*Syaoran (Fire Kimono)*
Tsubasa: Resevoir Chronicles
Made for: Anime Expo 2006
Chara Info: Syaoran is an archaeologist following in the footsteps of his deceased father. His other love in life is Princess Sakura, his childhood friend. When Sakura's memories are scattered across dimensions, Syaoran embarks on a quest to retreive them all. . .at a sad price.
Why Him?: Syaoran is Robbie's favorite character in Tsubasa. He mentioned he wanted to cosplay Syaoran and Sakura with me, so I looked through artbook pictures and found this awesome design. We're going to have a lot of fun making these costumes ^^.
The Story: The main white fabric is a nice, thick 100% cotton twill Aya Mizu helped me buy in the LA Fashion District. It's very heavy and soft, and I wish it didn't wrinkle so much :(.
The side-skirts are each patterned as a half-circle. I love the way it falls :). Each piece is lined in the same fabric as the obi.
The top is based on a kimono pattern page I found online, with changes obviously made for the sleeves. Like the skirt above, that had to be lined in the burgundy fabric.
Both of these parts were painted with Jacquard's Dye-Na-Flow paints. Because the paint spreads quite a bit when it's placed on fabric, I first painted the flame borders with a gold resist.
The obi, pants, and undershirt are made from burgundy or white cotton sateen (mmm, I love this fabric ^^). I used a pattern for the pants and undershirt.
On those pieces, I painted the design with Jacquard Lumiere. Since these parts were accents, I wanted them to shine a bit more than the main outfit. That's why I embellished it all in beads. I used gold and red seed beads, sometimes staggering the two to create a pseudo gradient. This portion is what took the bulk of the time.
The boots started life as rubber galoshes O_o. I covered them with a vinyl-like fabric and the design was then painted on. I originally wanted to bead the design on the boots, but con wear and tear would have destroyed that work in a heartbeat.
Robbie dyed his hair for this costume! It's not so apparent in the pictures, but it is dyed dark brown. I think it looks cute on him #^_^#.
Our friend Jennifer made the sword. I bow to her skills with paper mache!
Pictures
