Character: Nefertiti Vivi
Series: One Piece
Version: The Most Excellent Scene of
Debut: Anime Matsuri 2011
Awards: Best in Class (Open) San Japan 2011
Vivi and Luffy were the first costumes my husband and I decided to do together as a team. We spent weeks trying to pick a pair of characters we both liked, it took forever! Eventually though we landed on One Piece. I have only read the first few chapters, but my husband is a fan and we both liked the challenges the costumes presented. We tried to split the work to suit our skills, I would do most of the sewing and he would do the props and leatherwork.
With the style of One Piece we decided to pick fabrics with different textures to give more visual intrest as the colors are very flat. Vivi’s coat is corduroy, the sarong is an organza and the scarf is tea dyed linen. All of the gold embellishments on the sarong are hand painted and the head wrap is also hand painted, but with the use of a stencil. I blocked the hat myself and used boas and feathers for the plume. The shoes were painted with leather paint and I had to add some additional straps.
What is most unique about this costume is that underneath everything I made my first fully steel boned underbust corset. Oda’s art style is so stylized and over exaggerated, I wanted to create that illusion as much as possible and I have wanted to try my hand at corsetry for a while. It was most definitely a learning experience.
Photos: The Tentacle Guy, AngelWing