flag like that. Happy 4th of July to y'all!), so I think that works (but really, I just think Brook would look good in the red-and-white striped pants and a star-spangled shirt with an Uncle Sam hat). I really do think that Brook would be a second choice for clothes shopping after Robin because Franky has his pervert pride, Zoro and Luffy don't give a damn as long as it isn't frilly/embarrassing, I'm not sure Chopper would really get or care about fashion, Usopp probably tends for simple or grandiose/gaudy, and Sanji for the reasons in story. Last line is also a bit of poking fun at the fact that Luffy and Chopper approved of Brook's purple dress outfit in the Gold film. I swear they tried to come up with the goofiest disguises they could for him in that movie. I'm not even sure what the purpose of the golden clown one was (Nami's blue cat and Chopper's green soldier either) when no one was shown it. At least Sanji, Usopp, and Robin's maid outfits made sense for the laundry carts at the end.