Yeah, I'm finally getting around to posting my cosplay costumes.

This is my first attempt at leatherworking. Pieces made of leather--specifically, pieces of deer suede edged in pigskin--include the armstraps and the collar. The belt is also leather, but isn't edged. I'm not entirely sure whether it looks better unedged, but I ran out of that specific piece of pigskin, so no dice.

The coat is a modified version from a Mandarin-style jacket pattern, both lengthened and given fullness at the sides. I mostly regret not having curled my hems and I wholly regret not having lined the coat. The sleeves are from the same jacket pattern, only modified to be worn gartered just above the elbows.

I used no pattern for the satin skirt. It started as a piece about two and a half yards long, and got gathered at the waistline. In the EOJ pictures, only one hem had been put into the block of fabric. (Not a good idea to wear unhemmed satin, folks, especially with those boots!) Also unique to the EOJ pictures in comparison to the AKon pictures is that I've got a full-length black skirt on underneath the satin. This is because I didn't have the slit stitched together. I was Ripley at a previous Yu-Gi-Oh! event, and some inappropriate accidents occurred involving the skirt coming untucked from my belt. *COUGH* T^T;; Ah well, live and learn...

I added fishnet to Ripley's character design between EOJ and AKon, as per Jace's suggestion. I also shaved just under two inches more of my head. My dad had a conniption when I shaved my head, by the way. LOL! My bangs are streaked with colored hairspray and set and hardened with hair gel. I was Ripley recently, and somehow managed to get my bangs into a "Camulya flip" ( [link] ); the funniest part, though, was just how rigid the hook in my hair was--I could hang almost half a pound of weight off of it (my dice bag)!

I didn't make the boots or the Duel Disk. I bought 'em. None of the jewelry is of my design, either. And yes, the headphones are part of the costume. =/

Peanut gallery over here is going to giggle and grumble at the same time about the AnimeU photo because it's funny but annoying. I was dueling Colton Moore (who was Chazz Princeton) in the floor in front of pre-registration, and the photographer didn't even bother to ask us to stand up and duel like in the show/manga; in fact, he didn't even ask for us to stand up. All we saw were two flashes, and he was gone. We most certainly would have posed for the guy, but he apparently wanted "cosplayers in their natural habitat." *groan*

Fah, there are four things I'm definitely changing about this coat as I restart for Big Blue. 1) This coat has a colored chevron. It's supposed to be white with the accent color for edging. 2) This coat doesn't have the pointed dip in the front like Cronos', Jun's, and Ryo's. 3) This coat isn't lined, and the hems aren't rolled to compensate. 4) The belt should be edged with the accent color.

Double-fah, there are also three things I'd sacrificed with this coat for sake of making the colors interchangeable at whim. Upon re-evaluation of the quality of the Ra uniform, however, I'm definitely starting over from scratch. 1) The collar isn't attached to the coat. 2) The coat hem is not edged with the accent color. 3) The coat isn't lined.

Talaria "Ripley" Taichen belongs to me, but she is a fancharacter from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.
Essentially all work on this costume was done by me. I had help getting started with the leatherworking from the delightful and talented Jody Heath. He also made the card box at my waist because I have no experience at all with working rivets or veg-tan.

*** This is from a friend's camera, but I do not know who took it because he's in the picture (he's the elbow in front of Jace Moore).

(EOJ is Enemy of Justice, a Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG expansion. Two of the pictures here were taken at the prerelease event for EOJ.)