Interested in the technical details about this costume?
(tl;dr: This is how I made the thing.)
I've been obsessed with The Wicked + The Divine ( for about a year. It's about a pantheon of gods from all sorts of religions that are reincarnated as pop stars. Each god has a very particular style that matches their genre of music. Because of this, most of their attire is fashion, not costumes.
I had a very hard time choosing which god to portray, finally deciding on The Morrigan, a Gaelic goddess and mythological queen. She, herself, is a trinity of sisters- I choose Badb, the warrior goddess who sometimes takes the form of a crow and reveals herself when the Morrigan is enraged.
Because I was making fashion instead of copying a costume directly, I spent a little longer than usual working on my design. I tried to pull the crow iconography into not only her feathered armor, but into the lines of the corset as well. The layered skirt helped give an ethereal softness to an otherwise hard piece.
I love all three of The Morrigan's designs, but had a copper Merry from Arda Wigs from a few years ago that never got used and decided it would make a good base for the furious redhead. I dyed it crimson with a quick dunk in Idye Poly and then recurled it with foam rollers and a blow dryer. A little styling and a couple braids went a long way.
Most of the time on this project went into building the corset. I did two mockups and really could have used a third. The last corset I did was for drag- we got really amazing results with padding, so I decided to build some hips in for myself to make it more hourglass. I added too much in and the final result was too big! I also shouldn't have drafted it so it would close, but hey, learning experience. I think most of the wrinkles come from it not being tight enough. This is only my 5th corset and first of this shape so... the fit of the next one will be better. (I apologize in advance to my friends for chasing them around with a measuring tape trying to find someone to model this for me...)
The corset is 2 layers, a strength layer of coutil with boning attached and the top layer is silk and leather bonded to nice woven interfacing. I had to hand baste every seam to make sure the curves lined up perfectly so it was a bit of a time sink. I made a few mistakes at the end that of course happened in the very front so the neckline is about 3/4" lower than I wanted but I guess there are worse things.
Because the corset turned out a little big, I drafted my undershirt to give a little extra support, so it's a very fancy, one arm, sports bra. sort of.
The feather armor is my favorite part of the whole look! I built the bases out of Fossshape (such cool stuff), covered it in velvet, and sewed on the dyed rooster feathers. The hips hook on and are removable. The shoulder piece got some metal chain details and a velvet ribbon for attaching. It clasps in the back like a piece of jewelry and very well might be my favorite thing I've ever made ever.
The skirt is three layers- a 1/2 circle skirt in satin, topped by a 3/4 circle skirt in chiffon, topped by 5 yards of silk mesh. The silk really catches the air and floats, almost defying gravity. The gathers at the top also add to the illusion of hips.
I wore really high heels with it- I don't love wearing shoes like that to conventions, but this is art and proportions matter more than a little toe pain. I've got a long torso so I look a little taller than I am if you can't see my feet. Optical illusions are the best!
My buddy and prop-guy Austin (Death Ray Designs) lasercut a bunch of crow stencils and Mike airbrushed them on with a bit of bodypaint. I tried a few different things for the mask, but ended up going with Wet and Wild gel eyeliner applied with a fluffy blending brush. I finished it off with the mattest, blackest eyeshadow I could find around my eyes, a bit of eyeliner, and false lashes. I found myself wishing for something darker than black when I was putting this on- dare say the most goth thought I've ever had? Lips are contoured with Ben Nye pencil in Brandy (aka my favorite lip shade ever) topped with a dab of gloss between the clip on piercings.
I had so much going on my face that I chose not to do her Monroe piercing, but I might try adding that next time. I'm sure there's something that would work perfectly in the scrapbook section.
I work with my hands too much to keep long nails, but in a perfect world I'd go get a set of shiny, long black nails filed to a point like daggers (or crow claws). I might make a set of press-ons for Heroescon.
That brings me to my final point- Heroescon! One of my next big projects is Woden... I'm hoping to bring that jerk and his glowing motorcycle suit to Heroes along side Badb. If anyone else is planning on bringing part of the Pantheon to the convention, please let me know, I'd love to get pictures! We're planning on wearing these Sunday. I'll make an event if you'd like to join us for a few minutes. smile emoticon
I'm going to have a short film of my build to share in a few days, so keep an eye out!
Thank you for reading my write up! I hope you like what I made. It was a really fun art-for-arts-sake project. Let me know if you have any questions.
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