What is Cosplay Flashback? Cosplay Flashback is a blog series where I’ll revisit my older costumes and discuss how I made them and how I would make them differently if I was making them today. I’ve been cosplaying over 10 years and I’ve learned a lot in that time. It’s fun to go back and revisit older costumes with new knowledge. I hope you enjoy!

Stats

 Series: Bleach
Version: Adult
Debut: Onicon 2008

Construction

This costume was fairly straight forward. I made the top and skirt, dyed a wig (because there were no wigs this color in 2008) and sculpted the mask out of newspaper and paper clay. I have vivid memories of working on that particular piece in the kitchen of my college apartment and painting a layer every morning before I left for class. I also made the sword out of…foam core? I think? Like I cut the shape out, ripped the paper off the blade part, sanded the styrofoam down and then covered the whole thing in paper mache. Actually, maybe that’s what I was doing in the kitchen before class…paper mache.

I have a rare work in progress photo from this costume too! It’s so old that I took it with a digital camera.

But Why?

In my early days of cosplay I found a lot of community in Bleach and the Bleach cosplayers. I started running photoshoot and fan meetups at most conventions I attended and I usually had at least one Bleach costume with me at any given con from 2006 – 2009. When Nel revealed that she was not just an annoying little kid, but a badass who had been injured and was forced to take a smaller form I added her to my list immediately.

What Would I Do Now?

Well I would not dye a wig on my balcony at 2am with sharpies for starters. While I am still very proud of the color I was able to get, sharpie dying a wig is basically the worst.

I would also make the garments out of a stretch material and invest in better padded undergarments. At the time I didn’t know what I was doing and I was adamant that making this out of a non stretch would be a better choice. I even built a shelf bra type layer into the top so I could try and make it larger to create the illusion of a larger chest. Now I would just wear something padded to create that look. No need to reinvent the wheel here.

Lastly, I would make the mask out of materials that were a little more durable, and in fact I kind of did…While the rest of the outfit is different, when I made my Thousand Year Blood War version a couple of years ago I remade the mask with EVA foam and worbla.

Lets not even talk about the sword, ok?