Doctor Strange MCU costume (research and design thread) [PIC HEAVY]

[SupersonicGabi]

Hey all,
So much to the confusion and consternation of my best friend (who generally likes ANYTHING superhero), I am BEYOND AMPED for Doctor Strange in November. I blame this on it being the closest movie to my birthday and the novelty of it. This being the case, I am working on figuring out a genderbent Doctor Strange cosplay for the premiere. There's a reason why I choose to do a genderbent version, besides that I am a woman: Male characters have beastly costumes. For me, I don't like to change the costume much for a gender bend, my Star Lord was completely the same (at least, to my abilities) as the trench suit. The changes that I am going to make for this are gonna be stylistic and based on my budget, not based on my gender. I may pull a little from the current comic run.

1. I am not sure how the cape attaches. I'm sure those wings (?) are clasps of a sort, but I don't see an overlap on the tunic.
2. The costume is super asymmetrical. Look at the shoulder pads and the hem. While the collar stays in place, the left shoulder pad is not resting on his shoulder, and the hem falls all the way to Benedict's ankle on the left but only about half way up his calf on the right. The tunic ( i think that's the best word) is also pretty asymmetrical. The left side has some intricate pleating, which I think comes down from the top and under the belts. I think that there are actually 2 layers: The lowest is darker, and has a hem cut a lot like Thor's from The Dark World, falling just below the hips. The top layer, I think, flows from the top section of pleating.
3. Oh gaaawd, those belts are going to be the death of me. There's about 7 layers! and custom buckles and findings! how do I make those without a 3d printer?!
4. Maybe the Eye of Agamotto forms part of the clasp. Because of the way it hangs, I think it runs under the cape, and the weight of it pulls it down.

1. sooooo many textures on that cape. By looking at this photo (and this one), it looks like it is pretty patchy. This works out well in the sense that I can use multiple pieces of fabric to make the main body of the cape. The complication comes in that if I want it to be ACCURATE, it's going to be a pain to match the fabric colors and the patterning. I think, for my own aesthetics, I may take liberties with the patchiness and assymetricality (my spellcheck says that's not a word, but IT IS NOW.) I think I will work a few different textures into the cape, depending on what I can find. My base fabric is also going to be different. This one has a heavy look to it, with some velvet. Mine is going to have a shine, with velvet accents as I find interesting fabric. I'm also not sure how asymmetrical I want it.

1. this is the closed version of the eye. My current plan is apoxie clay on some sort of base. I may switch to sculpey for the main body. I think the price of apoxie clay may be prohibitive, as well as the work time. Sculpey is significantly cheaper, and only sets when baked. I think that may work in my advantage when it comes to the engravings and wire work.

This is only the first step towards this costume, so I'm sure I am leaving things out. I've bought a bit of fabric to play with for the cape, so I'll update as I begin to draft and work on aspects of it. I'm sure there are others working on this, so if you are, feel free to post your progress and references, and we can all work together.

 

[TheGrey]

Hiya!

I, too, am working on this costume. It's for my husband, so on one hand, I'll be able to have him try it on countless times as I'm working- but it also looks really complex.

I have started the cape and scrapped it once; I've done much more research than I expected to and discovered a few things.

1) There's another thread on this with some very valuable information that was uncovered by other members: the boots are custom-made, as is the cape. It is highly unlikely that you will uncover material replicating that portion of the costume without a great deal of tenacity and expense- but it also frees you up to stretch your creativity. I am sticking with a knit material for the cape; it is lighter in weight and drapes nicely. The "square" bits on the cape are sewn in- but I've searched high and low and can't find textured stuff in that shade of red that even begins to replicate it. Oh, I've found textured material that's close, but it's polyester and I don't have time to mess around with practice dye.

2) I did get lucky yesterday, and found linen napkins at Kohls that has a squared pattern similar to what the cape has, so I bought them all (they were on clearance.) They're a very close shade of red that matches the material I picked up, so there's that.

I'm unable to see the pictures that you've embedded, unfortunately. Here's a link to the other thread. http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=259750

There's some great information in there, added by several of the others. The cape will fall with a waterfall-esque type of drape with a rounded shape. I think the reason it's looking so odd on Benedict is because he has one side of it shoved up over his shoulder- it makes it appear as though one side were longer than the other. I was originally going to make each side about 3' long, but I realized I must make it even longer. In some of the photos where he's running, you can see how dramatically wide the thing is! It is also lined and patched; I finally settled on some fancy material that appears to be made up of little squares. I went with a copperish brown shade, as I can't locate anything that has the grey-silver-blue-brown squares in the photos.

I've set aside some time this weekend to work on it. I'll take photos and I'll let everyone know all of my mistakes! Maybe it can save someone else time and expense.

I have to warn you, I'm an ambitious novice!

 

[Moa Hunta]

I was highjacking TheGrey's forum and today created my own: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=261852&p=3996429#post3996429