The Many Costumes of Nina Zenik

Nina Zenik has many skills, and dressing for the occasion is certainly one of them. This character is normally quite on top of her Kerch and Ravkan fashions, but throughout the Six of Crows duology, she puts this to the test by wearing a broad range of costumes for different cons and events—not always by her own choice.

Was Nina a fan of everything she had to wear? Absolutely not. In fact, some outfits she positively despised, despite what they taught us about the cultures and communities she was emulating! In this post, we’ll go through all of Nina’s costumes, ranked exactly as she would do it: from her least to most favourite.

Shall we begin?

(Spoilers for Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom lie ahead – you’ve been warned! Not sure where to begin? Why not check the reading order?)

5. “Dowdy” Fjerdan Knitwear

Nina Zenik’s Least Favourite Goes To…

The traditional Fjerdan outfit Nina wore on her visit to Ravka’s embassy in Crooked Kingdom has to win this award. To quote:


Nina also dons an itchy blonde wig in an attempt to look as Fjerdan as possible, and spends much of the chapter wishing she could wear anything else except for her stuffy current outfit—particularly as it makes the Ravkan nationals in their sector of the Government District view her with mistrust, right as she’s hit with a wave of homesickness.

Definitely a miss, then.

4. Menagerie Costume: Mermaid or Horse?

During the Ice Court heist, Nina is tasked with going into the belly of the beast under the guise of being a courtesan from the House of Exotics. To do this, both she and Inej steal the animal-inspired costumes from two of the Menagerie girls who have come with Tante Heleen for the event. Inej dresses as the Suli lynx, while Nina is the Kaelish horse.

Well, mostly. While Nina takes the horsehide cloak and hood characteristic of the role, complete with a red topknot which makes her very visible in a crowd, the dress she wears underneath is blue-green chiffon designed to look like scales. Worse, it’s extremely tight and leaves very little to the imagination. Inej comments that Nina could be a mermaid or a wave, and that “they weren’t going to put [her] in a dress of hooves” (p.371, Six of Crows)—but nevertheless, the outfit isn’t exactly inspirational to her.

All of this does nothing to help Nina’s comfort levels, though it soon proves advantageous. The heavy hood of her cape conceals her face and the dress helps her to win over the mistrustful guards at the event, meaning the costume more or less does its job. Would she repeat it, though? Absolutely not.

3. Playing Pretend in a Kerch-Made Kefta

Before she properly joins Kaz Brekker’s heist crew, Nina Zenik works in the House of the White Rose, earning money by improving the moods of her clients and granting them temporary relief. To pull this off, she wears an imitation of the kefta she would have worn if she had still been a Grisha in the Second Army, made from red silk to represent her affinity for the Order of Corporalki.

This would surely rank higher on the list, if not for the fact that Nina actually hates the kefta in practice (and declares as much). It’s a Kerch-manufactured mockery of home which, in her words, “isn’t made right” and “itches”—only serving as a reminder of the home she can’t return to. It’s “a costume, not a uniform” (p.92, Six of Crows).

The kefta is also far too risky for Nina to wear on the streets of Ketterdam, meaning it’s only associated with the act she maintains for her line of work, and is quickly kicked off the second she finishes her shift. For all of that, the costume sits right in the middle of this list—better than some options, but worse than many others.

2. Lady of the Blue Iris

At the very beginning of Crooked Kingdom, Nina Zenik is tasked with being the distraction—the “pretty blonde on [Smeet’s] arm” while Kaz tries to pull off a con (p.21, Crooked Kingdom).

For this, she needs to dress the part, assuming the role of a worker from the House of the Blue Iris. She wears a blonde wig decorated with flowers and a sheer lavender gown tightened by a corset, all designed to be as seductive as possible. Later, this wig makes a return on her trip to the Ravkan Embassy.

Though this definitely isn’t an outfit Nina would have chosen to wear on her day’s off, it isn’t as uncomfortable as many of the others on this list and doesn’t come with bad memories—only the nausea which arises when she eats a few too many oysters while clad in that corset. Because its contenders are far worse, it gets a surprisingly high rank!

1. The Lost Bride, Found

Nina Zenik’s Favourite Goes To …

The Lost Bride costume she dons on her way to Terrenjel to break Matthias out of Hellgate in Six of Crows, and later in Crooked Kingdom when Kaz attempts a hostage swap with Van Eck in the Barrel.

In the streets of the Barrel, it’s quite common for pleasure seekers to conceal their identities in costumes emulating the characters from the Komedie Brute, allowing them to go about their business as they please. On the night they visit Terrenjel, Kaz wears the outfit of the Madman; Inej wears that of the Grey Imp.

To keep her identity veiled (literally), Nina wears the garb of the Lost Bride, complete with a blue silk cape and matching veil. Later, she describes this as “glittering blue finery” (p.108, Crooked Kingdom), serving the double bonus of hiding her identity while not being too unflattering.

Compared to some other costumes on the list, that’s quite the compliment! It's also telling that Nina wears this costume more than once, comfortably pulling it out when in need. The others, she would happily see gather dust.

So there you have it!

Nina Zenik’s costumes in the duology, ranked from worst to best based on her own perspectives! (Of course, there might be a few more in the King of Scars duology, but we’ll leave that for you to find out … :eyes:)

What do you think was Nina's best costume (or outfit) in the series? Why?

Until next time!