Construction Details:

I took forever getting the materials for this costume and I only spent probably a month putting it together (which probably wasn't the smartest idea, but I REALLY wanted it done by Katsu so I could cosplay with other LoD cosplayers. Let's face it, there aren't a lot, so I didn't want to miss the chance)

The fabric was a pain in the ass, but I dreaded using crushed velvet or anything that looked like crushed velvet. Rose is a bad ass that kills dragons. Why the heck would she do it in crushed velvet. So I found a vinyl that wrinkled and draped like her artwork showed it did and it had some reptile type texture to it. Awesome. Its kinda like her armor is made of out metallic purple dragon skin. What could be better! But wait! The action figure is dark blue, some of the art is a good mix and then the high-res is obviously dark purple. Hand painted on some blue and some purple mixed together to make the fabric kinda look blue, but also kinda look purple. It was my happy medium.

For the gold I really wanted a fabric I could use for ALL the gold, because it all has the same textured look to it in the high-res art. I also needed it to pull over armor pieces to give the gold a more polished look. So it had to be stretchy. I found some really expensive bronze stretch denim. I then used Lumiere Gold to make the highlights on all the gold.

I patterned the entire costume from scratch myself! YAY! I'm still learning this, so I was pretty proud. I lined the inside of the skirt, jacket and boot covers. The armor is fabric stretched over Eva Foam given to me by the lovely Yui to support the LoD cosplay cause. I made all the trim to fit every piece individually and all the trim is hand sewn on. The buttons were made to match the gold trim. I made all the piping out of the same gold as everywhere else.

The entire costume was painted to have more definition. Blue, Purple, Black and gold were painted onto every surface to make things pop.

The head horns were made from Model Magic and the fabric from the costume (purple & gold) were stretched over it so they would match. The head band is foamies with things from my junk drawer and some fabric stretched over it.

*Edit 4/30/2012
Since Katsucon I remade the gloves and remade the coat to fit better. It now has lining in the sleeves as well as the main jacket. The jacket now includes a collar and the proper points at the bottom of the jacket. I also extended the trim so that I can wear the costume without the shoulder armor and it still looks good.

All the armor has highlighted and lowlighted more and clasps we added to make the armor fit better. The underarms are still suffering from some wear due to the armor, but I'm gonna try to add patches in there to keep them from wearing down the fabric to much.

Also, I now have an immortal necklace. :P

Personal Thoughts:

I love Rose. She's a part of my childhood and she's probably one of my favorite all time strong video game woman. I want to do all her forms. Yes, including the Black Monster. All of them. ALL OF THEM!

Styling Notes

I straightened a Luthien I had already used for just wearing around at a convention. Thus I had to spray it down with spray in conditionor and comb it using my fingers (and sometimes a wide tooth comb) to get the tangles from wearing it all weekend at a con. To my surprise the waves stayed in really nice, even after a lot of combing. I then used a straightener on it, cut the bangs shorter and put some layers in around my face.

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