Duelist Utena: Revolutionary Girl Utena
Why I chose this character: My boyfriend at the time really wanted to cosplay Touga and he suggested Utena for me. I enjoyed the series and the intricate costumes, so I thought it would be fun to cosplay... despite it being my first costume!
Construction Details: The jacket was made out of a black cotton twill like fabric from Walmart. It was my first time using a pattern. Even though I had some help from my sister-in-law, I still managed to fudge it up pretty bad! I ended up sewing the bias tape on with a basting stitch. I put the bobbin in wrong and had no idea why the machine was having problems. But instead of going back and doing it over, I just left it! Thankfully it never fell apart entirely. Infact, I still have this thing in my old costume bin somewhere. I laugh now, looking back at it!
The wig was just a simple $10 halloween wig that I cut and styled. It's funny looking back, because most of us used Halloween wigs back then! The sword, shorts and socks were store-bought. The shoes were an old favorite from high school which I painted and added laces to.
The best part was probably the epaulets. They were simply foam covered in red satin and gold tissue lame. I just hot glued and pinned it all in place. Then I attached it to the jacket with giant saftey pins. The little jewel was made out of model magic and craft foam which attached with saftey pins.
Comments: It wasn't too horrible for my first costume. It looked nice enough from far away. But the jacket ended up being too short. I still do love the costume design in Utena, so I've recently (2009) began making more Utena costumes.
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