What is this aesthetic that Pokémon keeps reusing for old-fashioned characters?

[Sparky-Muse]

I was thinking about this while watching Pokémon Horizons. The great adventurer existed a long, long time ago, so naturally, when it came to visually showing him, they put him and his partners in clothes that let the viewer know they existed a long time ago, I guess medieval-ish clothes though I can't place it. And I thought "didn't they do this for like umpteen times already with Sir Aaron/Nando/Riley/etc." What are they going for or trying to go for with making all the antique characters look like that (I can't even place the culture they're emulating)?

 

[Jbsundown]

It's quite funny bevause it's not even that long ago they existed! We obviously don't have an exact time period but from many clues we get in the later episodes it's only about 200 years at the most.
We even see photographs of victorian era explorers who existed before the adventurer which just makes the ancient trainers look like cosplayers even more.

Japan in that time period was still pretty medieval comparatively (like we see in Legends Arceus) but I don't think, at least I can't say for sure, that they'd dress up like Fire Emblem characters on the regular!

So I think it's just a mix of "we want to show this happened a long time ago" and "this is how olden days people used to dress in Japan" with a bit of "let's make them look different"