The cloaks are, of course, supposed to resemble tools of the trade. The goal was for them to be class-related, not "pretty", although I'm really impressed with how well the art team did making them both. As the release notes for the art got sent around the office there were a lot of people coming into my office with ooh's and aah's of admiration for what the crafters were getting!
The provisioner cloak is supposed to be reminiscent of tablecloths and table settings (and those are not pin stripes, btw). The artist's interpretation is quite nice, I think! The only thing I insisted on was the crossed spoon and rolling pin (the first version had a pair of open hands instead).
Here's the initial description of the alchemist's cloak that was submitted to art: "a slick-textured cloak probably in shades of blue/green, possibly with a subtle shimmer effect. The bottom edge of the cloak may be slightly corroded as if eaten away by acid, and/or just dripping with something that looks like poison."
While it's not possible to please everybody with everything, since everyone has different aesthetic preferences, I'm super happy with the way the cloaks did turn out. And please, if you don't like them, blame me and not the artists who were only working off my initial descriptions. If I were an artist reading these threads I'd be very sad at some of the mean things being said. The art team did a superb job on very short notice making the cloaks to my specifications and if it weren't for their hard work, you wouldn't have any cloaks at all! They deserve many cookies.
For those who don't like them, I'm hoping to put in a quest later (most likely in a couple of months, not immediately) that will award a lower level cloak that looks different. These will be a very simple design with just a crafting emblem on the back representing your class and maybe a border, but will not have fancy graphics - they'll basically look like a guild cloak but with unique emblems. So there will be options (besides of course going cloakless).
LINK
(DominoDev) Re:Epic TS Quest rewards... Spoilers(don't read if you don't wanna know)
