Betty strives to live up to Clive’s expectations.  Betty wears formal dresses constantly to make up for the fact that she can never be the wife he wants.  I gave her a slightly out of date style because, even though she tries to keep up with fashion in England, she is living in Africa.

Clive is strict and traditional.  I gave him a palate of black and grey and clothing a gentleman would wear because of this even though those are not the most practical clothes to wear in Africa.  Clive strove to keep up appearances of being a proper English family.

Edward is wearing breeches because Clive would have wanted to do anything to get him to act more manly.  The outfit is tailored to the actor so that it is clear to the audience that Edward is played by a female.

Cathy struggles with wanting to be accepted for who she is.  She is wearing a cute pink dress because she wants to be recognized as a girl, but she has a toy gun because she would rather play with the boys.  To tie her and Betty from Act I together I left their hairstyle the same and used pink as the predominant color on their costumes.

As an adult, Edward is wearing clothing that is more androgynous.  He is not quite comfortable with the idea of being publically gay, but he is also outright rebelling against how Clive treated him as a child.  Since there is deliberate re-casting of the characters between the acts I tried to tie the costumes the actor is wearing together.  Edward and Clive both have striped pants.

In act II Betty is struggling with being a single woman and living for herself.  She is wearing an outdated look because she grew up in the 1880s and has not made the transition to more modern clothes.  She is tied to Edward in act I by the buttons down the front of her shirt as well as the style of shoulder on her dress.