Rule 63 Avengers Loki

[Jaina]

Hello!
Figured I should finally stop lurking and start a thread with my current project.

I've been wanting to do a Lady Loki costume for the longest time, and yet somehow wasn't really game for the comic book version of it. When Thor came out in May 2011, I played around with adding a movie-verse feel to it for a while but it wasn't until The Avengers came out and I found this fanart that stuff basically clicked in my head.

Here's the design, albeit I might change a few things around.

What struck me as important in this case was to mind the texture of fabrics as I want all of it to have a rich feel. The last thing I want to use is the same black fabric everywhere and whatnot.

Black pleather for the coat -

Basic, self-explanatory. Figured I want it matte obviously and preferably not toooo heavy as I'll be wearing a LOT of it.

Black textured pleather for the textured parts of coat (shoulder parts and whatnot) -

I know it's softer-looking than the screen-used stuff, but this one had a rather feminine edge and as this is a rule 63 costume, I figured that works.

All that green -
I'm particularly fond of this one from JoAnn's as it matches up exactly with photos from set. My friend found it and I fell in love with it.

Here is a shot for comparison of the green. If it seems off, I blame the camera the fabric was taken with. In person it's kinda

For the pants/shirt underneath -
From what I gather the shirt part itself is a lycra type fabric. While the movie Loki has what appear to be decorated leather pants, I'm likely just using the same fabric as tights and extending the tunic into a kind of skirt because once again, rule 63.

On the accessories front, I'm in love with SithCamaro's scepter and am in the process of saving up to get it. Also might make the gag and cuffs for the fun of it, and the horns later on as well. But as I'm abroad till August and am trying to get this done in time for Baltimore Comic Con (Sept 8-9) I figured the outfit itself is what ultimately needs focus.

Oh, and the wig. I'm getting the Matilda lace-front from Arda-Wigs because their wigs are the only ones big enough for my 24'' head and waist-length hair w/o me having a migraine of doom.
Wig style -

Yes, the wig is heat resistant so I can get the flippy hair that Loki has albeit a longer version of it. I'm good w/hair so this is the smallest worry of the whole project to me. Going the lace-front route because let's face it - with hair slicked back like that you need a convincing hairline.
Wig color -

And if the wig doesn't work, I'll probably just suffer for my art and dye my hair as my skintone can pull off raven black despite my natural hair being chestnut.

Boots -
Obviously gotta start with something plain, then build up on that. Here's my base, still figuring out the rest. Will probably be building spats to just put over these to get the grey designs on them. But the criss-cross black stuff on top that resembles the tunic needs more thinking.

Oh and can I say how happy I am to have these things bring me up to 6'1'' (I'm normally 5'8'')? It's practically Tom Hiddleston's height so I'm a little over that. The devil is in the details, what can I say? The sore feet will be well worth it.

That's all for now folks, hope some interest is gathered. I usually try to hunt down all my materials and whatnot before I start building so that's why I'm going into such detail here. Will have to make a sketch of the tunic/dress/skirt part of my Loki as well as discuss trims, armor, and whatnot down the road. Any advice there would be lovely too.

Oh, and figure out what to do about making my brown eyes green as I've never worn contacts before. I think that scares me most of all.

Till next time...

 

[Eldritch Arts]

Hey this sounds like a really great and well thought out plan. I'm going to be starting my own female Loki costume very soon, and I like your ideas. I want mine to be more film accurate, but after looking at some of the things you are considering I'm feeling better about making slight adjustments to make it more feminine for me :] I'm especially fretting over the boots - i want them to look like normal boots but i want the added height cause i'm only 5'5" and that's not very imposing, so i was thinking of boots with the wedge heel kind of thing to hide the fact that its a heel.. but not always a big fan of those... however the boots you have up where while obviously high heels do actually work pretty well with the costume overall. I'll keep checking back on your progress and comparing. Good luck!

