Towards EuroCosplay qualifiers

Last spring I made some costume plans EuroCosplay qualifiers in mind. But I was on the move too late and couldn’t arrange days off from work for Desucon, where the qualifiers have been arranged for three years now. Luckily, I hadn’t started the costume or anything else in that matter.

But having to skip the preliminaries bug me up to the point that last autumn I started to gather materials, fabrics and references for the second act. Last week I also confirmed from my employer that I could have the weekend off even if some of our staff members would be on summer vacation. From last August to this day I have been slowly making something here and there, but now I can say that the work has really begun!

Before I chose the character, I went through different aspects I wanted the cosplay to contain: The costume would suit my skills and knowledge about costume making and also have enough challenge so that I could really push myself to try my best. The character would have similar body type and personality if possible. I would have a rough plot sketched for the performance before constructing the costume and that the character, the story and the setting would fascinate me to the extent that I would be nearly obsessed about it.

Last year I totally fell in love with a certain manga and when I decided that EC it is, I didn’t think too long which character would be suitable for the preliminaries. The character I chose is Amira Halgal from manga Otoyomegatari or Bride stories by Kaoru Mori. I try to keep my calm now, because I could easily flip out from all the gorgeousness the manga embodies and just say that it is well worth reading if you are interested in historical setting and romance with beautiful art and leisured storytelling.

The base for the hat was one of the first things I made last year.

I really want to keep the costume as authentic as I could and also respect Mori’s design and art. The clothes I’m making from wool, silk, cotton and linen but with the shoes and jewelry I’m going to resort to more cosplay friendly and modern materials like pleather and polymer clays. Needless to say, there is lot of embroidery going on right now. I try to do it where ever I have the time to pick a needle in my hand.

For reference I chose cover art picture, where the design and decorations are clearly displayed. I had to use my own judgment on the back; it came together based on the front and how it's drawn on the manga.

What I’ve sewn this far is the skirt, the scarf and the vest. Decorations I’ve embroidered on the hat and on the vest, but there are still meters to go. Today I sculpted the positive mold for the earrings and tried to figure out how the scarf is wrapped on the hat. I swirled it and pinned it and I still got no idea. The top is quite alright, but the back is still a mystery.

There is still much to do, but I couldn’t be more excited about this project! Now that these plans are out, I’m going to write progress updates more often than once in five months.

Snufkin and Alicia at Desucon Frostbite 2013

I tried to write an entry from Desucon Frostbite, but it seems that there is too many diversions at the moment to actually finish it. Like new manga, reference pictures and embroidery to name a few.  I noticed that the first batch of photos was released from Frostbite, so here is photos from the costumes we wore on Saturday.

Big thanks and best wishes to Frostbite's photobooth crew!

Preview of Yoki's original costume design

Since my costumes are ready and packed away for Frostbite, the last two weekends we have focused on Yoki’s original character and her costume design. Fuyu Jaw're, the character Yoki chose is from the same storyverse as Sio Imano, a character she dressed as at last year’s Tracon and Neva Imano introduced at Desucon.

Yoki had a clear vision of the costume and the materials when she started the project. Everything had to be “real” looking, in sense on natural materials and no shortcut fastenings with Velcro. When we started to draft out the costume, it felt like making and planning a stage costume rather than a cosplay one. But naturally when there is no character sheet with visual appearance, it had to be created through a back story, personality and values.

Because Yoki has busy, busy study schedule before Frostbite, I'm writing this post from the costume construction on her behalf.

The costume Yoki had created in her mind has actually three to four layers, depending on how they are counted; an under suit with leather tabard, a full length robe, a belt with chain accessories and a capelet with a high collar. The components could be worn in different combinations, like tabard over the robe or the under suit with capelet etc.

The robe is drawn based on the pattern we made for our Snowtrooper dusters with few adjustments. The hem is long with an opening over the left leg. The sleeves are wider and few centimeters longer. The bust is the same, but it fastens with small buckles instead of Velcro. The material is off-white linen with pale blue viscose lining.

The capelet was drawn over basic pattern with two folds on the back. It’s made from dark blue velvet, blue viscose lining with silver pleather trimmings. The capelet fastens with similar buckles as the robe.

The belt has satin band with a metal ring on as a decoration and lacing on the back. The belt is supported with two layers of iron-on interfacing and plastic boning next to the eyelets.

The under suit is just a basic, sleeveless top with two piece “skirt” from dark grey linen. The skirt part is constructed from two separate rectangular shapes, front and back, which attach to each others with small buttons forming one sophisticated loincloth.

 

The tabard is made from silver fake leather with fabric interfacing and viscose lining. The front is constructed from over 30 individual strips. On the back is lacing with plastic boning. Connecting the front and the back is three bands of pleather on each side.  

The wig is silver grey, almost waist length beauty. It doesn’t need styling more than combing, some balsam spray to keep it from tangling and hairspray to set everything so that Yoki won’t have a mental breakdown with all the hovering hair strands.

