First Worn at Anime Iowa 2003

My longtime goal of putting together a Hellsing cosplay group finally came to fruition when I convinced my friend Jared to cosplay as the vampire hunter (and stylish badass) Alucard at AnimeIowa 2003.

To make the coat: I bought a thrift shop overcoat, ripped it apart at the seams, and used the pieces as a base for my pattern. (I tweaked the pattern a little, sewing darts up the sides to give the coat more of a 19th century frock-coat fitted look and adding the dusters on the shoulders. To make the dusters pouf out more, I sewed a ruffle of netting underneath them where the shoulder and sleeve seams met.) The coat itself was made out of a heavy red suit fabric.

The hat I made by taking a costume cowboy hat (which I bought last Halloween,) tearing the fabric off of it and using the foam and wire underneath as a framework. I made the crown of the hat out of craft foam sheeting and covered the whole thing with red suit fabric. I wrapped long strips of pinkish fabric around the hat to create its distinctive brim.

The gray suit consisted of a pair of thrift-shop trousers and a vest with buttons and a false flap sewn onto it, which hooked over the head and was tied in the back. (This made the costume lighter and less hot to wear than a fully sewn, long-sleeved suit would have been.)

The white undershirt was a thrift-shop find, and the tie I made out of red satin.

The gloves I made by printing out Alucard's sigil onto opaque transfer paper which I then ironed onto a pair of white cotton military gloves.

I made the glasses using friendly plastic, black craft foam and a pair of cheap yellow sunglasses I bought at the Dollar Store. Jared was considering buying red contacts to wear under the glasses, but since we figured all the pics I took of him would wind up with him having red-eye anyway, (we were right), we deemed it an unnecessary expense.

A shaggy black wig and a pair of black boots completed the ensemble.

The guns were official, liscensed resin prop guns (an ebay find. A very expensive ebay find.)

Back to the Anime/Manga Cosplay Gallery