The Isle of Apples

Lust the Lascivious

You humans are such sad and weak, foolish creatures.

Rasuto...

The Ultimate Spear...

Yes the Lady Lust from the anime Fullmetal Alchemist. Such a lovable manipulating woman with gravity defying boobies. I had heard a few days before Anime Matsure 2013 that my idol, Yaya Han was going to be present. Well I simply had to meet her. There was no other option, and I had to do it in costume. hat he heck kind of costume could I make between 8-10 hour shifts at the hotel? I can't just make any old costume for any character, I wanted to like and know the character I was to be portraying. It is a very important part of cosplay (not that I really know it was my first time cosplaying) to be able to be the character. Walk around and act like them, talk like them react to other characters as they would. To me this aspect of cosplaying is what sets it apart from "being in costume". It is not your costume, it is your characters costume, the clothes they wear everyday. When ever I decide fabric for a costume I really try to think to myself "What would my character wear?" This to me was the hard part about Lust, what exactly was that slinky little dress made of? It had to be durable, sexy, evil... and above all, lustful.

What Would the Sinful Wear?

My first thought was my go-to favorite: velvet. Oh boy how I love velvet (whether or not it loves me back is to be decided). Velvet though, felt so plain and more elegant than what I was aiming for. You wear velvet if your nobility, if you are classic, Lust is really none of those things to me. She is a bad-a, booty kicking finger stabbing sly little snake. Hmmmmm.. a snake, almost like the ouroboros tattoo on her chest. Perfect place to start. This immediately tossed my mind to latex. Yes, latex (that would have been fun). I googled some pictures and saw how shiny it was. Too shiny! It almost looked like liquid, and in the anime, her dress has a shine but it is more dull, more matte. I went through a few more choices, dance fabric, taffeta. This was a headdesk moment. LEATHER!!!! Goodness grief I do to know how this did not come to me sooner. Oy. Well pleather is what I settled for in such short notice. It was very easy to work with as well! Which surprised me, I thought I was going to have another silk-velvet moment.... (If any of you have worked with silk velvet you know its a creepy critter!).

Well now that the hard part was over (hahaha yeah right), I could get down to business! I used a simple evening gown pattern for the dress and cut it just below the knees. Lust seems to be about 5'9'' or taller and I am a mere 5'4'' on a good day so I wanted the proportions to be pretty close since I knew they were not going to be exact. I decided to line the dress in red duck, I liked the little devious aspect it would give in matching the ouroboros as well as support to help the anti-gravity effect. I also decided to add boning to the bodice part as well. I got polyester boning and added 4 yards all along the front of the bodice, straight up sewn to the wrong side of the lining. Dress and lining were attached at the top and voila! complete!

Front V with duck lining (and a few mis-stitches x.x)

The back zipper and the duck lining, you an see some of the boning channels.


Bootcover, slipped over some Bandolino heels.

Gloves and boots, they go all the way above my knees.

After I finished the dress I moved on to the boot covers. With a tutorial I found on deviant art from FireLillyCospaly, I was able to do them pretty quick, however I do need a wee more practice. Now that the majority was complete, so I thought, I was pretty pleased. Whew, I thought (mistakenly) that part would take up most of the construction time. Hahaha. No. Boot covers, fine. Dress, fine. But those GLOVES x.x

I really wanted to have one glove with her long claws so That's how I cut my left hand (at least I was smart enough to think "oh hey I'm right handed better not make that one un-usable") though that turned into a disaster. The canals for the claws were too thin and when stuffed with the original concoction, would flop about and did not look too terrifying. So the Ultimate Spear glove was scratched. After that I decided to just trace my arm as far as I could on the fabric. Then I made a copy from wrist to shoulder and pinned that so the sides matched up. I did not want to attach the dress to the gloves because I knew I would already be uncomfortable strapped up in that leather dress and I really did not wish to add to my discomfort. For the palms I used, and I regret this and will change it, stockings. I simply pinned them to the hand of the glove and went to town stitching on the machine. The stockings were good because of the stretch factor so it made it look I only had gloves on the top of my hand. It also kinda freaky because even off, they still look like hands, would be fun for scaring unsuspecting victims.... For the red detailing, I used bias tape for stretch factor and the buttons for her round things on the hands and shoulders. I *tried* to hot-glue those on,,,but it does not stick long to costume leather. I had to pin it in the middle of the day. Maes Hughes was so kind to help me! I am going to try fabric glue once I go back to the costume. The gloves took nearly 3.5-4 hours by themselves, which was ridiculous..... All in all it was a quick successful costume and I really wouldn't mind doing it again.

