Jackaby

Special significance is given to several pieces of clothing throughout the novel, both supernatural and otherwise. In the beginning, Abigail is forced to navigate her wardrobe choices as she adapts to her new life. Initially, she wears an ornamental dress left behind from her time in England, which puts her completely at odds with her new surroundings; when Jenny helps by loaning her new clothes, the experience becomes Abigail’s first real interaction with another female friend. In this way, Abigail’s clothing becomes symbolic of leaving her old life behind and building a new one in New Fiddleham.

Another motif that illustrates the symbolic power of clothing is Hatun’s knitted shawl, which “doesn’t make [her] invisible or nothing, just impossible to notice” (108). Rather than segregating based on the human and supernatural, Hatun’s shawl differentiates between “street folk” and those who live in security and comfort. At Hatun and Abigail’s second meeting, Abigail doesn’t notice Hatun right away, illustrating how Abigail is settling into her new life. While the novel does not explore the mechanics of the shawl’s magic, the way it only becomes visible to those who have fallen through the cracks of society suggests that it is a projection of Hatun herself—her distrust of others and her need to protect herself by staying out of sight. Her ability to go unnoticed, a larger metaphor for how society treats unhoused people and people with mental illness, keeps her safe from people like the police and Commissioner Swift.

Finally, two pivotal pieces of clothing that function as inversions of each other are Swift and Jackaby’s hats. From the beginning, Jackaby’s hat is presented as an endearing embarrassment which, as a birthday gift from a friend, carries sentimental value. Abigail and Jenny find it a distasteful but essential extension of his unusual character. By contrast, Swift’s hat is one of the first things Abigail notices about him: “a velvety red derby with a slightly wide brim and a gaudy feather tucked in the dark sash” (74). Initially, it symbolizes wealth, power, and ostentation. Later, it takes on a much greater role as it becomes the namesake of his kind—“redcaps”—and the center of his power. Only by destroying Swift’s hat can Jackaby and the others restore order to the city. Both hats come from supernatural origins and are greater than they initially appear; they represent the same motif’s dark and light sides.