 

[Jaina]

@ Eldritch Arts -

Thanks for the first reply and compliment, glad to hear I'm not off my hinges in plotting this out.

If you need any help w/finding resources and whatnot for any part of it or just want to swap ideas, my email is msmarvelgirl (at) gmail (dot) com so keep me in the loop. Or just let me know of your thread when you put it up so I can follow it too.

Here's my issue with Lady Loki costumers in general - yes, there have been some AMAZING ones out there (Riddle's at NYCC 2010 first pops into my mind) but when this costume fails it is usually for one of two reasons:
1) By gender-bending a lot of gals make Lady Loki to be a ****. This is not the case as while yes, Lady Loki is w/o a doubt eye candy in the comics there is more to this costume than flashing a pair of t!ts and throwing a pair of giant horns on your head.
2) On the opposite side, they stick too close to source material in terms of shapes/textures/etc and it looks like a girl raided a guy's wardrobe.
The trick here is to find a happy medium, to swap some things about in order to find the middle ground between Loki and feminine.

Want to change fabrics? Go for it. But keep in mind to make them rich, Loki has one of the most complex designs in the movie and, imho, would be a serious fashionista if a girl. Consider the fact that Thor has pretty much ONE costume (not counting regular Earth clothes) in Thor whereas Loki has three. It's this that had me decide it's a-ok to go gaga on the shoes. As Tony Stark put it, "Loki is a full tail diva", and I'm trying to use that to my advantage here.

Speaking of shoes... In Thor and Avengers both, all of Loki's costumes have some sort of boot covers on them and given that the slight variations there is definitely room for artistic liberty here to come up with a design that could cover the heel. Try going to Shoes - Shoebuy.com - Free Shipping & Return Shipping and look up black boots there to find a base, both in the men's and women's department as they have the biggest and most affordable collection of costume shoes that can be modified. Oh and register as a member at checkout and look at retailmenot.com for coupons too, I usually save a good 30% off at their stuff.

And finally, height really is just icing on the cake. I've seen some awesome stuff costumed before where height isn't the issue and while I would argue that some costumes (ie Darth Vader) do have it come out a tad comical when the wearer in question is not tall, I don't believe Loki falls into that category. He is a trickster and his powers are his brain meats.

 

[Blackwindpep87]

hope this comes out great when you make it .Loki was always one of my fav marvel chars. im new to the pep scene just started my mark3 iron man.

 

[Jaina]

@ Blackwindpep87 -

Thank you!!! Always a pleasure to "meet" another Loki fan and best of luck on your Mark 3 Iron Man. That is NOT an easy task to handle and I applaud you for taking it up.

If we ever are at the same con we need some photos of me trying to get at you with the scepter!

 

[Blackwindpep87]

i only like loki cause its my nickname that all my friends gave me. cuase in real mythology lokis was a trickters and im always playing tricks and jokes. buy i live in new york so not alot of cons here im going to try to go to the one in cali next year hopefully. and ive tried posting pics of my prgress but somehow its not letting me.

 

[Blackwindpep87]

progress so far

 

[Chris27989]

awesome fabrics and build so far good luck with the build

 

[electraflier]

My daughter is the biggest Loki fan I have ever met! I am glad to meet another and will tell her I found someone else! I am of course an Iron Man fan! Loki is however cool as hades! Can wait to see pictures!!!

 

[myb382]

this sounds really cool! I saw some thor/loki female costumes at Anime North here in Toronto a couple of a weeks ago, but they werent nearly as sexy as this sounds!! If you ever need some comfy contact lenses, I sell them in my shop if you havent already found a place to get them from! The ones I sell are FDA approved and last a year ~

I'm a huge Loki fan and wish I could do a costume like this.. but I'm only 5'4" and I think i'd look pretty silly :S Anyway, im totally rooting for you!!

 

[Jaina]

awesome fabrics and build so far good luck with the build

Thank you so much!!! Picking the right materials is huge part of the overall look so I'm glad you approve. Definitely will be posting more here in the future.

