31st July 2009: Brown contacts Again my aim to be as accurate as possible kicks in, this time down to the colour of my eyes. I ordered a pair of Freshlook Colorblends contacts in "Brown" and love the effect, they look so natural! My actual eye colour is bright blue.

25th July 2009: New boots I have some new boots which are a more suitable design than my last pair (more feminine also) however they're a size too small so I will be complaining about my sore feet a lot >_< The pains we go through for cosplay!

5th November 2008: Second version complete Photos of my updated costume taken at the London MCM Expo Oct 2008.

Photographers: Silver & Paul Jacques

23rd October 2008: Squall plushie! It's so cute =D

21st October 2008: Wig Wig arrived. At first was annoyed to find it didn't actually have a side parting (although at least had a side fringe). Wished it was slightly longer too tbh but oh well. I trimmed the fringe slightly to shape it better and cut up the auburn highlights (managed to find the same seller on ebay again and order the same ones I got last year) and sewed them into the wig just under the hairline. Not a professional attempt but the finished result looked ok ^-^

10th October 2008: 2008 UPDATE 10th Oct-
Sock glue is my new friend. No more slipping arm-warmers yay!

15th Oct-
New shorts had the zips sewn straight on top of the fabric this time to stop bunching. I was worried would look bad but has actually come out okay =) The shorts are slighter shorter in the leg than my last pair though.

23rd Oct-
Fabric for my new skirt turned up and I spent a couple hours cutting, sewing, un-stitching and trying again before I admitted that I fail at making a simple mini-skirt and gave up rather frustrated. The fabric was a lot darker than I wanted anyway (what happens when you buy online) so I resigned to somehow patch up my old one.

24th Oct-
Right skirt attempt part 2. I hacked off extra material and re-stitched the waistline. The zip came out as I found the fit was a lot better when using buttons. The back of the skirt gapes open but thankfully the duster covers that, the front of the skirt looked how I wanted it too so all is good ^-^

25th Oct-
Realised that I should have used a black eyebrow pencil to fill out and darken my eyebrows last year as it looks lot better.

5th November 2007: First version complete Photos of my first version of this costume taken during the masquerade at London MCM Expo Oct 2007.

EDIT 2011
Yes I shouldn't have entered as I didn't make the duster but I was a young newb and have learned better since lol I haven't entered a masquerade with a commissioned outfit since then (unless it's allowed like Aya, Kita & Ame).

Photographers: Mediev.net & unknown.

15th October 2007: Hair My natural hair style is pretty much the same as Rinoa's so I dyed my hair black and got some auburn-brown hair extensions which I cut to the right length & width and clipped into my hair. You could see the hair grips close up however so I may try a wig next time with the highlights put through properly. I have had my hair dyed like hers properly a few years back though, shame I didn't cosplay then!

Photo- My hair in 2005 when I had it dyed like Rinoa's.

15th October 2007: Ring and chain The ring was a simple silver band I brought from a market stall years ago with her character in mind. The way the chain links are on her necklace are unique and I couldn't find anything that matched it so just found the closest looking necklace I could (which involved me taking off a pendant and re-attaching the links) which I then put the ring through.

15th October 2007: Boots and buckles Boots are actually meant to be boys school boots lol but they managed to fit me.They have 5 shoe lace holes and I tied them only up to the 4th as Rinoa does. The metal clasps she has on the front of the boots I made by taking apart 2 belts I got from Claire's Accessories and glueing the top part of the belt buckle to a black strip of elasticated material which I wrapped around the boot and tied underneath just in front of the heel. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

15th October 2007: Shorts I already had a pair of black lycra cycling shorts so I made an insertion at the front of each leg and sewed in silver zips. Unfortunately because of the nature of the material it bunches up =( I still need to work out how to avoid this.

15th October 2007: Skirt The skirt I made myself. I had a denim-type pleated skirt that looked the right colour so I took the zip out and un-stitched all the pleats till I was left with a scrap of fabric. Then I put it back together from scratch. I shortened the length, made the skirt wrap-around to create a seam at one side and sewed on 3 round silver buttons. Quite pleased with how it turned out but it does need a re-vamp.

Note: Yes the colour looks strangely different in every photo, it is the same skirt!

15th October 2007: Duster and arm warmers Seeing as it was my first cosplay and I cannot knit I did have the duster and arm-warmers commissioned for me by Dream Angels as they produce the most accurate looking ones I have seen. Made from real sweater-knit fabric it clings to your curves &amp; is gorgeous. Has the all important wings on the back of course. The arm-warmers are a tad loose so I intend to tighten them in the future or get some sock glue. I did alter the duster myself slightly however as the buttons needed changing (they were silver and I wanted them blue) and re-positioning on the clasp so it fit better.

Photo taken by Nert

1st October 2007: Reference images Reference images