 Hello again. I got a mullet. Do you like it? I shaved above my ears and then initially this was covering my ears but then I wanted it to be seen so I just kept cutting and it's definitely a mullet but I like it. I've been wanting to make this video for a very long time but I also wanted to gather my thoughts before just jumping into it. I want to talk about nightcore aesthetic. Like nights in shining armor aesthetic. It's definitely not a super wearable aesthetic. It falls under the royal core aesthetic along with princess core, prince core, bard core, other various cores and all of those ones are a little more wearable. Nightcore is hard because nights literally just wear armor. This isn't really like a great everyday piece of clothing. I wish it was but it's just, that's just not how society is unfortunately. I've been looking at Pinterest and trying to find some good nightcore inspiration and I feel like it is sort of a limited supply of images. Most of them are screenshots from like movies and TV series with like actual armor and it's not very wearable. So I wanted to talk a little bit about the medieval era and what nights would have to go through because I think that we can kind of build a nightcore wardrobe that is applicable to everyday situations based on history. Not just the armor, okay? I have some notes about this so I'm going to be kind of reading from here so I don't lose any of my thoughts. So ever since I was a kid I've always loved medieval and medieval revival aesthetics. You know I grew up with like Lord of the Rings, The Dark Crystal, and other dark fantasy movies as well as all the Disney classics. You know, The Princesses Sleeping Beauty was my favorite because there was a dragon in that one so I've always loved this type of aesthetic. Obviously it stayed with me for my whole life up until this point because I like to try and adopt these things into my daily wear. But if you're nervous to try out a new aesthetic and wear things in public, you know, you can start small and kind of build up with accessories first. But also I like to remind myself that we're all just on a rock in space so if it makes you happy just give it a try, you know? I of course love armor and heavy swords and things. You can probably see my armor over there actually. And the ones beneath my desk because I have no storage in this apartment. Anyway, I've always loved the nightcore aesthetic in movies and media but as I said, not super wearable. To make it a little bit more approachable and accessible for daily wear, I feel like we should break down the history of knighthood a little bit. I will preface this by saying I am not an expert. I've never studied this type of history before. I'm just a nerd, okay? So if I get something wrong and you would like to correct me below, go right ahead. But to my understanding, I'm going to go through what the life of a knight would actually be like. So knights were not always nobles. Some commoners were granted knighthood as a reward but mostly you had to be born into nobility to be a knight. And this was for a few reasons. Medieval feudalist societies were divided into class systems. You were basically born into your role. You would be born into the role of a farmer, a minstrel, a blacksmith, etc. The nobility also had a kind of class system of their own within the nobles. But it was much more fluid depending on how powerful your family was, how genetically close you were to the king and your place in the family's successions. So for example, a professional soldier from a weaker noble family would likely be just a knight. If you were a second cousin or something, even if you had no military training whatsoever, you would likely have been given a bit of a higher title such as like a commander of a garrison or a knight captain because your family has more power in the structure of the class system. Being a knight was a costly thing and they had to pay for their own horses, weapons, and armor most of the time. So commoners wouldn't really have the opportunity anyway, which is why mostly noblemen were knights aside from the rare case of a peasant being granted knighthood as a reward, which would then in turn make his family a part of the noble system, of course on the very very low end of things, but that would be one way to get more status, which is cool because the medieval system wasn't really fluid. To become a knight at the age of seven, you'd be sent off with the Lord to begin your training. In this stage of life, you were called a page. Pages were trained in riding horses, learning how to use mock weapons, as well as do menial tasks around the castle, just kind of clean up and you don't get to do that much as a page, but at age 14 you'd graduate to a squire. A squire got to train with real weapons, learned to read and write, they got to do hunting and falconry as well as dance and music, which is funny to me that that's a part of knight training, but it makes sense when you think about the medieval system and how, you know, knowing how to do a dance was very important compared to today. They were also responsible for looking after and training the pages, as well as looking after an official knight. They would polish their armor, clean weapons, look after their horse, help them dress for battle, hold their shield until they were ready to use it, as well as follow them into battle. And if your knight died in battle, one of your duties was to be sure that your knight got a proper burial, which that's that's pretty intense for a 14 year old, but you know. At the age of 21 you'd be officially dubbed a knight with the touch of a blade to the shoulder or sometimes a kiss to the cheek. They would spend all night before the nighting ceremony beautifying themselves. They would bathe, shave, and pray. During the ceremony the squire would be fitted with gilded spurs and gifted with a black sword