Best Advanced Craftsmanship (AUSA 2003)

Seed, the red-crossed general who gave his life for his country, always struck a cord deep within me, because of his loyalty, his courage, and the amount of Japanese fanfiction dedicated to him and his partner Culgan. Flamboyant in his attire and fiery of personality, he was to be my first video game cosplay.

The coat was relatively easy to make, but extremely time consuming, mostly due to the hand-sewing of over 30 yards of red ribbon in parrallel lines to approximate his red crosses. I would like to mention I had to do it twice because I ran out of my original red (a lovelylovely blood red) and had to rip it all off, and sew it back on in another shade.

The part of this costume that always inspired my flights of fancy where those sexy thigh-high plate mail boots he wore. Maybe sexy... but very unpractical, as I soon learned, being unable to walk up or down stairs without help and sounding like a hardware store in an earthquake. The second version of the greaves were made of light plastic, and while putting them on required a "squire" (thanks Kelly!) and lots of flexibility, they were a lot more comfortable.

I also decided to go all out with the accessories for the revamped version. I molded gauntlets, and make a new sword and scabbard, going as far as to replicate the particular weave on the hilt, and made a replica of the Highland banner seen in the Suikoden II artbook and the Suikoden II intro. The Rune Beast alone was 30 pieces of vinyl, hand sewn in place. The banner took 14 hours to complete, not counting making the bannerstaff to match the one in the artbook, braiding the word, and creating the tassels. All in all this costume was one of my most detailed.

Also in photos, Paul as Rowd and Nia as the lovely Jilia.