Fina (Skies of Arcadia)
creation: July 2001worn at: Otakon 2001, AWA 7, Katsucon 2002, Akon 13, Nekocon 2002, Katsucon 2003
why fina?: Skies of Arcadia is a wonderful DC RPG created by none other than the Phantasy Star crew. I love the character designs, I love the game, I love Sega... This game is the true sequel to PS4. The hero is great, has a super cool eyepatch, and his sidekicks are two very cute little girls. They are pirates too!!! ^_^ I chose Fina because she is the cutest. Sure, she is the slightly annoying token overly naive girl with a mysterious past, but she is so darned cute. She has a pet/weapon named Cupil which is cute too, but I haven't yet had time to construct it. Plus, Fina is an honorary pirate which makes her cool. Also, unlike every other female character in existence, she's actually not anorexic. I appreciate that.
con notes: When I wore this at Katsucon 2002, I finally got to meet up with Aika and Vyse! It was so great. They were both very nice and a lot of fun to hang out with. Plus, the thrill of having all three main characters together was fantastic. I really hope to see the two of them at more conventions in the future!! Then, at Akon, I brought along my new white Cupil (yeah, I know he's supposed to be silver) and met up with Ramirez & Belleza. Although they are villains, they had amazing costumes and are incredible people. More Arcadia cosplay!! YAY! I pulled this costume out of retirement at Nekocon and Katsucon 2003 so that my friend Shadra could borrow it for Arcadia group photos, since I have two other Arcadia costumes.
construction: The dress was constructed from a gathered neck sleeves dress out of off-white satin to which I added full-length slits on both sides. Most of the gold areas like the belt, neckpiece, ankle cuffs, and sleeve edges are made from gold satin which has been stuffed to create the poofy look. Some of the gold satin has designs drawn on it with a black fabric pen. The other gold designs are drawn with a fabric puff paint pen. The armbands are real sheet aluminum which has been cut and curled. The earrings are made from Sculpey. The band of the veil is made from flexible aluminum spray painted gold. The veil itself is a thin sheer fabric. For a finishing touch, I sprayed gold glitter adhesive to most of the costume. The symbols on the forehead and shoulders were drawn with eyeshadow. A mid-back length wig was styled so that the bangs were parted and swept away from the forehead, and there were visible layers in the rest of the wig. I wore thick white dancing tights and simple off-white dress heels to complete this.
Cupil, the new addition for Akon, is simply a child's bouncy ball for a base with paper towels and a LOT of duct tape forming the appendages. The entire mouth is made out of several folded pieces of duct tape. Once I had affixed all the pieces of Cupil, I paper mached him. After drying him off, I spray painted him white and used black paint for the eyes. I re-sprayed him silver before Katsucon 2003.
photo credits: Linus Lam, Eurobeat King