blessed by the priest. On the condition that he always protect the needy, the blade of the sword had two cutting edges, one symbolized justice and the other represented loyalty and chivalry. New knights had to swear an oath of homage to whoever he was serving, like a lord, baron, king, etc. After this the knight would be given a horse along with his shield and a banner that would often bear his family's coat of arms. Once you were officially a knight you'd be in the service portion of life. At this stage you'd be guarding those who you serve, fighting wars for your leader and your church, as well as participate in medieval tournaments during peacetime when your country was not at war to stay fit and entertain everyone, which is crazy because you could still die in tournaments, but it's peacetime, right? The medieval era was wild. So a day in the life of a knight would start with mass service in church after this was breakfast, which would lead into weaponry practice. Then they would discuss warfare tactics in strategy meetings, do some more praying, have lunch, practice music or dance, focus on horsemanship by hunting or hawking, pray some more, have dinner, maybe some entertainment, more praying and then sleep. As time went on there was a greater emphasis placed on manners and chivalry, so knights were expected to learn the rules of the code of chivalry. This was a moral system and they would be expected to also learn the art of courtly love, which was a twelfth century treatise written by the author Andreas Capellanus. I don't want to get into the code of chivalry because that's just a lot of information, but I do want to talk about the seven nightly virtues. Those were often courage, justice, mercy, generosity, faith, nobility, and hope. I know this has been a long-winded explanation of what knights went through, but my point is that the knight corps aesthetic should be largely inspired and influenced by the whole life that a knight would live, not just the part where he is wearing armor and serving the king. I also think this aesthetic should reflect the hobbies and virtues that knights held. This means that we now have to decide as a knight what way do we want to use this information to assemble outfits. You could pick some of the virtues that you think stand out best to you. You could be inspired by one of the hobbies that knights would like to do. The clothing that you'd wear for horse riding or falconry would obviously be different from what you're wearing if you're doing a tournament or if you're just, you know, praying or having a meal. So I think that being able to kind of pick from all the different places of a knight's life will help to make this a little bit more wearable. So I think that a big part of the aesthetics that fall under royal corps is it's important to look at fabrics like linens, wools, leathers, you know, nice trousers, good belts. I think that having the textures kind of look a little bit more refined will reflect the nobility of the knights. So I'm going to show some of the clothing that I have that I think reflects knight corps very well. A lot of it I think thrifting is totally a great option but I will share some other shops that I have stepped from that I think fit the vibe. So hopefully this will help you find some inspiration for knight corps aesthetic. Okay, first of all I got this top from Lady Epi shop. My friend Epi thrifts clothes and screen prints on them. She has a lot of very cool designs and a lot of them have swords on them. So that's my first recommendation for knight corps stuff. Why did that have an H in it? Stuff. Okay so I'm gonna kind of go through this in sections because I'm trying my best not to make a huge mess in here. So give me a second. Try not to knock over the tripod. It's my new hit single. The first thing I think I want to start with is tops but just to get it out of the way obviously capes and cloaks are very very much the medieval fantasy vibes. So I have a few. This little capelet is from Romwe. It is like a corduroy green color. I think this could be a very a very fitting piece. It kind of gives me Robin Hood vibes which you know maybe that's more ranger but it's in the same realm for knight corps in my opinion. So this is a good one. This one I got from Costier O'Reel. I have two more cloaks from them. I have one that's like a very long green vegan wool and then I have a red velvet one but this is the only one I have out right now. They are very soft and they all have very large hoods and I feel like this is such a fun layer. I wear it over my coats in the winter because my coats don't look very cute. I have also made little capes before so this is a little capelet that I made out of a blanket that I thrifted. I just kind of eyeballed it and measured it myself but you know you can definitely find a pattern for this. This one's more inspired by like I don't know what they're called. They're like a medieval hood thing. I'll put a picture but yeah they'd be closed at the front but that was kind of my inspiration for this one and I gave it a cute little hood. So yeah if you don't want to buy one you can definitely make one. I just put a button on this one. I also have a tie if I don't want to use the button and I made a longer one with the rest of the blanket. This one actually I sewed a clasp too so it's one of these little metal clasps. Yeah same thing. This one's got a little hood and this took me like 15 minutes to make probably. So yeah if you have the means definitely try to make one. Am I already making this? I just cleaned. Okay anyway moving on. So this is an official night item right? This is from my friend Nora. Their company's called Knock Thrice. This is the night in Raven Armour cardigan. It's got a little chainmail on it and a sword. So these are not available right now because they did like a limited run but they have said that they