Xena: Warrior Princess!

Well, here it is!

As you can see, everything turned out amazing. This being my second time wearing it there were a few signs of wear, some gold paint rubbing off on the outfit, the foam pieces on the knee guards peeling up a bit, lost a rivet on my chakram hook. So all good learning experiences on how to improve things. But it held together just fine for the party and I got tons of compliments. The blue contacts were... interesting. I think I should have gotten more natural looking ones, these were a little cartoonish. The blue parts were actually opaque and I could see the edges of it on the edges of my vision, which was not entirely pleasant. After I'd worn them for a few hours my brain would sort of tune it out so I didn't notice it anymore, but I wasn't a bit fan of that part. Looked cool though.

I kept my hair very simple, I used semi-permanent dye and dyed it black, (I had like three quarters of a bottle left from when I dyed my hair black for chain chomp) and I had bought a braided headband on ebay- the one I got is here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Women-Girls-Braided-Faux-Wig-Elastic-Rope-Pretty-Plaited-Hair-Band-Headband/162266321538?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

So all I had to do was blow dry my hair straight and put in the headband. I can't tell you how nice it was to not have to wear a wig. For once I didn't hate the way my hair looked. And I really honestly like the way my hair looks black, I might keep it this way for a while.

I'm gonna be honest here, this costume is not comfortable. It's not the corset that's the problem, a properly made corset is actually a very pleasant form of support, if a little restrictive. It's a combination of the pleather and the plastic armor pieces. That pleather doesn't breathe, not even a little. Which I suppose is to be expected. And the armor pieces are hard and inflexible and definitely get in the way of free movement. I found that despite how much skin is showing, the slightest exertion had me instantly overheating. Don't expect to be doing any dancing. I tried once for about 30 seconds, and had to spend a half hour outside in the cold to cool off.

Regardless of it's flaws, I am super proud of what I did here, and I can't wait to use everything I learned in future costumes.


Also- quick minor flashback- the photographer that took our pictures at Rose City Comic Con sent me my picture.

https://www.susanonyskophoto.com

I love having a professional photo of my costume. I need to find her and take all my costumes to her, this is what I've always wanted. I put so much work into these, you know? I really want good photos to show them off.

I'm still working on my actual Xena tutorial posts, those will be up next. Feel free to ignore them if all you wanted was my posts that show my process rather than a detailed breakdown.