Casual Cosplay: Harley Quinn meets Vivien of Holloway

Some time ago I entered a costume competition run on the Vivien of Holloway facebook page. I didn't win it, but I had a lot of fun putting together this little casual cosplay.

The challenge was to create a costume using a Vivien of Holloway dress so I decided to use my Peggy Lee dress. The red colour and the white collar really reminded me of Harley Quinn so I decided to throw together a vintage inspired Harley look.

I made this look by tacking the diamonds on to the dress. I tacked them on very badly because it was just for a one off but I would applique then neatly if I was going to do this again.

I also wore two pairs of tights, in this instance I didn't cut the tights, but I would have cut them and re sewn them if I wanted to wear this costume again.

It was also a great opportunity to break out the Worbla mask again and the blonde wig.

I also decided to have a little fun with some prop signs...

Have you ever thrown a costume together in a rush? Did it work?

A Quick Guide to Buying Costumes

A lot of real (and I use this term loosely as to not offend anyone) costumers and cosplayers will tell you that if you’re not making your costume, then you’re doing it wrong. I, however, think it is important to keep and open mind about these things. We all lead busy lives these days and while it may be easier for some people to find the time to practice ninja-like sewing skills, some of us simply may not have the time.

For example my life is a little chaotic right now! In the last month I have been finishing up my labwork for my PhD (which requires very long shifts in the lab) I have moved house twice, and am due for a third and final move next weekend, I had my birthday last weekend, I have prep work for my wedding, keeping on top of comics for Den of Geek… oh and my leaving party – which of course, is fancy dress!

I’m sure you can forgive me if I didn’t have time to work on making anything too fancy for this event, so I turned to the costumers back up plan – the bought costume.

I have had a fair amount of success with bought costumes to date:

My Sally costume from a Halloween past was a great licensed costume, it even included the wig, but some extra tights to make my arms and legs blue and some extra facepaint really made it stand out. For my birthday last year I dressed a Jessica Rabbit using a bought dress and a wig, and of course my Harley Quinn costume was bought from eBay many moons ago.

I wont tell you what my new outfit is yet, only that the party is USA icon themed and my outfit will be very appropriate for this! The costume was very kindly provided for me to wear by the folks at:

Theme Party Fancy Dress 

Who sell a wide range of licensed costumes - and with some very minor adjustments using a needle and thread I think this will be a really fun costume to wear, and with this in mind I thought I’d give a few of my top tips on maximising success when buying costumes.

Choose carefully and work with what you have

Its worth taking a bit of time to consider the theme, and chose an outfit that works with your colouring and body type. Choosing someone or something with the right colour hair is just one less thing to worry about after all. It also helps to think about skin tone, make-up style, shoes etc. anything that you already have will make the costume that bit more authentic and reduce the number of things you need to find or buy.

Think about longevity or re-sale value

This is a sort of bonus really, but still worth thinking about, if you are taking the time to buy items for a costume you really should pay attention whether an item will be usefull for another costume. The more you can wear it the better! For example my black catsuit has been worn four times as three separate costumes, Selene, Black Cat and Catwoman with more potential for a fourth soon hopefully – its more than paid for its original cost of £18. I think it is important to think about the life of clothing items, even for something as frivolous as fancy dress, and if items can be reworn or resold then it makes them even more appealing.

Look for licensed

This may or may not be obvious - but costumes come in many forms, especially those based on movies, celebrities, pop culture and superheroes. So it is worth taking the time to track down what products are licensed or official as they are more likely to be accurate representations of the costume. Once you have an idea of brands and prices you can shop around.

Be prepared to adjust the fit

One of the biggest problems with bought costumes is the age old S, M or L problem. Bought costumes are made with an even more generic fit in mind than the high street so it is usually a good idea to try and set a little time aside for sewing in order to adjust the fit.

...and finally...

Accessorise!

Last but not least - once you have your costume it is important to add, make, paint, alter any components that are missing or aren’t quite right, for example, add gloves, sew on a trim, buy face paint, shoes, tights… the list is endless and it is these items that make the most difference to the overall effect of the costume. It is important not to overlook the details.

I hope that gives you some advice on where to start if you are ever pushed for time and need to buy a costume. I'll have a post on that leaving do next weekend hopefully, until then...

Cosplay Costumes: Trailer Trash - Comic Book Flicks - Harley Quinn Cosplay

With some of my costuming events (London Super Comic Con and Trailer Trash) coming up in the next couple of months I thought I would do a post about a super villain costume I wore way back in autumn 2009!

Trailer Trash: Comic book flicks was an event I had won tickets to at the previous event and with my love of comic books in mind I knew I had to raise the costume bar!

After much thought and a few suggestions from friends I settled on The Joker's number 1 groupy Harley Quinn. Partly this was down to the fact that I liked the character but also because my friend Sadie was planning on dressing as Poison Ivy and for those that don't know it, Harley and Ivy are the BFFs of Gotham City.

Now I'm not much of a sewer, and the things I do sew are by hand (please bear this in mind when I explain making my Ms. Marvel costume in the not too distant future) so the prospect of making a full body suit was terrifying!

Luckily for me several companies make Quinn costumes to rescue even the most hopeless of us. I managed to find one on eBay (where else?) that seemed appropriate for my size, 12-14, so I took a risk and ordered it.

When it arrived I tried it on and promptly ordered a pair of super sexy spanx to hold everything in place and went on a mission to find other items like a mask and white facepaint.

My makeup took about an hour to apply and I made sure to wear my hair in bunches for authenticity but once this was done the rest of the costume was easy.

Here are a couple of snaps of me as Harley and Sadie as Ivy:

The evening was great fun! On the way there I bumped into a friend who didn't even recognise me on and the music and acts throughout the evening were great. There wear quite a few Batman Rogues at the event and I manages to get a snap with a few of us together. This was also the event where my tradition of accidentally dressing as a stripper started with the performance of an awesome Harley Quinn burlesque act by Miss Honey Moon!

I was very pleased with the overall look, and the Trailer Trash team must have been too as I even won first place in the costume competition and received free tickets to the next event and a bottle of bubbly :D

You can find other costumes I wore for Trailer Trash Sci-fi and Vanpires vs. Zombies on Fancy Dresscapades and I'll be posting on next months Speakeasy (23rd of February at Brighton Komedia) and what I wore to the Moulin Rouge event later on.

My next big costume challenge is Ms. Marvel though and I'll let you know how that goes very soon. Its the most ambitious thing I've made in some time and I'm very excited!