Kasumi from Dead of Alive
Originally published at Cosplex. Please leave any comments there.
Costume Inspiration
For our World Cosplay Summit Parade costumes, Laura and I wanted something cool, comfortable and classic. We instantly selected Dead or Alive characters, a game that I had played back when I owned a PS2!
Costume Debuted at: World Cosplay Summit 2012 (Japan)
Construction Details
For Fabric, I selected a Royal blue crepe de Chine. Crepe de chine is a wonderful fabric which benefits from a slight sheen and provides a flat woven base for painting on. It can sometime be a little thin, so its best backed with a co-ordinating cotton. The white trims are made from Duchess satin and the gold pieces are either Acetate or Crepe back satins.
The dress is made as one piece, fastening with an invisible zip at one side. I wanted to be able to pull the outfit on quickly without worrying about how the bodice would cross over. I also didn’t want any part to move or slip during a parade! The bodice and skirt sections are both fitted with darts and join at the waist by a small fabric waistband.
The front and back skirt panels are painted with acrylic paints. Each panel took 16 hours and I made a niffy stop motion video of the process in this post.
I appliqued large gold kanji on the back on the bodice, finishing off the small ones with gold paint.
For the shoes I dismantled a pair of shop bought summer sandals and created straps by plaiting strips of over locked gold satin. The arm and shin guards are interfaced and boned to give them structure and fastened with wristbands or shoe straps. For the waistband I covered an old belt with white satin to mimic a fabric sash. The belt is laced up at the back along with the short sword that was kindly lent to me by a friend.
The costume was completed with dance tights, opaque white stockings and my asuka wig (styled with a small ponytail).
Cost: £100
http://www.cosplex.co.uk/Time: 100 hours
Photos
Photos taken during the Nishiki Boulevard Red Carpet Parade in Nagoya, Japan. Photos taken by: WCS USA, Ruby and Johnny
Photos taken during the Tanabata Festival Parade in Ichinomiya, Japan. Photos taken by: WCS USA
Progress Photos taken during Construction
Related Posts
http://www.cosplex.co.uk/Time Lapse photography: Painting Kasumi’s crane design
Progress: Kasumi from DOA