G A R N E T " D A G G E R " T I L . A L E X A N D R O S
Final Fantasy IX
Y U I . H O N G O
Fushigi Yuugi
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The Inspiration
Around October of 2008, Rynn and I had started talking about going out for the World Cosplay Summit someday. "Someday" for me is usually a lot sooner than a random idea in the future -- I started looking for fancy-looking female pair costumes that weren't from CLAMP, and I remember these designs from some promotional Fushigi Yuugi art. From there, we set to work with the planning and shopping, and used these for the 2010 USA Preliminaries.
The Build
I'll start at the top. The wig started out as a New Look "Monica" In Beige-Blonde, which I custom cut. The horns and wings are made of posterboard, hot glue, clay, and a top-coat of resin which I painted on. It soaked into the pourous clay, and worked out perfectly. The scales covering the wings are super-glued on, and alternate rows of metalic yellow and gold spangles. The hat started life as a felt beanie (ya know, the old kind with the propellers on top?). I removed the propeller, covered with a spandex material, and spent seven hours hand-sewing all of the faux pearl beads on. The tails on the hat are made of a lining fabric, with blue glass Christmas ornaments painted in resin for durability. The tassels are made of white wig fibers, gradient dyed at the tips.
The collar is a labor of love -- I had to draft the pattern several times and re-draft it even more times. The base is a matte blue satin. The additional colors are appliqued on -- the yellow is a antique brocade that I bought on ebay and dyed. The orange is a silk brocade. The ruffles were cut out of hand-drafted circle patterns in a baroque satin, with the trim done in white satin stitching. The blue panel hanging from the smock-collar is also blue matte satin, and the trim is yellow satin and green chiffon overlay. The large clear jewel was cast in resin by my friend.
The base dress is made from a white stretch sports-knit fabric. The sleeves were made using a pattern I drafted myself and consist of 7 yards of grass green chiffon, layered underneath 7 yards of light-cream chiffon, to give it some depth. The gauntlets are made from vinyl, and the scales are sewn on by hand. The orange parts are made from blanket binding that I custom dyed to match my silk brocade, and are stuffed with heavy armature wire wrapped in fleece. The shoes are a simple pair of gold ballet flats that I bought on ebay. I'm sure I missed a lot of the details, but that's the meat of it.
