Firefly

Fashion Week is in full swing here in New York City, which sort of feels like a science fiction event in and of itself. Because of all of this, we decided to ask our readers on Facebook and Twitter who they believe is the best dressed science fiction or fantasy character. Some of the results were surprising! Here’s a sampling of what you said with some of our own thoughts thrown in.

In terms of top vote getters we think it’s nearly a tie between The Doctor from Doctor Who and Inara from Firefly. We certainly agree the Doctor is a fashionable alien and bowties/red sneakers/coats/tweed/floppy hats/scarves ARE COOL. But Inara is a perfect choice. Neither of these characters ever look anything except fantastic.

Though we don’t necessarily think of Star Trek as being a big cool fashion parade, Abbiprime on Twitter did mention everyone’s favorite space tailor, Garak from Deep Space Nine with this quip: “Elim Garak. Why are we even asking this question?” Wait. Is Garak the only space tailor?

Many of you seemed to think the best fashions were found in the various kingdoms and realms of epic fantasy. Galadriel got a mention here, as did the elves from Lord of the Rings. On Facebook Jymollary mentions the Phaedra from Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel books noting “she spends pages upon pages with her tailor.” On Twitter, Popping Hedgehog mentions Matrim Cathon from The Wheel of Time series because of “lovely coats and britches.”

There were several votes for Harry Dresden, because apparently long coats seem to be cool on anyone. Connor Macleod had one, many versions of the Doctor (David Tennant!) rock a long coat, Han Solo was given a long coat in Return of the Jedi, of course Mal Reynolds from Firefly! The most bizarre long coat in all of fantasy and science fiction is probably Prince Arthur’s from Merlin. This coat is what would happen if the coat of David Tennant and the coat of Nathan Fillion made love and had a baby. It’s that good.

Darth Vader was mentioned as the best dressed character in Star Wars, to which we can hardly argue, though we think Luke Skywalker should get a shout out here insofar as he wears either basic whites, or blacks. Classic, Luke. Classic.

Other fun mentions were Dracula, Barbarella, and oddly, The Silver Surfer. Does a surfboard count as apparel? Here’s the breakdown of the top 5:

1 - The Doctor
2 - Inara
3 - Dracula
4 - Pretty much anyone in a Tolkien novel
5 - Harry Dresden