Diao Chan from Dynasty Warriors 6
Originally published at Cosplex. Please leave any comments there.
Costume Inspiration
The Dynasty Warriors series is full for gorgeous inspiring costumes. I’d been wanting to do one for a long time, when the artwork for the 6th game was released. I instantly fell in love with Diao Chan’s design. After slaving away on the costume for 6 months, I caught food poisoning at the convention and had to pull out of the masquerade. It took me another two years to finish of the details and wear the costume long enough to get some photos.
Costume Debuted at: Ayacon 2009
Also worn at: Ayacon 2011
Construction Details
Cost: £300
Time: 300 hours
Nearly all of the decorative elements for this costume were hand made from scratch, making it very time consuming.
Each of the flowers was crafted from pieces of hand dyed silk built up on floristry wire. I followed instructions from a famous book called, ” Silk Flower Making”, which I high recommend. The flowers were used for the bustle, head piece and hand pieces.
The headpiece was cut from craft foam, sealed and painted with acrylic paints. Its connected to a headband which also holds the flowers and hair “pretzel” securely on my head. Plastic tubing and wadding was used to create the base for the hair “pretzel”, which was first painted brown and later covered with hair fibre.
The bustle was created by threading the flowers and leaves and other floral decorations into a plastic mesh base. I harvested the leaves and floral pieces from several cheap plastic flower decorations. Once this was complete, I backed the bustle in green fabric to conceal the underside of the mesh. The bustle is connected to a wire frame, hook and bow, which slots into a pocket at the back of the skirt
The purple sections; top, leggings and gloves, were made from a purple stretch cotton Lycra. Some areas where lined with purple duchess satin to remove the stretch (collar and top of the gloves and leggings). The gold designs where hand painted with gold acrylic paints, with the glove tops shaped using foam and buckram.
Originally the top was sewn into a stick on bra, which was later being converted to custom nude bikini. The gold trim was cut from strips of friendly plastic (a thermo plastic). Holes where formed using a hot needle and each piece was spray painted and sewn onto the costume.
I dyed colour gradients into silk habotai and organza using dylon cold water dye. The organza picked up the colour much better, making it look more intense. These dyed silks were used to make the skirt, bow and tails. The designs on the tails were painted with a mixture of silk paint and thickener, with gold acrylic paint used to paint the remaining designs on the skirt and bow
The weapon was a last minute piece. Its made out of cork strips, card, milliput clay, muslin fabric, shower curtain rings, beads and foam all hot glued together and painted with acrylic paints and gold spray paint. It’s a bit flimsy but looks great in photos.
Photos
Photographers & Locations
Photos taken at Ayacon 2009 by Redkun
Photos taken at Ayacon 2011 by: