Hey everyone and welcome to Theorycrafting: Cosplay Edition!
This series features my ideas for how to potentially bring a specific character to life for cosplay. My hope is to give people a quick look into my design process and what materials I like to use use when considering building a character.
As always, discussion and recommendations of which characters (from any series/game, etc) you would like to see theorycrafted in future are more than welcome. ^_^
This week’s character is: Katarina (Sandstorm Katarina Skin, League of Legends)
Katarina du Couteau is the daughter of Noxus’ High General, and a skilled warrior in her own right. From a young age she showed a talent for bladework, and eventually became the preeminent assassin of the Noxian military. Now she serves as Noxus’ representative in the League of Legends, defending her city-state against their sworn enemy, Demacia.
With this costume, there’s a lot of room for personal expression while still keeping the original feel of the character. It’s important that you choose a really light gauzy fabric, as well as making sure you have plenty of shiny jewelry. Other than that, feel free to add any personal embellishment that you think would look good.
Very few people have made a Sandstorm Katarina cosplay, despite how popular Kat is as a cosplay character. Personally, I think this is a really pretty skin and I would love to see someone make a good cosplay of it.
Fabrics:
The fabric choices will have a huge impact in this costume since it is mostly fabric based. Although there are differences in fabric interpretations between the splash art and the in game model, I would personally opt to follow the splash art since I like the flow, detail, and feel that it gives. Since this is a desert themed skin, light and flowy fabrics seem to be a really good choice.
With that said, I would go for a sheer, light fabric for the base red/maroon fabric for the pants and sleeves. I think that organza or chiffon would work really well because it would give a really flowy, airy feel to the costume. I might also think about layering two different sheer fabrics to give some added dimension and detail to the costume. You could also mix two different colors to add in the extra texture.
The main bodice fabric would be the same color maroon but not sheer. A silk or low sheen satin may work really well. You could also add in a layer of sheer over the opaque fabric if you wanted, but I don’t think that would be necessary.
For the white head wrapping, I would probably use a mix of a soft cotton or silk with organza or chiffon over it. This would create a really nice texture and folding potential for the head piece, but you can also extend the chiffon/organza beyond the head piece into the tails to give it light, flowy tails without making it look awkward and tacked on.
Patterning:
For the pants, I would go for a nice, billowy look that will gather just below the knee. For patterning, you’ll want to allow for extra fabric to gather at the waist and knee to add in the extra “poof” and flowing feel. I would also probably build in some underwear into the pants for modesty’s sake.
For the bodice and sleeves, it appears to me to be a halter top that crosses in front of the neck. the sleeves also look like they are attached to or looped around the halter. You can either find an existing pattern to modify, or you could use the duct tape method to create a custom form fit pattern, as I have described in the Fiora Theorycraft.
Trims:
Basically everything in this outfit is trimmed in gold. I would advise going to your local fabric store and just browsing the different trims that are available. I would personally recommend using lighter, more delicate looking trims for this costume. Also, it is worth noting that sometimes, just folding a plain satin ribbon over an edge or seam and sewing it on can work really well, giving a simple but really pretty trim.
A lot of this is up to personal taste and choice, as there are a lot of opportunities for embellishment in this costume.
Shoes:
For the leg below the knee, there are a few options that you could go for. You could create it as a boot or you could go with a base shoe/sandal with a leg armor over it.
I would personally go with the armor/layering option. What I would do is take a base sandal and use a soft cotton to create almost a wrapped boot that would go up the leg a good way, perhaps to the middle of the calf. It would be such that you would wrap it around and up your leg almost like an ace bandage and secure it in place. The calf armor would be secured over it.
You could make the calf armor out of leather, thermoplastic, or EVA foam. I would personally move towards using thermoplastic or leather for the bulk of it and only use EVA foam for the bulky gold circlet thing around the calf. Regardless of what material I end up using, I would make sure that it was layered and had dimension to it. Additionally, I would take liberty of having it lace up the back of the calf so that you can be sure that it is snug and you can get it on and off, and I think it would fit well with the rest of the costume.
Weapons:
Katarina has four swords with teeth! I would recommend just creating them mostly out of wood, carving and sanding them to shape.
I wouldn’t about using foams or paper based materials for the swords because I would be worried about breaking the teeth, but it could still be doable with insulation foam coated with crystal sheen or bondo (Awesome 2 part insulation foam tutorial), you would have to be pretty careful with the end result and be sure to have a sturdy core, such as thick wire or wooden dowel, to help reinforce the foam.
You may also want to see about engineering in the two sword sheath/holders on her back into the bodice part, though it may end up resulting in a bit too much weight on the fabric. If it does become too much weight, you could create a solid sheathe/holder and use clear straps to have them on your back like a backpack.
Miscellaneous:
There is a lot of room for personal taste and embellishment on this costume, especially on the gold portions. You could probably include wire, beading, trims, and scavenge the jingly things off of a belly dancing skirt.
I would recommend building the girdle and other thick gold bangles out of EVA foam or thermoplastic (wonderflex and/or worbla). Worbla would do really well for detail work if you go for the thermoplastic route, but it will turn out looking thinner than EVA foam, so it’s ultimately up to you.
For the wig, I would go for a more natural red color, like a dark copper red rather than an obvious red. I think it would look more natural and blend in better with the desert theme. You can also probably get away with a pretty short wig for this cosplay since most of her hair is hidden by the head covering.
You will almost definitely want to wear a pair of nylons with this costume because of the amount of leg you could be showing as well.
That pretty much sums up how I would take a crack at creating a Sandstorm Katarina cosplay. If you have any questions or would like anything clarified, feel free to ask me, or if you have any requests for characters you would like to see, just let me know in the comments!
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