My original ‘celestial’ Gale cosplay, designed for this year’s Cosplay Met Gala at Katsucon (theme ‘Starlight and Sorcery’).
I wanted to go for a classic wizard feel - swooshy robes, draping sleeves! - and so the actual structures are fairly simple, with the detail coming out via textures and embellishment. I designed it around circles and curves to invoke celestial bodies as well as the Netherese orb, with the straight lines of the constellations providing contrast. As with all my cosplays, I wanted it to feel like clothes, not a costume - each piece able to stand on its own as a full garment; while together they are a story, each layer progressively lighter-weight as distance from the body echoes a journey towards the heavens.
First is the shirt - rich, heavy, almost constricting, bearing the weight of the embroidered orb across the chest. The forearms are bound with silver threads like strands of the Weave, the same thread that I used for the outer constellations.
Next the robe, a loose-woven blend of dark blues and purples, glimmering with metallic threads for a night sky effect. The hem is adorned with silver-trimmed circles representing the ‘endless worlds’ Gale desires to visit. The hood, sleeves, and skirt are lined with a brilliant two-toned fabric that recalls the shifting colours of an aurora.
Shirt and robe are confined by a narrow yet solid belt bearing the symbol of Mystra, meant to represent, quite literally, her ‘boundaries’. Matching pauldrons of leather and aluminium are embossed with constellations (I just really wanted to do more metal embossing, mkay?).
Over it all drapes a sheer, free-flowing mantle in the colours of the Outer Planes, glittering with hundreds of star-like beads and displaying numerous constellations. On the back is a tableau of actual Faerûnic constellations, including Mystra’s Star Circle, while the front features invented constellations meaningful to Gale’s character, such as magic missile, the Crown of Karsus, and a tressym.
I am so, so proud of this project. I can’t begin to say how much Gale means to me, but I love trying to express it through this sort of passionate creation.
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