might bring this back in the future. So definitely check out their Instagram if you would like to be updated on whether or not this happens again in the future. So this is a little jacket thing from Zara. I actually got it on thread up but I thought it was very fun with all of these little trims and details on here especially with these ties and it's like a quarter sleeve. So I think that this is a very natural looking fabric that can work well as a layer over you know kind of a casual night shirt. I thrifted a jacket because these clasps were just too cool but I didn't like the sleeves and it was like super baggy on me. So I just kind of adjusted the sides with darts to fit me and I cut off the sleeves and this works very well as a doublet. But that's another thing you could probably DIY even if you can't find something with these buttons. The ones that I sewed on my cloak are available in craft stores and online. You could also do ties like they have on gambasins. The children upstairs are so loud. Anyway you could do ties like they have on gambasins or leather clasp belt things. I don't know the word I'm looking for. But yeah you can also find those to sew on items that you thrift or already have. This is another thrift find. Very kind of military looking not super medieval but it does have the structured vibe of like a noble military costume which I think can fit within the nightcore realm of things. It's got cat hair all over it but such is life. This is actually an Amazon vest that I thrifted. I had it in my car on Amazon and I thrifted it. So it was too big for me but I fitted it to kind of sit better on my body. It's like a short front long in the back probably more like Regency Victorian style but the Jacquard vest is definitely a great noble looking fabric. Pretty sure this is a target shirt. I thrifted it. It's a bit big on me but I like the baggy look. It's just like a linen type button-up shirt but you know tucked in with like a belt like this and some trousers I think looks very casually like you're a knight in training. Potentially a squire. Maybe you're not quite there yet you know. Always look for padded jackets. This one isn't padded but it's very thick and it has kind of like a padded looking fabric. Also loved that it had buttons with little loops because that's something that you also see on doublets and jerk-ins sometimes. But this to me looks like a padded gambeson so this is like a fun layer to add over things if it's cold outside. Why am I winded? I thrifted this too which I haven't really worn it out because one of the sleeves like the metal pieces are like coming off. I need to try to hand sew that back on or something but these shiny tops are giving very much the armor vibe without being like fully metal you know. But yeah I've actually worn this top before with this belt and it looks so cool. Definitely check thrift stores for stuff with this type of fabric. I guess is this even fabric? It's like literally metal. I don't know. Check thrift stores though and if you can't find it there are options for this online and they come in silver. So this is a leather jacket that I got from Cider. The style isn't like super nightcore to me but I feel like it is a structured piece that kind of vaguely resembles armor and you still look like you're in a modern outfit but you know you can kind of have that little nod to leather armor without it being actually armor. I just looked in the mirror this up. It's actually very cute. This is a shirt that used to belong to my mother from Express but it's just a very flowy white blouse with a little tie on the neck. I like this one because it actually cinches up which is fun and it's just got these very flowy sleeves and something like this in one of these structured corset belts is also very very nightcore for me. So this is probably one of my most warm shirts. This is a linen blouse from Pavietra and the sleeves are so cute. I can't even... I wish I had sleeves like this on every shirt I own and they have these in pretty much any color you could imagine. So this is a great top and it has cute little wooden buttons on it. So this is one of my favorite thrift flips I've ever done. It is a really not very cute leather jacket. Well it's not real leather. It's a pleather jacket but I cut off the sleeves. I tightened it on the sides a bit because it was just too loose on me and then with the remaining piece of the sleeve I actually put a little like snap on here so that I could close it off and it looks it looks a bit better with a with like a belt over it like right there but this is one of my favorite items that I have and I made it myself. So if you have an old leather jacket or if you find one you can definitely try to DIY yourself a jerkin. I might make like a little tutorial of how I've done this because I've sewed three of these before so let me know if that's something you'd be interested in. This is a linen vest from Sonde Floor. Keeps touching my head. I love this vest. It gives me very much Prince Charming vibes like this little this little part of the back. So cute but you can have it buttoned up fully to the neck which I think is very princely or you can kind of have it like open. Kind of more Mr. Darcy vibes but I think that over a top like this even just open you can never have too many belts. Do I look like a knight? I feel like a knight. Maybe it's all in here. Maybe nightcore is just a state of mind. I think I've solved it everyone. The video's over. I already got too many things out to end right now. So this vest is from Vohiaga which is a bit difficult to say but it is a velvet vest with gold what's the word? Threads? Gold stitching? Yeah there we go. It's a it's a black velvet vest with gold stitching. It's got a very cute belt. I usually wear it open but you can wear it buttoned up all the way and then I just have a white blouse underneath it