Award Won- Runner-up Advanced Craftsmanship- Anime Expo 2009
I wanted to enter my Sailor Cosmos costume in a masquerade, and finished in time for Anime Expo 2009.
Since i was entering solo, and had a large awakward wings i was limited in what i could do.
I did a more interpretive look at cosmos’s struggle, and need for help.
Character – series- Sailor Cosmos – Sailor moon Stars
Date of completion- Summer 2009
Debut- Anime Expo 2009
Construction time- One month
Personal thoughts- Like most cosplayers, there is that ‘dream costume’ from when they were young and always wanted to make, well sailor cosmos was that for me. Each time i see pictures of this costume it feels so empowering to see my dream costume come to life. I know that sounds corny, but I really do feel that way. Sailor cosmos only shows up briefly in the manga, but i am completely in love with not only her design, but who she is. In the short time she appears she lets us see that she like all of us are humans and make mistakes, she isn’t perfect despite her being clad in all white, and her angelic wings.
Construction details- This was an ongoing project for about a year in which i collected my materials, researched techniques, and finally construction of the costume. The construction of the costume started a month before the convention.
Wings- Bought 2 pounds of turkey feathers, and hand cut each individual feather to be neat and uniform. Then bought my supplies for the under structure, and drew out the silhouette of the wing shape i wanted on paper, i then made the wire form that shape, and then added batting/chicken wire to it. Each feather was laid down carefully, then glued down. It is supported by a harness and straps that go around my shoulders!
Dress- I drafted my own patterns for this outfit, i made the central square panel to be a pleat that flowed with the rest of skirt. I took a lot of time picking out the rainbow-esque colors you see on the panel to match Naoko Takeuchi’s artwork, those ribbons were then machine-stitched down. The top is fitted to me with darts, though I went a bit too tight! The dress is lined.
Wig- My first full styled wig i made on my own. And boy was that quite an adventure! Bought a base wig, stubbed it, made heart odangos out of Styrofoam, then covered in extensions to match the wig. Odango shields are casted plastics. Spent about 4 days time to complete the wig. Looking back i wish i could’ve had time to add extensions to the front of the wig, because it was a thin wig, so when i pulled the pigtails up it revealed all the wefts and bare spots. so i couldn’t lift the pigtails as high as i would’ve liked. but since i was in a time crunch i had the pigtails sit lower on the wig, and strategically place the hair over parts that were exposing wefts.
