White Queen (X-Men) Costume - Emerald City Comicon 2015

[JuJuBean]

For this year's Emerald City Comicon, I will be working on an Emma Frost White Queen costume. I'm excited about this one since I find her to be such an elegant character.

I think that what I'm aiming for will be something similar to the first drawing below (both drawings are by Adi Granov). Inspiration:



Here's an overview of my plans for the costume so far...

Face: I think I can make this costume look more impressive by using prosthetic pieces and adhesive to attach a bunch of Swavorski crystal clusters to my skin. I'd really like to get the look of Emma transforming into diamond form:



Hair: Not sure if I'll use a blonde wig or just go with my natural blonde hair. I might do a wig to get a lighter blonde look (my hair is kind of dirty blonde).

Corset: This is the brocade white corset that I'll be using (I like that it looks a bit fancier than your average corset):



Cape: I'm going to sew my own and I'm thinking that I will add the fur trim and have the cape drape off the shoulders.

Bottoms: White boy-shorts - might try to sew these myself to get a nice custom fit.

Boots: I'm still trying to figure out whether I should do boot covers/thigh-high stockings with heels or if I should try to find actual thigh-high boots. It seems to be difficult/expensive to order boots that come up so high on the leg and I'm guessing they may have to be custom-made. Does anyone have recommendations? If I don't find the right boots in time, I think I could make or buy boot covers to get a look that is similar to what January Jones wears as Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class:

View attachment JanuaryJonesWhiteQueenBoots.jpg

More to come!

 

[JuJuBean]

More inspiration (face crystal prosthetics and "fur" cape trim):


YaYa Han's beautiful Emma Frost cosplay is a great reference for how Swavorski crystals can be applied to achieve the turning-to-diamond effect that I'm going for.

I also really admire YaYa's handmade fur-trimmed cape as well. She used ostrich feathers in place of fur. I've used feathers to achieve the look of fur before (for my Black Cat costume) and I did notice that feathers can actually ended up looking better than fur from far away. Feathers seem to give more length and depth than would be possible with faux fur, especially in photos.

 

[JuJuBean]

Okay, I've finally put some work into this costume and here's what I've come up with so far:


I bought the boots, gloves, and shorts and I made the cape and choker myself. I'm really happy with the costume - I just have a couple more minor things to work on. The gloves don't fit very well as is (the finger sections are too long), so I'm thinking of tailoring them to fit if I can. I also ordered ostrich feather trim that I'm going to sew onto the cape hood. I think it'll make the cape look a bit more fancy.

The cape was really where I spent most of my time on this costume because I'm just learning how to use my sewing machine properly. I bought a basic cape pattern to follow, but it ended up not being exactly what I wanted... so I searched the web until I found a really nice webpage with a video and instructions demonstrating the process: http://www.lifeannstyle.com/diy-costume-cape/
I ended up following the instructions on the site listed above pretty closely except that I finished my cape with a rolled hem all around and I added ribbon trim to cover up the seam where I sewed the hood onto the cape.

I've ordered some Swavorski crystals and adhesive so that I can do the whole diamond form face thing, but I'm probably going to have to practice that one beforehand to make sure it will work. I have a feeling applying the crystals will be very time-consuming on comic con day! IronJoe and I are entering the ECC costume contest this year for the first time ever (eep!), so we'll have to be able to get ready early for pre-judging.

More pics to come as I finish up the costume!

 

[Peek73]

Looking forward to seeing you two there. Love the suit! Can't wait to finally meet you two.

 

[dog of ulthar]

This is looking great, and I love the idea of gluing on crystals. I've only done prosthetic makeup for a costume once, and...it was an adventure. You're right, it'll probably take a while, so make sure you have enough time.

But you seem to have the attitude DOWN, and that's half the battle with Emma Frost.

 

[mmadadamm]

This looks fantastic! Where did you end up getting the boots from?

 

[JuJuBean]

Hey everyone! ECCC is over and it was a blast! Here are a few more pics:


Getting ready - used spirit gum and eyelash adhesive to glue over 100 crystals of various sizes and types to my face! It took about 3 hours and was totally worth it - but I think I would glue even more on next time! Turns out that the eyelash adhesive was better than the spirit gum at holding up the whole day/night and a few fell off/were rubbed off by the cape on my neck by the end of the con.

Photos by nwpark.deviantart.com
Me and IronJoe and our buddy Ryan as Omega Red. He did such an awesome job!



I really loved this costume! It was sexy and elegant and I just loved the diamond face pieces. The boots that I ended up using are the Seduce-3000 High Boot by Pleaser. They looked amazing. They felt horrible. I bought a size up and used gel insoles, but I think it's something about the angle and the arch support that makes this style of boot just evil to walk in for hours. I wouldn't recommend them for a convention, but they'd be great for a party or something where you can alternate between standing/walking/sitting.

 

[JuJuBean]

More info on the White Queen costume:

The eyelash adhesive that I used was Duo Lash Adhesive. It's cheap and it works really well! By the end of the day, a bunch of the crystals from my neck and chest had fallen off and it seemed like the ones that fell off were the ones that I attached with spirit gum. This surprised me because I thought it would hold better than the lash adhesive since it's used for prosthetics. Maybe it's just the nature of bonding the glues to metal pieces vs. plastics or latex? If you're planning on doing something similar, I'd do a trial run. I decided to just "wing it" the day of!

The clasp that I used for my cape is this one:

I was really happy with the look of it and it held up and was able to support the weight of the cape (which actually ended up being pretty heavy being satin with a hood and feather embellishments and all).

The blue contact lenses that I used were the "Ice Blue" ones from MapleLens.



I have green eyes and I thought these contacts worked well at just giving me a touch of blue and making my eyes appear a bit bigger.