Greenzaku

Apr 8 2009, 05:04 AM

wow...those are awesome!
I would say that in Singapore, a lot (probably most) people tailor their own costumes - or they order it in from China. I had to get a part of mine tailored in the end admittedly because the one I made (handsewn!) originally was accidentally torn up and I had no time to do another one, but I still did >70% of the work in the end.

reubensbuer: Out of curiousity, are you from the huge group that has the dances and performances on Youtube?

One-Eyed-Dragon

Apr 9 2009, 07:03 AM

Okuni knows how to select her cloth ( material ). Love Mitsunari, Zhou Yu and Tai Gong Wang.

kuni_izumi

Apr 7 2009, 08:07 PM

These are really impressive! Does your group have a website you could link to or a forum you gather on? We have a lot of people from around the world who will probably be interested.

And double-thanks for crediting the cosplayers with their names/screenames. Too often it's easy to see just the character and forget they'll real people too.

Manji

Apr 7 2009, 08:49 PM

Wow, awesome gallery contribution! Thanks for sharing! Often, I only see cosplayers from US, UK, and Japan, but not often from China.
The embroidery and detail on every costume looks fantastic. Excellent craftsmanship such as this is hard to come by.
Great work all of you. It would be too difficult to decide on a favorite.

Qing Long

Apr 7 2009, 09:46 PM

Woouuuaw, those cosplay are so excellently done, beautiful cosplays, you've all really done a great job ^^ Thank you for showing your cosplay in KW Forum
All costumes are well detailled ! Hope you'll win a prize
~Š»Š»”£

kuni_izumi

Apr 8 2009, 01:36 AM

I wonder, do most of these cosplayers make their own costume? Or is the work hired out to professional tailors and seamstresses (Not implying one way or the other, just curious)?

I mean, they're from China and some cities like Hong Kong are famous for the facts that they have amazing clothiers who can make a custom suit/dress in less than 24 hours! I wish we could get service and talent like that in the USA!

In the USA there's kind of a stigma when it comes to purchased versus self-made costumes (It has its own thread) but do people feel the same way in China? Or does patronizing these shops of excellent talent just make GOOD SENSE?

Greenzaku

Apr 8 2009, 05:04 AM

wow...those are awesome!
I would say that in Singapore, a lot (probably most) people tailor their own costumes - or they order it in from China. I had to get a part of mine tailored in the end admittedly because the one I made (handsewn!) originally was accidentally torn up and I had no time to do another one, but I still did >70% of the work in the end.

reubensbuer: Out of curiousity, are you from the huge group that has the dances and performances on Youtube?

Hanzo Hattori

Apr 24 2009, 05:49 AM

I am extremely impressed rubensbuer! You have a great team and fantastic tailors! I have nothing but praise for your amazing work - thank you for sharing

You do not know how much I would love to do business with you, but I am all the way on the other side of the world! - in New York, United States to be exact.
Do you make custom cosplays and sell them?

I have deeply been considering cosplay, but I think I would want to just jump into something made by someone else first, before I hand make my own. I have had my eye on several "custom cosplay" sites, but yours seems the most authentic! If there was a way, I would very much consider obtaining a full outfit or maybe bits and pieces of one!

The closet material shop near me is (as Kuni Izumi put it) is Jo-Ann fabrics... and I don't know about going into it anytime soon... it seems like an all women store

Greenzaku

 

rubensbuer: there's got to be more team members! I can see a Ranmaru, Da Qiao and Ginchiyo blurred in the backgrounds...can we see them too?

kuni_izumi: We have good tailors, but they tend charge more than a lot of tailors from China. There is a trade off...China would be cheaper, but if they make a mistake its really hard to keep up lines of communication to fix it; local might be more expensive, but you can go knock on his/her door and get it altered more easily.

Zero actually has two costumes for Kanetsugu - an expensive one from china that had quite a lot of innacuracies, and a cheaper one in singapore that was a total disaster. He's wearing the first one in the photos; it ended up getting (mostly) fixed by three different people. THAT was a hassle.

The second 'total disaster' one was unusable, it was done by the same tailor that re-did the damaged section of my Kenshin costume (there were some mistakes here too) - luckily in this case I could salvage mine by transplanting saved bits of my original, handsewn one onto it. Neither of us is seeing that tailor again.

bottom line: Making it yourself is almost always better, and cheaper.

kuni_izumi

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer everyone's questions! It's great learning about how others keep up the hobby in different countries.

Here in the USA it's very hard to find a good tailor, much less one who doesn't cost a fortune to hire (though they are worth the money!). Usually the best cosplayers are fashion/costuming students like say...Adella from California who is a famous Aeris cosplayer. She's a student of fashion and historical costuming who was able to show me a lot of historical reference sites and give me great tips--but here in the USA, you're basically on your own. XD

90% of the costumes I'm planning start with trolling the patterns section of Jo-Anne's Fabrics to try and find a pattern close to what I need with the intention of modifying it later.

I wish I could read the site XD Oh well I'll just have to enjoy the great pictures and costumes. It's great to have you sharing with us! It must be great to have a large supportive group like that to cosplay with!