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EDIT: Here is the reference collage I compiled for Carmilla, for those not familiar with the character.
[link]
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I competed in another contest lol! Truly, I did NOT mean to make two costumes in 5 weeks and enter two giant contests within 3 weeks.... but with how full my work schedule has been all year, there was only a 1 and 1/2 month break available to me where I could work on my own costumes. And all the contests I would consider entering are usually at the height of summer during my busy season, so there is no way for me to prepare anything for them.

So New York Anime Fest came at a great time and the Yume Cosplay Contest was an event with a thoughtful and generous prize from the organizers. No other US convention has been that generous to cosplayers before, and in my opinion, valued our community enough to want to put such an award forth (more often than not, costume contest winners get a certificate, that's it. Maybe sometimes donated items from dealers... I sometimes feel like certain cons don't understand HOW much work all the contestants put into their entries, and don't value Cosplay as an entity enough to put more effort/budget into their contests.) The Yume Prize however means a paid vacation to Japan, Invitation to attend Tokyo Anime Faire and $1000 shopping spree in Tokyo.

I hadn't competed at an anime con for 7 years prior to this past weekend but I was intrigued and welcomed the challenge of creating something worthy of such a contest.

My friend Klytaemnestra (Anna) and I chose Vampire Hunter D and we made our respective Carmilla and Charlotte costumes within a month and a half. Amazingly, we were chosen as the winners of the Yume contest.

I am off to another con right now (Realmscon, Corpus Christy, TX) so I don't have time to make a real construction report right now, but I answered a lot of questions for www.girlsentertainmentnetwork.com and they put up an article of our NYAF Yume experience. It has lots of info and more photos/videos from the contest.
[link]
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Also, for those interested in seeing our skit, check this link, thanks!
[link]
[link]
[link]

Lastly, thank you, Dressdragn (Anna Fisher), for the lovely (and fast) photos!!!


Other Deviations of this costume:

*********** Yaya on Facebook [link] ***********

EDIT: Here is the reference collage I compiled for Carmilla, for those not familiar with the character.
[link]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Photo by Anna Fisher, taken at New York Anime Fest 2009 during the Yume Cosplay Contest.

Costume made by me, for the skit "Carmillas Bloodlust" (based on the anime "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust) performed by Klytaemnestra and me.
You can see a video of the skit thanks to Chibiplum here:
[link]

I'll post construction notes and in progress photos soon, until then, you can read about how these costumes/this skit came to be on here:
[link]

Other Deviations of this costume:

*********** Yaya on Facebook [link] ***********

I giggle in delight everytime I see this photo, for our expressions are just... too perfect. Charlotte looks terrified and in despair (and she sat like that in a corset for a long time with me grabbing her arm at a weird angle, so - uncomfortable, too!) and Carmilla's hiss... well how would you describe it? LOL

Photo by Anna Fisher, taken at Anime USA 2009. The costumes are made by and I respectively, for NYAF's Yume Cosplay contest. Character - Carmilla and Charlotte from Vampire Hunter D : Bloodlust". We re-wore them at AUSA on Sunday and snuck off with three amazing photographers in tow to take pictures for a couple of hours. Why didn't we stick around during the con? We had a very hectic schedule all weekend. It takes three hours (down from four, ha!) to get me into Carmilla, and on a crowded Friday or Saturday it would have been tough to do private photoshoots.

Construction note on my site: http:/www.yayahan.com

Other Deviations of this costume:

*********** Yaya on Facebook [link] ***********

EDIT: Here is the reference collage I compiled for Carmilla, for those not familiar with the character.
[link]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Photo by Anna Fisher, taken at New York Anime Fest 2009 during the Yume Cosplay Contest.

Costume made by me, for the skit "Carmilla's Bloodlust" (based on the anime "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust) performed by Klytaemnestra and me.
You can see a video of the skit thanks to Chibiplum here:
[link]

I'll post construction notes and in progress photos soon, until then, you can read about how these costumes/this skit came to be on here:
[link]

Other Deviations of this costume:

*********** Yaya on Facebook [link] ***********

Photo by Anna Fisher, taken at Anime USA 2009. The costume is made by me, for NYAF's Yume Cosplay contest. Character - Carmilla from Vampire Hunter D : Bloodlust". I re-wore it at AUSA for sole photo purposes. My skit partner and I got dressed on the Sunday of the con and snuck off with three amazing photographers in tow to take pictures for a couple of hours. Why didn't we stick around during the con? I had a very hectic schedule all weekend, and so did Anna , my Charlotte. It takes three hours (down from four, ha!) to get me into Carmilla, and on a crowded Friday or Saturday it would have been tough to do private photoshoots.