The almost complete set, shoes covers and a glove.

Gloves in progress, inside edges need to be trimmed.

Glove details, needs refining and better way to attach

Right handed... Why hoes were a bad idea...

Creepy gloves o.O

Looks pretty nifty :) Left glove so not really torn up

The Look of Lust:

On to hair and make up!! I will do a 'Hair Teasing' tutorial later on how to get big huge hair the Texas way :) but for now, take my word I teased it, but not enough. Unfortunately at AM my hair fell flat from crowds and humidity :/ lesson learned NEVER be frugal with the rat-tail comb. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOO MUCH! Especially if you are portraying an animated character. Basically I teased the top of my hair and curled it all over with small sections of hair so that my hair would be very full. I have very long black hair that is identical to Lust's, luckily. I might convert to a wig as it would be easier to maintain and better so as not to ruin my hair. For the make up (this was the fun part) I am, luckily naturally pale as death (seeeee why I picked this character haha) so I used my regular foundation and powdered a little more than usual. I have a fantastic eyeshadow from MAC called sketch and it is a nice deep plum. I brushed a little in my cheek bones to get an exaggerated 'dead' look. I also brushed a little bit on the corners of my eyes and used some as line for the outer part of my eyes. Lust has a small, sultry eye look, I piled on a bit darker so that my eyes could have that dark look. In the future, I will use false lashes and re-draw my brows to mimic hers. I had a Revlon lipstick that actually matched pretty well and did a quick swipe of that on my lips. She has rather thin lips and I did not want to use liner and get a too-full look so I went simple on this. The ouroboros was sharpied on in the mirror. I do NOT recommend this, it will hurt your eyes and your co-workers will think you are in some weird cult when you still were not able to scrub it off the next day... Really I think it turned out quite fantastic. I have made notes so at the next con I will have all the wee kinks worked out!

The Doctor and I. You can see the ouroborus and some details of my make up.

What I learned:

1) Make sure you do your brows, especially if you are taking pictures! Just because they look awesome in the mirror does NOT mean the camera will be as friendly!

2) Follow directions. This really should be a no-brainier, but unfortunately for me I like to go by my own rules. You see, I thought if I did not include the darts on the bodice, I could get a better shape and have a better "anti-gravity"effect. Well this, of course worked to the opposite effect x.x It provided no support and was about 2 sizes too big in weird places. I made a second one and added in the darts and all worked out perfect.

3)You cannot tease your hair too much because as soon as you start moving around and bumping into people and being outside it will fall....

4) Gloves are not fun. They are so so so soooo not fun to make especially with 2 different fabrics and especially if one of those fabrics is pantie hoes -.-

5) If you are going to be wearing an uncomfortable costume, bring a back up costume in case you get too uncomfortable. If you want to stick it out, for women please invest in a bodice chiller, they are wonderful. I got mine at the Texas Renaissance Fair and it is the best thing. You freeze it and just pop it in there and keeps you at a nice temp all day. Also STAY HYDRATED!!

6) Remember to BE IN CHARACTER! I am so horrid at this... but it really helps with the costume! Make sure you not only look like them, you feel like them as well.Also remember to react to other characters in your set "Universe" makes for great fun!

7) Practice your poses before hand. I looked so awkward a hundred times that day because I was like errr derp idk how to pose. I had a few but I needed to practice what to do with another character instead of stand there and smile like an idiot.

8) Make a muslin mock-up. Super important so that you don't mess up nice fabric, like me. Oy -.-

9) Sharpie takes a few days to come off....

10) Hot glue does NOT stick to pleather....

I really had a fun time cosplaying Lust, she is a really great character and I am such a fan. Also really happy to have met Yaya Han!!!