First Worn at AnimeIowa 2005

Whew. Where do I start with this one?

I suppose I should start with the robe itself - It's a Chinese wedding costume whose pattern I based on traditional Chinese Han-style Empreror robes and various Chinese opera costumes. (I wore a petticoat underneath to make it fuller.) The fabric is red brocade (special thanks to JoAnn's fabrics for choosing to stock a large inventory of Chinese brocades at this particular moment in time,) and the netting and tassels on the capelet I had to make myself. (Although I now see that JoAnn's has decided to stock a trim which looks very similar to it. Ugh! Okay, I take back all that nice stuff I said about them earlier.) All of the gold decoration was painted on with Lumiere brand acrylic paint (which has a nicer, shinier look than most other fabric paints.)

I won't bother to mention the chakram, since I had made them for my earlier version of Sun Shang Xiang. The headdress is probably the most eye-catching part of this costume. I based it on the reference picture and on pictures I had seen of Chinese wedding crowns and opera headdreses. I started it by sewing a cap-like form out of stiff buckram and mounting it onto a wide black headband. I then built up layers of styrene, wire and costume jewelry onto the stiff form until I got the look that I wanted. (I used Gem-tac adhesive to make the lines and loop designs on the styrene flames and silver crown.) After the gold/silver part of the headdress was finished, I hung tassels and ornaments off the sides. It took a looong time, but I think the results were well worth it.

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