Melissa Tiss and Youko Cosplay Reviews (A Fanime Con Summary)
Since I didn't really get to experience the actual convention (due to multiple cosplay photo shoots) my Fanime summary will have to be about people met, the cosplays I wore, and what I plan to do with them after.
Though I will say that I have horrible plane luck when I travel with US airway. Due to some..unfortunate happenings, my one luggage arrived in San Jose at 12 noon, I arrived at 6pm, and my Youko sword (which I had to pay $35 to fly...both ways) arrived at 10pm. Lol, and then they lost it on the way back!! I had to have them ship it to me the next day. Pfft, US Air fail. Hate flying with them...but air miles are free-ish.... TT_TT
New Peeps
First of all the people we (envi and I) met were awesome and we so appreciated their love of Hyung Tae Kim designs. <3 <3 <3 Preceding Fanime I 'solicited' (as in inviting them to join our MC2 group at Fanime) SO MANY Magna Carta 2 cosplayers out there...and I feel so bad...but now I'm talking to them online and we are trying to plan either War of Genesis, Magna Carta and or Blade and Soul cosplays for next year. (Yay for them not being like, "Uuuh, why are you messaging me??? Freak.."
On a side note, I've met lust4ego on DA, due to my 'soliciting', and we are really excited about doing something in CA for next year; she's on board with War of Genesis, Magna Carta AND Five Star Stories!! (Mwahahahahaaa, I'm so evil.)
I also met Attyca and Laurentea on DA, also due to 'soliciting', and now we are planning to go to Canada for a con in 2012. We must cosplay Magna Carta 2 with them! They make an amazing Juto and Zephie!! (We have to go to Canada for MC2 because Attyca's Juto weapons are WAY too big for travel, but they also want to do something HTK related in NY!)
Lol, at con we met some awesome people that we've been chatting with via the MC gathering Cosplay.com post. All of them are so cool!! Already we are planning to do epic Blade and Soul cosplay for next year...so many cosplays!
Melissa Tiss Cosplay
I had worn Tiss at Katsu, but only got a few pics due to the fact that she was unfinished (more pics might have helped me realize problem number four.). Wearing a 95% completed Tiss at Fanime was a great experience in order to figure out what needed to be altered/fixed.
Exhibit A.
Exhibit B.
Exhibit C.
Exhibit D.
1. First of all my leg things shifted; as I expected them to, but forgot to address it. Exhibit A. shows how the bulky leather 'knee' part is aligned with my knee when it should be on the outer side of my knee. I had thought about sewing latex at the top and bottom so it doesn't shift, but then envi recommended bot double sided tape and toupee tape. Still looking for toupee tape.
2. My arm things kept falling down my arms and I was constantly pulling them up. (The leather pieces that were riveted to the fabric came off due to it not staying in place. Must problem solve that issue...) If you care to look at Exhibit B, you will see that even after lifting the arm things, they quickly travel down. They should be right where my hair is in pic.
Now I must figure out if I can remove the leather rivets to redo them and probably sew latex strips on the inside top portion.
3. My back die cut was not keeping it's shape very well (Exhibit C) and envi suggested that I put hanger wire in it. I have done so, but I do not have any new pics. I think it is fixed now.
4. And finally, my 'chest armor'; yes, those white flower things on my boobs. Again, looking at Exhibit B, you can notice that my boobs look really flat. This is caused by the 'flowers' being attached to the neck thing that you can see in Exhibit D. During construction I did this for a few reasons, but one obvious reason was that there were no really good reference shots of her front. Two weeks ago I came across Exhibit E. THEY'RE NOT EVEN ATTACHED! That was a huge "D'OH!" moment for me. *sigh*
Exhibit E.
Exhibit F.
Exhibit G.
Then envirion found another Melissa Tiss cosplayer, featured in Exhibit F. I like the white section of her chest armor and now I've decided to go back and alter mine. I think I will definitely add some leather work to finish it off, but I've already started changing it up a bit. (Exhibit G.) I detached the flowers from the collar and reattached it so that the tips of the two just barely overlap. (In Exhibit D the collar overlaps the white, but now the tip of the collar just overlaps the tip of the black.) That gave more shape to the dress already, but then I lined them both with hanger wire to give them more shape. I was seriously debating not attaching the chest armor to the collar, hoping the wire would be enough support...but then I'd have another problem. So I decided to keep them attached.
Youko Nakajima Cosplay
For the most part I was really happy with the first time wear. It was comfortable and the fabric was breathable. I had a really hard time figuring out how to attach the sode (shoulder armor) to myself, but after a few failed attempts with leather cord, I finally figured out how to do it. The only thing that's been bothering me is the accuracy of the cosplay. My only source of reference for this cosplay comes from the ONE image; Exhibit G. "What is going on in the front?!?!" I keep asking myself. A few days ago I came across a fan drawing (Exhibit H) of Youko in, what looks like, the illustration version (Exhibit G). It's the closest I've seen to the version that I'm doing. It also looks like it might be a combination of the illustration and anime versions of the outfit. (Anime version is Exhibit I.) So, I want to revisit my Youko cosplay and draw in elements from the anime version. (I really do like that breastplate...)
Exhibit G.
Exhibit H.
Exhibit I.
Now I need to make an undershirt with a collar, a breastplate, the little shredded half cape, the (real) sword and possibly, possibly rethink my leg armor. I really do love my monk socks!!! But it'd make more sense to have armor instead.
