New series because this kind of analysis is cluttering up my personal-use character docs, but I still want it somewhere!!! I’ll be taking a look at each character’s outfits.  Each character’s study will be separated into different posts for different ‘chapters’ of the story such as different games, spinoffs, or short stories, in order to keep the posts from getting too long for certain members of the cast.

When the inspiration strikes me, I’ll be considering what the outfits and any common trends suggest about the characters or the world, from an in-universe (Watsonian) perspective.  On occasion, I might take a look at what their design says from an out-of-universe (Doylist) perspective- such as how the NOL uniform is influenced by Mori’s infamous thing for backs.  I’ll be putting way, way too much thought into every little thing that I can, so if you’re interested in that, I welcome you to take a look!

As usual, Noel will be my guinea pig for this. This post will only be looking at Noel’s appearance in Heart to Heart, and will therefore only cover two outfits- her Academy Uniform and the accessories she’s shown wearing while cooking.

So let’s take a look at Noel during her first few days at the Military Academy in Torifune!  We can actually approximate the date of the scenes we’ll be looking at.  Chronologically, the first time we see Noel in her academy uniform is the same day she meets Jin Kisaragi- 5/4/2196, according to the ending of Jin’s Calamity Trigger Arcade Mode.  Presumably, then, all of Heart to Heart takes place within the May of 2196.

But I’m getting distracted.  This isn’t a timeline analysis post although I’ll probably end up doing one of those eventually.  C’mon, let’s take a look at Noel!

First, we have the concept artwork of Noel in her Academy uniform.  This is one of the Winter Uniform options available for Upper Division students at Torifune- as shown in some of Carl’s concept artwork, the Lower Division students have very different outfits.

This artwork shows a few different options for shoes and legwear-  notably, as mentioned on this page, students at Torifune can “[choose their shoes and socks] freely, but the color must be brown, navy, black, or white only.”

This can be seen ingame when looking at how Makoto and Tsubaki choose to wear their uniforms.  Further, with Tsubaki’s uniform we see that there are at least two different skirt lengths students can choose from.  As shown here, Noel wears the shorter option, which seems to be the most popular/common at the Academy.

Speculation:  For a moment I was going to mention that Noel seems to prefer shorter skirts, as we see in CP that her new outfit includes a similar one, but I actually can’t remember if that outfit was one she chose for herself or if it was given to her by a different member of the cast.  I’ll have to consider it while doing her eventual CP Wardrobe Analysis.

Secondly, we’ve seen Noel wearing a longer skirt in some concept artwork, her ‘dream’ in CF, and her ‘younger’ version shown in Amane’s Astral- though, again, now that I think about it, I’m not sure if she’s ever actually been seen to wear that outfit, or if it only shows up in theoretical scenarios.

For the time being, I do feel comfortable saying that Noel likes to wear skirts, but I won’t begin to theorize on any preference in length.

From her ingame sprite, we can see that Noel’s go-to is the white kneesocks and the brown loafers.

Unfortunately I’m having trouble uploading the sprite, so I’ll be using a screenshot from this wiki.  As previously mentioned, we see Noel wearing the typical Winter Uniform top (worn by, as far as I can tell, all 2nd Division girls until it’s time to change to the Summer Uniform) and the standard, shorter skirt option.

The tie Noel is wearing here is significant- the colors on the neckties of Torifune students seem to communicate their grade/school year.  Here, we see Noel’s tie has a green stripe, worn by Second Division First Years.  This tracks- during the events of Heart to Heart, Noel is just starting her first year at the Military Academy!

Beyond this, Noel doesn’t seem to be wearing any accessories, despite the fact that characters such as Mai, Kajun, Tsubaki, and Shiori suggest that some level of accessorizing is allowed at the academy.

Speculation:  Noel’s internal narration during the first half of Heart to Heart seems to suggest that she doesn’t want to draw a lot of attention to herself.  A comment during her meeting with Jin [1] indicates that she’d rather not run into anyone popular/with a lot of status, and a comment during her first interaction with Tsubaki [2] suggests she doesn’t want people looking at her in general.

[1] Noel:  “Phew… that was scary.  I never thought I would run into THE Jin Kisaragi in a place like this…”
[2] Narration:  “[Noel] is scared of showing her own face, because she always looks like she is on the verge of tears.”

Maybe Noel’s desire to stay under the radar and not stand out too much motivates her to avoid accessorizing, despite her love of cute things.

Another thing I notice about Noel is that her hair is shorter than it’s depicted in CT, where it’s generally shown to be somewhere around her midback or her waist.  This does make sense, considering that Heart to Heart takes place roughly three years before CT (5/3196 - 12/2199.)

Here, Noel’s hair seems to be around shoulder length.  Depending on the angle it’s viewed from, some of it barely reaches her shoulders, while other sections do trail down her back an inch or two.

The last piece we’ll be looking at today is Noel during her dorm cooking!  Noel is shown wearing a white handkerchief over her hair, matches the ones worn by the other two girls.  Generally, this is done to keep a person’s hair out of the way and out of the food while they are cooking.  IRL, I don’t see this particular look in the West a lot (I more commonly see hair worn in ponytails or a hairnet used) but it is a style I see relatively commonly in Japanese media.

Speculation:  Since the girls are matching with their handkerchiefs, I like to imagine that they were given or loaned to them by the usual cafeteria staff, to use during the week they were on kitchen duty.

The apron Noel is wearing is where she’s set apart from her roommates.  She seems to be wearing a white Western-style apron with lots of frills.  While we can’t see her full body, the bottom-right corner of this image seems to suggest that her apron is relatively short- enough to cover her uniform and skirt, but not much longer.  I’ve been able to find advertisements featuring similar aprons dating back as early as the 1930s, though I’m unable to find what this particular style is called.  With the ruffled straps, it may have some relation to the pinafore aprons known to be popular among young girls in the 1940s.  Some modern aprons one can find online use a similar design, though I don’t see it often in day-to-day life.

Speculation:  The style seems to fit Noel’s known aesthetics.  We know that Noel adores ‘cute’ things, and seeing her choose a feminine apron featuring ruffles, ribbons, and a large bow in the back suits that.  Given how the aprons the girls are wearing seem notably personalized, in contrast to the handkerchiefs, I wonder if they went out and bought them ahead of time, perhaps in preparation for their punishment.

The final detail I notice is that Noel has rolled the sleeves of her uniform up to cook.  We can see that Makoto has done the same, and Tsubaki likely has as well under her long-sleeved Japense-style apron.