Costume Notes: Lulu pt. 3

Welcome back to my final post on Lulu! If you’ve stuck with me through all these posts, you deserve a whole big ol’ batch of cookies.

Today I’ll discuss a few final details and lots of photos! But first, a few things I forgot to write about already.

Completed: November 2015

Hours Spent: Approximately 150 hours

Debuted: Anime North Texas 2015

Awards: Best Craftsmanship (ANT)

Why This Costume: If you’ve been following these posts, it’s probably obvious that I’m a pretty hardcore FFX fan. Final Fantasy X was my introduction to the FF series, and it’s held a special place in my fangirl heart for years. I logged close to 300 hours on it as a teenager, and I’m not even going to discuss how much I played it when the HD Remaster came out a little while back.

Lulu was my favorite character from the game both in terms of design and personality. She comes off as cold, but she’s so maternal and protective of Yuna, and I loved that side of her. Plus, black magic. What can I say? I like my spell casters.

Accessories: My accessories for this costume were a mix of things I purchased and things I already had on hand.

Purchased pieces:

• Garter belt: Fantastic fit and feel! These were super comfortable under my costume all day long.
• Stockings: I went with silicone-backed leggings since I hate fashion tape, and these miraculously stayed up all day on their own! I got the garter belt for extra support, but I really didn’t need it.
• Thumb ring and miscellaneous earrings: Claire’s
• Venus Eye Bright Red contacts: PinkyParadise

Re-used pieces:

• Purple stone ring: A gift from Italy
• Ballet flats: These are my work shoes!

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Callula’s beautiful chopsticks. She made these using dowel rods, Worbla, beads, and other bits and bobs. They’re absolutely stunning! As I mentioned in my last post, my bun has a styrofoam core, and I secured the chopsticks with hotglue.

Makeup: Next to Shulkie, this is the most extreme makeup I’ve done in for cosplay. Here are a few tutorials I found helpful:

• Smoky purple shadow look
• Easy eyebrow tutorial
• Winged liner tutorial

Things to change: Overall, this is the happiest I’ve been with my final costume. That said, there’s always something I want to tweak after a full day of wear at a con. In order of importance:

• I need to make the sleeve elastic a little snugger. The left sleeve kept slipping down my arm, and I kept mucking up my fur stole trying to fix it. In addition to making the elastic tighter, I think I’ll also add a hook and eye to the armpit area of the corset for a little extra security.
• I absolutely must swap buckles and/or get a wider belt for the hoop skirt. The military buckle I used dug into my skin so much throughout the day that it made me nauseous at one point, and I didn’t even lace my corset very tight.
• Speaking of the hoopskirt, I definitely need to add some padding to the center front on the interior hoop bag. I noticed I had some bruising on my lower shins and the top of my foot.
• Again going back to the hoopskirt, I’d like to fix the placement of a few belts. I didn’t make the red belt quite long enough, so I want to cover the end with some diagonal belts.
• The bangs of this wig aren’t quite as long as I’d like them to be, so I sprang for a clip-in long black bang from Arda’s recent sale.
• The purple beads left residue on my chest. I’m not sure if I had a weird reaction to it or if the beads weren’t properly sealed. I need to play with this and see if I need to remake that necklace.

Final thoughts: Man, this costume has been such a crazy learning experience. I’ve been building skills specifically for this costume for a few years now, and it’s still kind of a shock to realize that it’s done. I nearly gave up soooooo many times. It’s been a huge confidence booster to actually say that I did it. It definitely makes me realize I can tackle even bigger projects in the future!

This definitely isn’t a comfortable costume, so I’m restricting it to hotel-based cons when I have friends available to play handler. I do have some future photo shoots in mind. I’d love to find a beach setting to mimic Besaid Island, and it’d be cool to do a shoot in a cemetery with grand headstones. Or catacombs. Of course, I’d also love to do a big group shoot with other FFX cosplayers!

Additional photos from the con and my photoshoot are on my Facebook page!

What costume build are you most proud of? Feel free to share photos/links below!