I really wanted to see Rita in a three-piece suit and the way I wanted to design it is to make sure there are still elements that would connect them to butterflies.
Most of the inspo for the coat does come from their original concept design as I decided to have embroidery with the Gokkan sigil on the sash. It still has the snow effect but I also decided to have God Papillon's wing pattern on the coattails as well. I've thought about giving them Blue Admiral wing patterns but I thought paying homage to God Papillon would fit better.
The butterfly accessories were placed similarly to Rita having their earcuff and bracelet so the hairpin and broach were placed along the same line.
Himeno
I originally wanted to give Himeno this giant ballgown filled with flowers and such to represent Ishabana, but I realized my skills with that was limited. But what stayed from the original design is her hair which I wanted to point out to be styled like a bouquet of roses. I also had her blonde after some color testing and her usual blonde hair was perfect.
I then thought "Well she's named after the Orchid Mantis which uses camouflage to look like a flower so I can just... turn her into one" which led to her design. Her outer skirt would be flower petals while the inner skirt is similar to a mermaid skirt.
I also included a lot of mantis claws in the design because I noticed her outfits don't really use that much so i wanted to try that as it would also fit with Ishabana's sigil.
Morfonia
Morf, I always saw as someone who would wear something simple yet also elegant but also keeping the layered aspect of her character design.
Her dress has more liberty to be designed more like butterflies such as her bodice and outer skirt. The spot pattern and gradient is based off the Blue Morpho while the shine is more towards the Pearl Morpho.
I also added a matching hair ribbon so she and Rita can match.
Guess who's crashing the first every GR⚡️D GALA? It's Kamen Rider Aguilera of course!
Keep on reading for Hana's outfit sketches, as well as very rough sketches for Orteca and Julio/Tamaki's outfits and a VERY LONG RAMBLE ON MY DESIGN IDEAS.
(also crossposted on twitter here)
onto the sketches! here's the original sketch of the final design, as well as a variant where the cape was much thinner and she had much longer end sleeves on her dress shirt.
i ended up scraping the long sleeves in favor of giving her the world's largest cape. the centerpiece for the cape was also meant to be a golden rose, but i wanted to pay homage to her relationship with Sakura (and also i didn't want to overwhelm with the gold) so it became a Sakura flower instead!
unfortunately, i didn't have time to fully sketch or render out Orteca and Julio/Tamaki's outfits. so instead, here are some very rough preliminary sketches!
this wasn't something i planned initially, but all three ex-deadmans ended up having some sort of corset piece (Hana with the classic corset, Orteca with a tentacle corset, and Tamaki has a metallic ribcage piece under the vest he's wearing), so i guess that's the tying accessory for all three?
they all also ended up wearing heels or platforms of some kind, but that's less thematic and more of just me thinking everyone should wear heels.
some quick notes on Orteca and Julio/Tamaki's designs:
Since Hana had the bee motif, I wanted to stick to the squid and wolf motifs for Orteca and Tamaki respectively.
For Orteca, this is mainly shown through the tentacle corset, plus the incorporation of pearls since they're associated with the ocean. i wanted his design to be equally as dramatic as the rest without doing big cape or big hat again, so backless shirt and hanging pearls it was!
For Tamaki, the highlight piece is the gigantic fringe hat because i love a good hat moment. Also I love his original deadmans outfit (sans the haircut) so much I wanted to replicate it with the hat and the ribcage corset piece.
I don't know if ripped jeans and giant punk platform shoes are appropriate for a gala but they definitely help with Tamaki's wolf motif! It's hard to see, but he also has a stag beetle belt buckle and two metal horn-like things protruding from the finger stripe gloves to pay homage to him as Over Demons.
i've never considered myself much of a fashion designer, so getting the opportunity to design some high fashion looks for my favs was super fun!
defo a big thank u to @itmethanh for putting this art event together, i'll definitely be back next year :)