My daughter is the biggest Loki fan I have ever met! I am glad to meet another and will tell her I found someone else! I am of course an Iron Man fan! Loki is however cool as hades! Can wait to see pictures!!!

Awww thanks! Please do feel free to share my thread and I'm glad to hear another gal out there shares my Loki love. Should be putting up photos as I'm further on in the build, for now I'm pooling together all my sources before I go all out.

this sounds really cool! I saw some thor/loki female costumes at Anime North here in Toronto a couple of a weeks ago, but they werent nearly as sexy as this sounds!! If you ever need some comfy contact lenses, I sell them in my shop if you havent already found a place to get them from! The ones I sell are FDA approved and last a year ~

I'm a huge Loki fan and wish I could do a costume like this.. but I'm only 5'4" and I think i'd look pretty silly :S Anyway, im totally rooting for you!!

Thanks so much and I will say that this is the design I'm going for partly because I find it super sexy as well, albeit in a very different way than comic!Lady Loki. I will message you more about contacts as I don't have a prescription and given I plan to wear this costume a LOT contacts that last a year sound great. You *might* want to check your inbox soon.

As I've said to Eldritch Arts, the height is really just the icing on the cake. I normally HATE my height as I can't wear heels without towering over everyone, this is one of the rare cases where it's a pro instead of a con (which explains my excitement). If you want to do something, don't let yourself be stopped.

******************************************************

Anyways, my current adventure is hunting down the trims - both the little ones of the edges and the big golden ones. Just wanted to reply to the folks who wrote to me, and will be back when I find something that matches Loki's stuff here -

Also... yardage estimates? I'm thinking a good 15 of the smaller kind given it's pretty much everywhere plus about 4 of the bigger one. Oh and the usual yard or two incase of emergency. Better get hunting here!

Have also decided to use Wonderflex for the armor pieces as I need something that I can mold moreso than Sintra due to the amount of detail required. And if I need to use clay for the details as well that's a medium I'm familiar with enough. Kicker is needing both my arms free while I work so I'll also be taking molds of my forearms and right shoulder somewhere down the road. This part is to be done with plaster bandages as they're easy to work with and they're not something my landlord will kick me for using in a studio!

See you again when I have done some more research! :cool

 

[Boxman430]

Loving the concept, and I'm looking forward to your progress

 

[zlindee]

Am I the only one who thought that the golden trim around the edges was a zipper?

 

[Jaina]

Loving the concept, and I'm looking forward to your progress

Thank you! It'll be quite the journey so stay tuned!

Am I the only one who thought that the golden trim around the edges was a zipper?

That's what I've been debating as well, and actually managed to find a trim that resembles a zipper so I don't have to cut up a million zippers. FABULOUS!
Here:

From photos I've found mixed evidence between this being gold or silver on Loki's actual costume. So figured as long as it's metallic it's fair game. (Watch as I magically change my mind halfway through my build!) It's 11/16'' all-out so I guess it would work. What I like best about the zipper idea is it creates the false notion that the trench coat can be zipped up instead of being in panels, although clearly Loki is too cool to wear it that way.

Also found something that might suffice for the bigger trim:

This one is 1 1/2'' wide and based on photos that seems to be about right (I think my favorite part about those shoes right now is taking me to Hiddleston's 6'1'' height is eliminating a LOT of scaling issues!) And the "bright liquid gold" effect seems to match up very nicely. Compared to the weathering antique look the rest of the costume seems to have, this trim really pops and I want mine to have the same effect.
Granted I also will very likely use this in the sleeve design and put another black/gold trim on top of it. Still searching for the right one there as I'd like some design on it that's also true to the designs on the armor pieces.

