Female Armour II

OK. So here's some more sensible female fantasy armour research:

Leelee Sobieski "In the Name of the King". 

The overall effect is very nice, but the scalemail seems to have left the ladies neck and chest open to attack, which is strange seeing as the rest of the costume seems so remarkably well thought out. Especially the combat-ready hair, which is really nice to find after having ranted about it. Although this is obviously combination plate / scale-mail.

Leelee Sobieski: This was my second time wearing armour. When I filmed Joan of Arc I had to wear 60 pounds of metal. This armour was a lot lighter, and I even got the chance to help in its design. I wanted it to fall a certain way. It’s just as romantic for me to dress up in armour as it is to dress up in a period dress. As a woman, you don’t get many opportunities to put on armour.  From complex.com

 Leelee Sobieski as St. Joan

As Ms. Sobieski mentioned in her interview that The Name of the King was her second outing in armour, this is a picture of her first - as Joan of Arc. Like many other portrayals of women fighters in full plate armour, it is perfectly rational, except for the flowing locks, which provide an opportunity for an opponent to grab / yank and may get trapped in the armour. Otherwise there isn't much concession to femininity in the costume.

 Hilde von Krone (Soul Calibre IV)

Designed by Takuji Kawano. There are 'breast-shapes' moulded into the chest-plate, but not the extreme armour cleavage in typical fantasy armour that would cause weakness and render the armour useless. The legs are a slight concern in that I'm not sure a normal human could actually fit inside the armour, but then her head is disproportionally small (it's a 9 head figure, or would be if she were standing up straight), so maybe it's just a stylisation. Yet again, the hair provides the fatal flaw, as does the decorative necklace and braiding, the least said about the totally unarmoured crotch area the better. but otherwise a really elegant realistic female full plate.

Kelly Chen in An Empress and the Warriors 
(江山美人 / Jiang Shan Mei Ren)

Can anyone say C09 Dark Elf helmet? No, I mean really Citadel Dark Elf! Amazing. I think this would be classed as studded leather. Someone working in the costume dept. was a big fan of Citadel Miniatures dark elves, either that, or my ignorance of oriental armour means that I'd missed out on the references that the citadel miniatures designers were referencing. While the ornate, decorativeness might be seen to be quite feminine, the male armour has exactly the same level or elaboration, so with regards to signifying femininity, we're  only left with the face and the subtle female body shape.

For anyone reading this who doesn't have a clue what a citadel dark elf is, here's a CO9 pre-slotta classic witch elf:
 

More can be seen on the Collecting Citadel Miniatures wiki. I won't bother describing the armour here, suffice to say chain-mail and cleavage isn't very practical.

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