I am excited that I now have green contacts! I bought them at con, the day after the Youko photo shoot. But for the next photo shoot I will be prepared with freaky green eyes! (Mwahahahahaaa!)
Though I will say that I have horrible plane luck when I travel with US airway. Due to some..unfortunate happenings, my one luggage arrived in San Jose at 12 noon, I arrived at 6pm, and my Youko sword (which I had to pay $35 to fly...both ways) arrived at 10pm. Lol, and then they lost it on the way back!! I had to have them ship it to me the next day. Pfft, US Air fail. Hate flying with them...but air miles are free-ish.... TT_TT
New Peeps
First of all the people we (envi and I) met were awesome and we so appreciated their love of Hyung Tae Kim designs. <3 <3 <3 Preceding Fanime I 'solicited' (as in inviting them to join our MC2 group at Fanime) SO MANY Magna Carta 2 cosplayers out there...and I feel so bad...but now I'm talking to them online and we are trying to plan either War of Genesis, Magna Carta and or Blade and Soul cosplays for next year. (Yay for them not being like, "Uuuh, why are you messaging me??? Freak.."
On a side note, I've met lust4ego on DA, due to my 'soliciting', and we are really excited about doing something in CA for next year; she's on board with War of Genesis, Magna Carta AND Five Star Stories!! (Mwahahahahaaa, I'm so evil.)
I also met Attyca and Laurentea on DA, also due to 'soliciting', and now we are planning to go to Canada for a con in 2012. We must cosplay Magna Carta 2 with them! They make an amazing Juto and Zephie!! (We have to go to Canada for MC2 because Attyca's Juto weapons are WAY too big for travel, but they also want to do something HTK related in NY!)
Lol, at con we met some awesome people that we've been chatting with via the MC gathering Cosplay.com post. All of them are so cool!! Already we are planning to do epic Blade and Soul cosplay for next year...so many cosplays!
Melissa Tiss Cosplay
I had worn Tiss at Katsu, but only got a few pics due to the fact that she was unfinished (more pics might have helped me realize problem number four.). Wearing a 95% completed Tiss at Fanime was a great experience in order to figure out what needed to be altered/fixed.
Exhibit A.
Exhibit B.
Exhibit C.
Exhibit D.
1. First of all my leg things shifted; as I expected them to, but forgot to address it. Exhibit A. shows how the bulky leather 'knee' part is aligned with my knee when it should be on the outer side of my knee. I had thought about sewing latex at the top and bottom so it doesn't shift, but then envi recommended bot double sided tape and toupee tape. Still looking for toupee tape.
2. My arm things kept falling down my arms and I was constantly pulling them up. (The leather pieces that were riveted to the fabric came off due to it not staying in place. Must problem solve that issue...) If you care to look at Exhibit B, you will see that even after lifting the arm things, they quickly travel down. They should be right where my hair is in pic.
Now I must figure out if I can remove the leather rivets to redo them and probably sew latex strips on the inside top portion.
3. My back die cut was not keeping it's shape very well (Exhibit C) and envi suggested that I put hanger wire in it. I have done so, but I do not have any new pics. I think it is fixed now.
4. And finally, my 'chest armor'; yes, those white flower things on my boobs. Again, looking at Exhibit B, you can notice that my boobs look really flat. This is caused by the 'flowers' being attached to the neck thing that you can see in Exhibit D. During construction I did this for a few reasons, but one obvious reason was that there were no really good reference shots of her front. Two weeks ago I came across Exhibit E. THEY'RE NOT EVEN ATTACHED! That was a huge "D'OH!" moment for me. *sigh*
Exhibit E.
Exhibit F.
Exhibit G.
Then envirion found another Melissa Tiss cosplayer, featured in Exhibit F. I like the white section of her chest armor and now I've decided to go back and alter mine. I think I will definitely add some leather work to finish it off, but I've already started changing it up a bit. (Exhibit G.) I detached the flowers from the collar and reattached it so that the tips of the two just barely overlap. (In Exhibit D the collar overlaps the white, but now the tip of the collar just overlaps the tip of the black.) That gave more shape to the dress already, but then I lined them both with hanger wire to give them more shape. I was seriously debating not attaching the chest armor to the collar, hoping the wire would be enough support...but then I'd have another problem. So I decided to keep them attached.
Youko Nakajima Cosplay
For the most part I was really happy with the first time wear. It was comfortable and the fabric was breathable. I had a really hard time figuring out how to attach the sode (shoulder armor) to myself, but after a few failed attempts with leather cord, I finally figured out how to do it. The only thing that's been bothering me is the accuracy of the cosplay. My only source of reference for this cosplay comes from the ONE image; Exhibit G. "What is going on in the front?!?!" I keep asking myself. A few days ago I came across a fan drawing (Exhibit H) of Youko in, what looks like, the illustration version (Exhibit G). It's the closest I've seen to the version that I'm doing. It also looks like it might be a combination of the illustration and anime versions of the outfit. (Anime version is Exhibit I.) So, I want to revisit my Youko cosplay and draw in elements from the anime version. (I really do like that breastplate...)
Exhibit G.
Exhibit H.
Exhibit I.
Now I need to make an undershirt with a collar, a breastplate, the little shredded half cape, the (real) sword and possibly, possibly rethink my leg armor. I really do love my monk socks!!! But it'd make more sense to have armor instead.
I am excited that I now have green contacts! I bought them at con, the day after the Youko photo shoot. But for the next photo shoot I will be prepared with freaky green eyes! (Mwahahahahaaa!)