The base make-up is rather basic; foundation, fixing powder, eye shadow, mascara and eye liner. The turquoise triangles on the temples were painted with Grimas water make-up and fixed with transparent powder. The eyebrows were our major concern. We were worried that we couldn’t get them light enough to match the wig. We thought of using the glue stick- acrylic paint method. because Yoki’s eyebrows are dark. But we had to give up the idea, because we wanted to keep the look natural.

In the end we went with white khol, which actually worked really well. Even if the real color is slightly visible, it fits to the darker shades on the wig. Or then we just happened to have a suitable lighting. At Frostbite the finishing touch will be turquoise contact lenses, which are the same brand as my green ones. So another lens color review coming next month with hopefully loads of photos from the costumes and from Frostbite in general!

One Piece Cosplay Photography by Amanone shun

One Piece Cosplay Photography by Amanone Shun Gallery

One Piece Cosplay Photography by Amanone shun Cosplayer as a cute and sweet pirates navigator Nami, this time i got another cosplay photography from One Piece Anime character, Nami is one of my favorite character on One Piece anime she has short orange hair and cheerful personality (but sometime she can be so scary when she mad XD) noone can survive from her, but after two year time skip nami hairstyle was change, now she has curly long orange hair who made her look more pretty and mature (but i guess her personality not change at all :D) in this One Piece Cosplay nami still have her short hair, She briefly betrays the crew during the Baratie Arc and rejoins at the end of the Arlong Arc after her past and true intentions are revealed. She has a bounty of 16,000,000, well though Amanone seem not fit as Nami which exist in my imagination, but in this One Piece Cosplay Photography she still look fit with Nami personality, she seem cheerful and cute ^^. well i got this One Piece Cosplay Photography by Amanone shun from Cosplay.lightchan.com, its sweet One Piece Cosplay Photography beside that she look hawt with that Nami cloth ^^.

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Arisa Mizuhara Cosplay Photography as England

Arisa Mizuhara Cosplay Photography as England Gallery

Arisa Mizuhara Cosplay Photography as England character from Nyotaria anime series, actually i really dont know about this anime so i cant explain anything about this anime ^^" (i even dont know this is was anime game or a manga XD) well whatever, i love this Arisa Mizuhara Cosplay Photography as England, you know why because even i dont know about this anime but when i saw this Arisa Mizuhara Cosplay Photography as England i was imagining that this anime is about Classical story with western touch (just like Blackbuttler or something like that) when is saw this england character made me remmember with alice character, well in this Arisa Cosplay Arisa seem very cute with that cosplay costume ( that dress seem very fit with arisa ^^), beside that the background set of this Arisa Cosplay Photography was describe well england characteristic and background, well i got this Arisa Mizuhara Cosplay Photography as England from Cosrain.com, its sweet Arisa Mizuhara Cosplay Photography as England.

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Kipi Cosplay Photography as Hikari Konohana

Kipi Cosplay Photography as Hikari Konohana Gallery

Kipi Cosplay Photography as Hikari Konohana Character from Strawberry Panic Anime series, Strawberry Panic! is a series of Japanese fictional illustrated short stories written by Sakurako Kimino, which focus on a group of teenage girls attending three affiliated all-girl schools on Astraea Hill, and later has been adapted into manga, light novel and Anime, and in this Kipi Cosplay Photography Kipi Cosplaying as Attending Spica character Hikari Konohana, Hikari is transfer student and arive at spica at the second year, She is A rather shy and quiet girl most of the time, Hikari tends to not be very outspoken and it usually takes a lot for her to say what is really on her mind. Much like Nagisa Aoi, well I love Kipi Cosplay on this photography Kipi seem very fit as Hikari though i think Kipi seem not fit with Hikari's personality ^^ (kipi seem very friendly and cheerful), this Kipi Cosplay Photography seem very neat and like always Kipi has nice hair ^^, i got this Kipi Cosplay Photography from Cosrain.com, its sweet Kipi Cosplay Photography as Hikari Konohana. 

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Saya Cosplay Photography as Sayuka Kouenji

Saya Cosplay Photography as Sayuka Kouenji Gallery

Saya Cosplay Photography as Sayuka Kouenji Character from Beat Angel Escalayer anime series, Beat Angel Escalayer is a hentai anime OVA and eroge series from 2002 created by Alice Soft and animated by Pink Pineapple, in this Cosplay Photography Saya Cosplaying as Sayuka Kouenji, Sayuka Kouenji is the guardian of the Earth and has the ability to transform into her alter ego, but in order to transform into Escalayer she must recharge her power source which can only be recharged through sexual excitement, well saya seem very Pretty in this Saya Cosplay Photography as Sayuka Kouenji, i think that because her pink hair she look very fit with that hairstyle, well i can imagine if saya ask me to help her to recharge her power resource ^^", well it sad when i saw her sweet smile :/ because i wont see her smile anymore, i love this Saya Cosplay photo because saya seem very enjoying her cosplay here, i got this Saya Cosplay Photography as Sayuka Kouenji from Cosrain.com, its sweet Saya Cosplay photography.

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