Riku (Kingdom Hearts)
creation: January 2003worn at: Ushicon 2003, Katsucon 2003
why riku?: I hate Riku. A lot. He's a nasty little bastard who steals your keyblade and does other stupid and evil things. He betrays his best friend way too easily. However, I absolutely adore his design. The poofy pants, annoyingly bright yellow shirt, and ridiculous shoes are fantastic. Not to mention, I love Kingdom Hearts and a friend of mine said he would do Sora. Perfect excuse, eh?
con notes: Much to my surprise, I only found one other KH cosplayer at Ushicon, and she was also doing Riku, but from the special secret ending thing. Since we both were doing the same series, and had these cool keyblades, we did a walk-on at the masquerade. Ushicon's masquerade isn't judged, so we had a fantastic time!
construction: Hand sewing will be the death of me. The top is made out of stretch fleece, and the white lines are bias tape. The black material used for the crisscross and the suspenders is vinyl, outlined in a thin white cord, with white buttons sewn on where appropriate. The navy pants are made from flannel and are sewn directly to the poofy overpants. The overpants are cheap blue cotton with a single layer of heavy interfacing. The belts around the ankles are also made from vinyl, and I made silver buckles out of Friendly Plastic. The wristbands are stretch fleece. The gloves, easily the most painful part of the costume, are sewn entirely by hand out of black spandex, with thin white elastic stripes. The shoes are a men's size 12 (I wear a 5), with foam duct taped to give the proper form, and then covered in various fabrics. I do have a black belt on with silver studs and aqua contacts for my eyes.
I did not make that keyblade. All credit for that must be given to Kusanagi from cosplay.com. To find out about making your own cosplay sword, please visit Melchior's tutorial which explains how he did his own awesome Tessaiga.
photo credits: Anime Heretics Neon Pink Arts