Matt cosplayers of the world, I lend you my aid.
Hanging around in the cosplay forum of Gaia Online, Cosspace, and Cosplay.com has shown me something: apparently, a lot of people are very confused by Matt's clothing. Since I helped roseofmalice make her Matt costume, I figure I might as well share my knowledge on the subject with the people in need of it. And by sticking it here, I can just point at it every time it comes up.
First of all, I've taken the liberty of compiling every single panel of the manga in which Matt appears.
I did not scan these. I got the images from onemanga.com, and I'm fairly sure that most [if not all] of the scans/translations of these particular pages were done by The Ones Who Never Lie.
I lack the motivation to go screencap every appearance in the anime, but the main difference is just in the coloration. Fandom had decided that Matt was a redhead with a black and white shirt before he appeared in the anime, where his hair is a slightly greenish brown and the shirt is black and red. So although some people like to insist that the brown/green hair and red/black shirt are canon/official/etc., the red hair and white/black shirt are just as well recognized, if not more so among manga fans, fanartists and cosplayers.
So, here's a breakdown of Matt's clothing:
-Stiped long-sleeved t-shirt [Either black/white OR black/red.]
-Somewhat loose jeans with horizontal seams up the legs
-Black boots that go about halfway up to the knee
-Black leather belt with large holes [ch 86., pg. 7]
-Wallet chain
-Gauntlet-style leather gloves
-Long fuzzy vest with high collar
-White or silver goggles with yellow or orange lenses
Now, here's my advice for each item:
Shirt
First, I would suggest going to a mall and searching every department store there, because you may get lucky and find it for a lower price than you would have to pay ordering it online. If you're ambitious enough, you can just get a plain red or white long sleeved shirt and black fabric paint and paint the stripes yourself. Use masking tape to ensure that the stripes are clean and even. Note that Matt's shirt has a wide collar, so if you get a shirt with a ribbed collar that fits close around your neck, you may want to cut it to make the collar wider yourself. You don't have to worry about t-shirt fabric fraying when you cut it, so you don't have to bother with finishing the collar or anything.
Jeans
As someone who has taken fashion illustration classes, I'm fairly sure that the horizontal lines on Matt's pants are seams considering the slight indents on the edge of each one. There's no visible fringe, so it's not necesarry to cut up the pants and sew them back together with the frayed edges on the outside like I've seen some people suggest. However, I grant people room for personal interperetation and artistic liscence, so I'm not about to start criticizing people for choosing to do it the aforementioned way, or painting the lines on, or anything else of that sort. The following just happens to be the method that I personally found most appropriate.
I started with a basic pair of jeans and foled the leg up 6", then sewed a line along the edge of the fold.
I folded it up another 6" and added another seam, repeating this process until I reached the crotch, then did the other leg.
The finished product:
Being worn by
roseofmalice :
[These particulor photos chosen just because they're the ones with the best lighting to show the seams.]
Vest
The vest isn't nearly as complicated as some people seem to make it out to be, as long as you can buy or make a beige vest that looks like his without the fuzzy trim. I think that suede [or a synthetic alternative] would be the ideal material for it based on similar styles garments I own, but things like fleece or corduroy work too. Then you just have to add faux fur trim to it. A lot of home sewing machines may not be able to handle sewing through that, so you may be better off doing it by hand.
Gloves & Goggles
I reccomend motorcyle clothing stores for finding these items, although they can get kind of expensive at places like Harley Davidson, so check online stores and clearance sales.
... I think that's all I have to say about this for now. I'm sure I'll remember some vital point that I've somehow forgotten in due time.
I leave you with one last photo just for the hell of it.
First of all, I've taken the liberty of compiling every single panel of the manga in which Matt appears.
I did not scan these. I got the images from onemanga.com, and I'm fairly sure that most [if not all] of the scans/translations of these particular pages were done by The Ones Who Never Lie.
I lack the motivation to go screencap every appearance in the anime, but the main difference is just in the coloration. Fandom had decided that Matt was a redhead with a black and white shirt before he appeared in the anime, where his hair is a slightly greenish brown and the shirt is black and red. So although some people like to insist that the brown/green hair and red/black shirt are canon/official/etc., the red hair and white/black shirt are just as well recognized, if not more so among manga fans, fanartists and cosplayers.
So, here's a breakdown of Matt's clothing:
-Stiped long-sleeved t-shirt [Either black/white OR black/red.]
-Somewhat loose jeans with horizontal seams up the legs
-Black boots that go about halfway up to the knee
-Black leather belt with large holes [ch 86., pg. 7]
-Wallet chain
-Gauntlet-style leather gloves
-Long fuzzy vest with high collar
-White or silver goggles with yellow or orange lenses
Now, here's my advice for each item:
Shirt
First, I would suggest going to a mall and searching every department store there, because you may get lucky and find it for a lower price than you would have to pay ordering it online. If you're ambitious enough, you can just get a plain red or white long sleeved shirt and black fabric paint and paint the stripes yourself. Use masking tape to ensure that the stripes are clean and even. Note that Matt's shirt has a wide collar, so if you get a shirt with a ribbed collar that fits close around your neck, you may want to cut it to make the collar wider yourself. You don't have to worry about t-shirt fabric fraying when you cut it, so you don't have to bother with finishing the collar or anything.
Jeans
As someone who has taken fashion illustration classes, I'm fairly sure that the horizontal lines on Matt's pants are seams considering the slight indents on the edge of each one. There's no visible fringe, so it's not necesarry to cut up the pants and sew them back together with the frayed edges on the outside like I've seen some people suggest. However, I grant people room for personal interperetation and artistic liscence, so I'm not about to start criticizing people for choosing to do it the aforementioned way, or painting the lines on, or anything else of that sort. The following just happens to be the method that I personally found most appropriate.
I started with a basic pair of jeans and foled the leg up 6", then sewed a line along the edge of the fold.
I folded it up another 6" and added another seam, repeating this process until I reached the crotch, then did the other leg.
The finished product:
Being worn by
roseofmalice :
[These particulor photos chosen just because they're the ones with the best lighting to show the seams.]
Vest
The vest isn't nearly as complicated as some people seem to make it out to be, as long as you can buy or make a beige vest that looks like his without the fuzzy trim. I think that suede [or a synthetic alternative] would be the ideal material for it based on similar styles garments I own, but things like fleece or corduroy work too. Then you just have to add faux fur trim to it. A lot of home sewing machines may not be able to handle sewing through that, so you may be better off doing it by hand.
Gloves & Goggles
I reccomend motorcyle clothing stores for finding these items, although they can get kind of expensive at places like Harley Davidson, so check online stores and clearance sales.
... I think that's all I have to say about this for now. I'm sure I'll remember some vital point that I've somehow forgotten in due time.
I leave you with one last photo just for the hell of it.