I've also spend a good part of today figuring out the contacts issue and I think I know where I want to go with this. I've always adored how green his eyes were in the Thor preview posters and the FX Immortal Green lenses are a dead-ringer for them. Here's some comparison for you:

The other option is to go for a more of an in-movie look, so here's a screencap of Loki and some similar lenses.
I'm more a fan of the bright green myself (option 1), but input would be appreciated.

And here's me during the winter back when I had black hair and pale skin, if that helps with any visualization about the contacts issue.

Note that I'm not wearing any make-up in said picture and obviously will be wearing some when costumed up. This is just visual guidelines and whatnot.

 

[Risu]

If it helps at all, the trim around the edges isn't a zipper, it's thousands of individual little metal pieces clamped on. A zipper will work, though.

 

[Eldritch Arts]

As for your contacts - I like the first ones, the brighter green with the dark ring around the edge best. Those will look awesome. That's the one easy part for me - have green eyes naturally. As for the edges, yes to me they also look like zipper edge. Which i really really didn't like the first time i saw Avengers. As i've been poring over pictures since then the look has grown on me, but it still seems a bit weird. The edging you found will definitely give it the correct look though. I haven't even started looking for edging for mine yet lol. Oh and also thank you a million times for posting those pics of the boots, i know you were posting to show the edging, but that is a nice clear shot of the boots and i was going crazy trying to find pics of those yesterday. Spent an hour looking through boots on that website you linked Decided I want riding boots with a taller heel - which don't exist. lol So i may end up going stiletto heels like you and then partially covering them with boot wrappings somehow. Anyways thanks again, and keep up the great work!

 

[aeryn]

what fabric is that from joanns?

 

[Blackwindpep87]

wow cant wait to see the suit begin. i know your probably dying to start it. we need to make our suits epic for our nycc battle. and ill bring the hulk plushie. but good job on all the research.

 

[Jaina]

If it helps at all, the trim around the edges isn't a zipper, it's thousands of individual little metal pieces clamped on. A zipper will work, though.

That actually makes a lot of sense, will say. That being said, it's a process I *doubt* I have the patience/time for given that I can't physically the build till August (thx being abroad) and really wanting this done for September. But hey, if I ever decide to upgrade...

As for your contacts - I like the first ones, the brighter green with the dark ring around the edge best. Those will look awesome. That's the one easy part for me - have green eyes naturally. As for the edges, yes to me they also look like zipper edge. Which i really really didn't like the first time i saw Avengers. As i've been poring over pictures since then the look has grown on me, but it still seems a bit weird. The edging you found will definitely give it the correct look though. I haven't even started looking for edging for mine yet lol. Oh and also thank you a million times for posting those pics of the boots, i know you were posting to show the edging, but that is a nice clear shot of the boots and i was going crazy trying to find pics of those yesterday. Spent an hour looking through boots on that website you linked Decided I want riding boots with a taller heel - which don't exist. lol So i may end up going stiletto heels like you and then partially covering them with boot wrappings somehow. Anyways thanks again, and keep up the great work!

Thanks on the input and yeah, super jealous of your green eyes. I never lived mine being brown, so blargh!
If you want the same zipper trim I got, go HERE. Figured I'd save you a headache. You're welcome regarding the boots too, always happy to help another Loki. And if you want any of my other sources, feel free to PM me about it. Dead serious.

what fabric is that from joanns?

Tbh I don't know from the top of my head as it was found by my friend when she went to the store. Will message said friend and check for you. That being said, it resembles peach skin a LOT in terms of texture and you can get peach skin of practically the same color HERE.

wow cant wait to see the suit begin. i know your probably dying to start it. we need to make our suits epic for our nycc battle. and ill bring the hulk plushie. but good job on all the research.

Thank you so so much, I'm simply itching to get started on this smexy monster! And NYCC is going to be awesome, Hulk plushie and everything. *happy dance*

 

[Blackwindpep87]

Dun forget ironman. N yes we have a hulk. Cant wait to see ur build get started im exicted for you any word on the scepter or helmet yet

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2