Kirin

Description

Aahh there are so many great stories associated with this costume...

Kirin has been my dream cosplay ever since I saw the Pet Shop of Horrors OAV many years ago. When I first saw her I thought I'd never be able construct something that complicated...

But I guess eventually I felt confident enough in my abilities to give it a go.

Surprisingly, the most difficult part, for me, was the sewing. For some reason I pretty much suck at applique and the whole bottom fringe of the top half of the costume is covered in it x_x So...it was a challenge for me. Especially because my sewing machine took the big die in the middle of it and I had to use a friends machine which didn't want to do much more than a straight stitch.

The head piece is complicated and when I look at it now I'm still not sure how everything is hooked onto the base...
What I DO know is that it's really friggin' heavy and was putting a serious hurt on the back of my head for awhile. I fixed it during the middle of it's debut though so everything is OK now ^_^

I got the biggest compliment I've ever recieved while cosplaying while I was in this costume. People not associated with the convention stopped my Pet Shop of Horrors group to ask us for a picture. Then they walked with us for awhile to get the scoop on the convention. Oohoho it was great.

P.S.
If you look closely at the close-up picture of the head piece you can tell that it's not finished yet. Right above my ear you can see a care bear barrett holding my hair back >_>;

Photos