on this hanger because I'm planning on wearing this in a video soon. But one of my favorite things about this jacket is that when you have your sleeve coming through so first of all it opens at the end and it has little buttons but you can actually pull your shirt through the sleeve which is definitely a thing that was very present in medieval clothing. I'll show you a painting right here where it's very evident but that's even something that you could probably DIY. I'm fighting for my life with my allergies right now. This blouse Nick got me from Retrofairy. I don't love the buttons I may switch them out but it's got a little lace collar up here with like a little cape that kind of hangs over your shoulders and it's got those same baggy sleeves with the long cuff so this is a great a great sleeve to have coming out of like a vest or a little doublet. This is a cider jacket that I wear pretty much all the time right now because the weather is not cold but not warm. It's just a good it's a very lightly lined jacket but the fabric is actually pretty thick. I love these gold buttons. This is kind of like it's the line between pirate core and night core is very fine sometimes. I think this might be leaning like slightly more piratey but I mean I love it and I think it it still has that kind of medieval tapestry looking fabric so I would still consider it night core. The last thing I have for tops is this one that I thrifted. The brand is Sundance but it's just kind of like a flowy fabric with velvet but anything with this kind of extravagant fabric I think definitely reads into that night core. Okay let me put all these tops away and then we will move along. Oh my gosh my tripod is literally in my closet so I had to do some like major gymnastics to get all the stuff in there. Okay I want to talk about dresses but I don't want to get out my dresses so I'm gonna be showing you photos. So yes nights were pretty much always men but there were exceptions okay I'm not sure that the clothing would have been much different for a female knight but this is modern day and we can wear what we like so I think using skirts and dresses in night core is perfectly perfectly fitting for the aesthetic especially because you know you have like the runaway princess trope which I feel like you know just it all it's all kind of in the same pot at this point. So I have a linen dress from linen naïve I think is how you say the name and it's this very pretty rust color very renaissance vibes but I think something like this with like a structured leather belt and maybe some boots you could even hike up the long edge of the skirt to show your boots with a little skirt hike. I think that could be very very fun for a more feminine night core look. I also have one of the long black selky dresses that I have never worn so I definitely want to use that for a night core look at some point but same thing I think just like a beautiful long gown like that especially in a kind of neutral fabric just you know a photo of that with the sword in hand say less. I have a long black velvet skirt that kind of buttons up like jeans something like that with a blouse like this maybe even a cool belt some boots of course boots are always necessary for an adventure. I feel like styling is kind of like a one of those paper doll games where you kind of just mix and match things until it works for you so definitely don't be afraid to play around with things that you think might not look great together because you never know they might surprise you. Also not going to get out my pants because I feel like there's not much to talk about when it comes to pants you can kind of do whatever like I think that these I think these plaid trousers are still you know perfectly within the night core aesthetic you can also wear like wool trousers or linen pants. I think focusing on texture and print is kind of the most important thing I think now we shall move on to accessories so let me do some more gymnastics to get past you and we shall continue. For accessories that's going to encompass anything that you're gonna layer on top of your base outfit so I mean jewelry is a great start I'm wearing this sword and earring combo from Myth and Fey. I also have their even star clay earrings as well as their axe and vine earrings so cute and so fantasy vibes I think anything with a little weapon on it is obviously perfect. I also have some things from crafter day that I love I have their moth choker as well as their golden kind of cross looking necklace which I wanted so bad because it's something that you see a lot in like Tudor era portraits so I thought that was very fun. I always love necklaces with coins on them but you know don't don't stress about the vibe too much if you like it and put it on you know this is another fun thing it's like a viking brooch that you use to secure a cloak let me get let me get a little something I'll show you not the best colors for nightcore but you know maybe maybe you're a fruity little knight who likes color you know anyway you put it on you kind of loop it over and since there's a lot of holes in this fabric what you do is you just take the pin push it through the layers here and then you spin it around put that open part through the pin and just give a little turn and there you go you've secured your thing to your body so I just think that these look very cool and it's a good way to kind of add a layer sir another thing that's great for layering are corsets so I like stays corsets set up before I'll say it again I find them more comfortable than bras personally they're very supportive through your chest and it doesn't put any pressure on your shoulders so I love this very cool brown one that is giving kind of leather armor vibes for me and I have this one from retro fairy which it's got these cute little tabs you know obviously a corset like this is