Clothing and fashion is one of the primary ways that Alessandra asserts her individuality throughout the novel. She makes many of her sartorial choices for tactical reasons; when she first arrives at the palace, for instance, she wears black to attract Kallias’s attention and to stand out from the sea of green (Kallias’s favorite color) that the other ladies sport. Indeed, she resists wearing green in order to make a point: “‘This is one of the few outfits I haven’t worn yet. I was angry at you and didn’t want to wear your favorite color.’ ‘But then you wore it anyway?’ ‘I thought it might make you angrier when you were forced to watch me leave with all my things’” (186). Kallias, laughing, admits that he would have been angrier, indicating that he, too, is cognizant of the symbolism of clothing. Alessandra also evidently finds pleasure in making her own clothes and regularly enjoys afternoons sewing with her friends, suggesting that her careful manner of dress is not exclusively a practical, tactical manner.

Style is also represented in the novel as an articulation of self even when that articulation is not yet formed.