Take your cosplay pictures seriously challenge (impossible).
Costume details below the cut c:
I feel like I got a lot out of my system when I wrote about sewing Mary's white outfit, partially because they look and function pretty much the same, and partially because I was secretly sewing them both at the same time. Like the white outfit, though, this black outfit also has some discrepancies when compared to her canon outfit.
Firstly, I accidentally followed the same steps as when I made the hat for the white outfit (although please note that I improved the proportions of the hat this time). The accent colour of the white outfit is blue, and the hat has a blue stripe at the bottom. It would stand to reason that the black outfit would have the same stripe in its accent colour - red. For whatever, that is not the case, and the hat is actually supposed to have a grey/silver stripe at the bottom. I realised my mistake before finishing the hat, but decided to stick with it because I liked the look.
Secondly, the lace on her gloves is supposed to be black and gold. When I made the white gloves, I used non-stretch lace and painted the edges gold with acrylic paint. For the black gloves, I instead used stretch lace, because I wanted them to fit very snugly. If you look at Mary's gloves in the art from the artbook, they look shiny and skin-tight, almost as if they're just painted on. I tried to find gold stretch lace, or even gold stretch thread to embroider them like I did the sleeves, but had no success. If anyone has suggestions, feel free to leave them.
Thirdly, the fabric I used for the gloves is very delicate and ripped in several places. I like this look, so I decided to keep it. If you look at her gloves closely, you can see that the lace appears to be broken in places. My lace is fine, but I figured tearing the gloves themselves was close enough lol.
I re-styled the wig to look more similar to her hairstyle in the manga. It looks more natural on my face and casts fewer weird shadows. I also changed up my makeup to be more dramatic, and I think I like it better this way. It makes my eyes look bigger, which in turn makes my face look more like a doll's.
I've been staring at Mary and her various outfits for too long, I think. It may be time to fixate on something else...
I've loved Ib for so long that it felt only right to cosplay from it. I really want to make more costumes from the game in the future, and maybe even a group cosplay.
Costume details below the cut!
This is a costume I technically debuted a year ago, but since then I've made a petticoat to give the skirt some shape, and tried to style the wig more properly. I loved the effect of the petticoat, but I'm less certain about the wig styling. The curls look good (there's a video of me that my friend took, in which they're bouncing up and down in a very satisfying way), but since I had previously used this wig for another cosplay the bangs were cut a bit wrong. In the unedited photos, my face was very dark and I had to brighten it. I think the bangs blocked too much of the light, which it's not an issue I had ever considered before. I noticed it when I took selfies as well. I guess it's the curse of a cosplayer to always bump into new and increasingly weird problems...
When I made this dress last year, I remember thinking that I would really take my time and do everything "properly". I have a bad habit of winging things and thinking they're good enough, and when you do that too much the whole costume comes out looking sloppy. I think that's why I'm rarely happy with my past cosplays. This is my first costume in a very long time that I've felt comfortable wearing again even after a whole year, and I think I will feel just as good wearing it in two or three years. It's a simple dress, but it looks clean. I ironed the seams, walked the lines of my pattern and took care to avoid puckers. They're small things, but altogether they make such a difference. When I put this dress on for the first time, I though "Wow, this is how it's supposed to feel!"
I still don't think I'm done with this cosplay. There are a few more things I would like to add or change. I would also like to have a complete set of roses (red, yellow, and blue) just because they're fun props to play around with. I think having a cosplay that continually gets added to is great, because it will make me want to keep it for longer, and I won't feel so rushed before every convention. You'll probably see more pictures of it in the future! c:
Mary, in her white outfit from the Mary's Makeover DLC (and Yashiki!)
Photo: Teamdubbelshop Cosplay
Thank you Hiirakiri for dressing up with me <3 Sorry this is how you had to find out Yashiki doesn't actually wear a dress shirt ;-;
Read below the cut for costume details c:
I used to think that Mary had a black outfit, and a white outfit. That is wrong.
Mary has a black outfit with slight alterations depending on whether you're playing the game, reading the manga, or looking at the art in the artbook.
Mary has two white outfits: one in the style of her black outfit, with alterations depending on whether you're playing the Mary's Makeover DLC or looking at the art in the artbook, and one in a completely different style that is featured in the art for the audio drama Blue Demise.
The reason I chose to recreate the white outfit from the DLC specifically was twofold. Firstly, I already had a lot of white cotton fabric that I could use. Secondly, I am planning to make the black outfit as well, and since I didn't pay for the white fabric, I thought this costume could act as a trial run.
I think this decision paid off. There are several things that I will do differently on the black version. I want to make the skirt shorter, with ruffles rather than pleats. The gold on the sleeves will be embroidered rather than painted on. I need another pattern for the gloves, because these were too big and clumsy-looking. The hat also needs to be smaller...
Like I wrote previously, there are differences between the white outfit in the artbook and the white outfit in the DLC. I wasn't aware of this at first, so mine is a mixture of both. I still chose to describe it as the outfit she wears in the DLC, because that one and mine both lack the gold detailing on the jacket. I felt like that was the most noticeable detail, so that's what I went with when describing this costume. However, the DLC outfit's sleeves differ from mine. It doesn't have the gold detailing (or if it does, it's very subtle) , the sleeves are puffier, and there doesn't seem to be any lace, only scallops. Mine look a lot more like the regular black outfit's sleeves, as I wanted to try out techniques for them.
Needless to say, I've spend a lot of time thinking about Mary's different outfits. Something I really appreciate about the art in Death Mark overall is the outfits are constructed. In both CGs and the artbook, you can see the seams and figure out how the garments would be constructed. In general, there is just a lot of attention to detail and realism. It makes me feel like a lot of thought and love went into making these characters, outfits and all.
My costume isn't perfect by a long shot, but I'm happy with it, and that is somewhat unusual for me. By the end of a sewing project, I'm usually so tired and frustrated by what I've been making that I hardly even want to wear it. In contrast, I really enjoyed wearing this outfit and I even felt pretty cute. Of course, having my very own Yashiki for the day helped a lot <3
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