something that you would have needed to wear under your clothes because you'd be very indecent if you wore them in public but like I said it's the modern era so here we are I think this is a fun little element that you could add over a dress or a blouse and a skirt and it would give them an evil vibes you want to come say hi your lunch that's more lunch you can't have more lunch you already ate it right now I don't have the greatest storage so all of my belts are on a string they're all just tied together on here but leather belts you can never have too many belts on an outfit that is something that I will always stand by so don't be afraid to just throw out a bunch of belts and call it a day this is a little harness I like it cuz it's got a oh I put it on backwards I like it because it's got this like little cross body strap that maybe a little bit piratey but it's giving like a structured element that armor has so I'm gonna call it an acor this belt I thrifted and I actually sewed it to fit me better because it was it was way stretched out but this is something that you can thrift or buy online but these very thick belts with like multiple buckles it's definitely something to look out for another random thing I have is this vintage shawl now I would say that it would look probably better if it was in silver but I think something like this over a little blouse can also kind of give that chainmail vibe so that's another fun thing that you could look for if you like that vibe now as I mentioned you can never have too many belts get some silvery belts I have some gold ones too but you know silver is very much the chainmail vibe wait you screaming I'm sorry she's come back to say hello those metal belts oh that's a short claw oh those metal belts you can find on like AliExpress they will take forever to arrive but you know they're pretty affordable and I think that that's a great layering element to add this is another one of those belts this one's a bit tricky because it always gets tangled so yeah this one kind of just goes over your hips which I think is fun because it kind of looks like tacits which Knights War 2 protects their hips and sides they were riding on a horse but another fun thing I thought I could maybe do with this is wear it kind of like chainmail pauldrons I mean obviously it's not done up and it would absolutely slide around but you know I could probably use like a safety pin to keep it on my shirt and that's a fun that could be a fun vibe the last thing I have to mention is headwear you've seen me wear this a lot my friend knitted it for me out of shiny silvery yarn but it's like a it's a balaclava coiff so I'm just gonna mess up my hair but we'll put it on why not it's very warm because it has wool wrapped around the thread to keep it very insulated I wore this like every day in Poland because it was freezing cold kept me very very warm my ears were very warm but this is a great way to have a nightcore armor piece that doesn't weigh actually 12 pounds I think that's how much my metal one weighs the last thing I have is also by knock thrice the friend who made that night sweater I showed you pretty early on but they do embroidered hats and this is when I got from them a few months ago that has a little sword on it and my favorite ginkgo leaves which I don't know if you could see a theme here but I definitely like swords and leaves so this is a little beret and it has a little sword charm on the top which is super adorable but yeah accessories are probably the best way to make an outfit feel like whatever vibe you're looking for the very last thing you'll need is shoes and I think boots are pretty much always my go-to for nightcore again you could wear whatever you want let me show you oh oh I'm coming through over the knee writing boots are always a great vibe sometimes you can find the ones that like fold over on the top I don't have any of those right now but that's a great option this looks really good over like a skinnier pant leg like a flowy blouse on top I thrifted these boots I think these are technically like writing boots but they're like stylish ones you know they're not actually for more writing but they've got these decorative buttons on the back which I think are very cool they are very pointy which is always the vibe in my opinion and there's a zipper so they're convenient and then lastly these lace up flats I see these in thrift stores all the time these are the shoes I always wear to like renfares and stuff they're so comfy and they actually resemble medieval shoes and the shoes that they would wear in the regency period so if you see these and they fit you I think that this is a great item to have for like a nightcore wardrobe and if it were socially acceptable the final item would of course be a dagger of some sort but alas that's not really how it works out in society check this out this is a fun little thing that I like to do with my hair it's a hair stick shaped like a sword and you just kind of poke it through there and your hair is up you've got a secret weapon or you know could just have a little accessory I like that that looks cute maybe I should wear it as a little belt accessory yeah I think that's about all my thoughts on a nightcore wardrobe it's kind of just about doing what makes you happy and what you like so take this information as you will and apply it however you see fit I don't think there is a right or wrong way to do any type of aesthetic it makes you happy just so on that note I shall be cleaning for a second time today putting all of my accessories away I hope you enjoyed this video if you'd like to subscribe I am trying my best to be more active on here as I'm still a little bit new to YouTube let me know if you have any questions about anything in the comments let me know if you have any suggestions of things you'd like to see for me and see you again soon