I love this shot by Anna, it sums up Carmilla's character at one glance. She will do anything to get a virgin's blood and preserve her youth!

Construction note on my site: [link]

Other Deviations of this costume:

*********** Yaya on Facebook [link] ***********

This is one of my favorite photos of Carmilla, taken by

Simply by asking me to kneel down in front of a patch of reeds, Judy found an intense background for a portrait in midst a modern office building area. The lighting and colors in this shot are fantastic as well.

I really like how disturbing and not "pretty" I look in this shot. I thought that my makeup at NYAF, where this costume was debuted, was too "glamorous/pretty/sexy" and not "unappealing" enough. So for Anime USA, I went over the limit of what I personally find attractive in order to really sink into the villainous character of Carmilla.

Costume construction note on my site: [link]

Other Deviations of this costume:

Photo by Brian Boling
costume/wings/egg made by me
construction info: [link]


This shoot has been planned since Dragoncon, we were just looking for the chance to push the giant egg into the woods lol.
We took advantage of a beautiful warm day in late October and set up the egg prop in between these awesome ivy vine overgrown trees in the North GA mountains. Realizing again how immobile I am in this costume *headdesk*, and how many bugs were flying around us O_o;, we did a fairly quick photoshoot in under an hour. I put on the horns at the last minute because I felt like my head was so bare. They were just stock from my store laying around.
I am very excited about the ivy on the trees as it matched the egg's decoration wonderfully. Got my skirt dirty tromping around in the dirt but it's well worth it.

Other Deviations of this costume:

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*********** Yaya on Twitter [link]

This is also an older set (5 years old?) but I still love it!

The concept is a Cat Burglar, in full gear, rappelling down in Bond film fashion to go after a priceless object. We envisioned the safe to be in an indoor or glass enclosed garden, and I really like the texture the tree/bushes add to these images.

Again, this is shot by Kevin Stewart of Black Eye Photography and the images (on film) are cross-processed, not photoshopped.

Brian had a full rappelling gear and we put this outfit together with things we had at home and pieces from costumes I had already made.

It was harder than you'd image to hold a pose upside down hanging by a rope lol.

*********** Yaya on Facebook [link] ***********
*********** Yaya on Twitter [link]

This photo was taken by Judy [link] outside the convention center at Anime Central. I really like the lighting the dreary background, to match the dark elements of the costume.

Construction notes:
The character is Oruha from "Clover". I chose Oruha's signature black stage outfit, because that is her most memorable image to me. I made the corset, skirt, garter and arm warmers with PVC vinyl, but looking at the artwork her billowy overskirt seemed matte to me so I used matte bridal satin with a underlayer of organza for it. I made a mini hoop skirt to go under the satin skirt, and the corset has steel boning in it which help hold the wings on yay.
The wings are alright for being made in such a hurry - I cut out the "blades" in vinyl sheets and sprayed them black, and made a wire frame covered in Wonderflex. I used Barb's Suu wings as a loose size and design reference since I wanted my very very different outfit to match hers in some small ways. The wings separate and fold together and I especially made them small enough to fit inside my suitcase for the plane trip.The wing breast covers are heat formed plastic sheets cut out and glued together, and they velcro onto the corset. For the first two time I wore this costume, I had the vine tattoos all over my neck, but for ACen, there just wasn't time, so I only drew Oruha's clover on my chest.
The beautiful microphone was made by Brian of Bountyhardware.com [link] as a birthday gift. I told him he could pick between the wings or the microphone lol. I am not sure how he made the mic, but it definitely included sculpting, molding and casting and butchering some found parts. The whole thing is plastic and metal, and the base/rod swivels!

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While we're on Halloween and PVC.... another blast from the past!

These two images are from a modeling shoot in 2005! The photographer is Kevin Stewart of Black Eye Photography, my mentor and eye-opening force in artistic and out of the box thinking when it came to photography.

For this theme, I built an outfit around a skull/cross bone corset I owned - making the gloves, shorts, skirt etc. and I used the wings I had made already for Midnight Wings. We went to a remote location in GA on a cold and windy autumn day and shot this theme on film, which is Kevin's usual choice of photography. There is a depth in film photography that can rarely be matched by digital, though digital can be so sharp and clear. I love both styles!

On, one last thing I should mention. THE GREEN TINT/SATURATION IN THESE PHOTOS IS ACHIEVED BY CROSS PROCESSING, NOT IN PHOTOSHOP. This is how the film came out.
Before comments pop up about over saturation or photoshopping - please look up cross-processing and understand that this is a look the photographer was going for. Thank you thank you.