Rachel: A vintage style princess coat from Collectif

 I was looking back over my blog and the last batch of posts and I realised it was really cosplay heavy. Lucky for you though I have a lot of vintagey stuff to catch up on!

The first one is something I thought I'd share because not only is this coat bloomin' fantastic, it is also on sale for a bargain price in the Collectif sale!

I've had a bit of an obsession with skirted princess coats ever since I was a little girl, but they're not something that has been in fashion for many years and the true vintage ones are never in my price range or size.

However one of my favourite vintage style clothing brands Collectif have expanded their range of coats quite a lot and this year it was all about the princess coat. Fitted waists, full skirts, the only problem was trying to decide which coat to choose.

I ventured into the covent garden shop while I was passing through London a little before Christmas and I tried on a few of the coats. My favourite one was the Rachel herringbone houndstooth coat. It has a really sturdy feeling texture and a pleated padded lining that was perfect to keep my warm. The coat also had sumptuous faux fur around the collar and cuffs.

I have tried out this coat in the cold north and in the rain and it fairs well in all weather so far, although it did take a while to dry out the fur once it was wet, but it looked good as new once it did!

I think the double breasted style is really flattering and the matching belt nips in the waist even more that the cut of the coat already does. Perfect for those with a smaller waist and ample hips.

Look at the size of that skirt!

These pictures were taken in Scarbrough while I was visiting the in laws and I must admit, walking around the coast with this coat on in the wind really made me feel like a princess, all dolled up with the wind in my hair. It was lovely.

I found that the fit on this coat was fairly generous, I am normally a 14 in Collectif things and I could quite easily get away with a 12 in this coat.

Here is a picture of the cosy lining:

The smile on my face really illustrates how pleased I was with this coat!

Now here is the good news for you. The Rachel coat was originally £189, but the sizes they have left are on sale for £49!! Such a bargain (only sizes 12, 14 and 18 are left though)! I would highly recommend this coat for the winter months.

Outfit details:

Coat: Collectif

Dress: Monsoon

Hat: Accessorize

Tights: Accessorize

Boots: Doc Martens

Just what is a lace front wig?

 Okay so I have faffed about with wigs quite a bit in my time and for some reason I had yet to try a lace front wig. This was largely due to price as lace fronts have a bit of a reputation of being very expensive. But for my Catelyn Stark costume I decided to take the plunge and go lace front.

There were a few reasons for this, but the main one was because I knew an auburn wig would be so very useful for comic book cosplay.

There are a lot of red heads in comics after all...

Now, me being me, I still wanted a thriftier option and I investigated lace on ebay. Now buying on ebay can be a risk for costumes and accessories (more on this in a post in the new year) but feedback, price and the quality of the listing can be a great indication of quality.

I decided to go with this auburn curly wig by Wig Glamour. The price was £39 which is a fairly good, if not cheap, price for a lace front wig. The weave is also high quality synthetic fibre that can be styled with heat. 

I have to say I was very pleased with this wig. You can see that the colour is gorgeous and there is a very high volume of hairs in the weave. It creates a really full and thick look and makes the wig look a little more natural.

Now if like me you were unclear about what a lace front wig was hopefully this picture will help clear that up.

The wig has a piece of 'lace' at the front, now this lace is not like old fashioned lace, it is a semi stretchy holy fabric that stretches to fit comfortably around your head. The synthetic hair is then woven into the lace so that it more closely replicates the look of natural hair.

For me the biggest perk of the lace front is the added comfort around the head and the fact that the hair can be parted in any direction at the front. The predetermined part you often get in wigs are sometimes really annoying so being to use the wig in multiple ways has got to be a bonus.

So the weird thing about lace front wigs is that they come with extra lace at the front. The idea of this is that you can trim the lace to fit your hairline making it look more natural.

Of course it helps if you have a wig cap to keep your hair out of the way... unlike me.

Once you have tested the fit and got the wig sitting comfortably you need to trim the excess lace from the front. I watched a couple of youtube tutorials to get to grips with this, but it  really was very straight forward. Even if it looks really, really weird...

Okay and here is how the wig turned out, I pulled the front back so you can see the hair line a bit better. I really like the way that it blends in with my natural hairline.

Here is the back of the wig. You can really see the fullness of the curl!

I couldn't help but feel that the wig would be brilliant for an Oracle or Barbara Gordon costume.

What do you think?

Sailor Moon Cosplay: Michiru Kaioh Infinity School cosplay

This is another costume post, it seems I did a lot of cosplay in the last couple of months...

Anywho, I made this Michiru costume last summer in preparation for going to the Hyper Japan Christmas Market, but in the end I wasn't able to go :( But I couldn't let the costume go to waste!!

I went to a park near my flat and I thought it would be a lovely place to do some moody Michiru awaiting the apocalypse type shots. 

I've spoken so many times about how Michiru/Sailor Neptune is my favourite character in Sailor Moon and she is someone who helped my figure out the kind of person I wanted to be during my messy teenage years.

She is also beautiful and elegant and has a classically feminine style that often has a bit of a vintage flair. However when Usagi and co. first meet her in the show she is at school and she often wears the amazing uniform of the Infinity School.

It is a very typical shape of a Japanese school uniform, if the colours are a bit out there, and it was a lot of fun to replicate this outfit.

 I used a large mans shirt for the basis of the costume, but I cut so much off and changed so much that it wasn't very recognisable once I'd finished. I cut of a large portion of the length and the collar, changed the cuffs, added the green trim to the bottom and added the sailor collar and bow. Getting the collar on to the shirt was the most difficult part of the costume by far, but I think I just about managed to get away with it.

The mirror was the same on I used for my Sailor Neptune costume back at London Comic Con. You can find details on that here.

A rockabilly Wonder Woman skirt for Underwire festival

A while back I was asked to be a speaker at a small film festival in London. It was part of the Underwire festival, celebrating all things to do with women in the film industry. As part of the festival they had a panel discussing the issue of women in superhero films.

I was really surprised to be asked to take part, but the invite was largely due to my work writing for Den of Geek about women in comics.

I haven't written anything specific on this for a while (largely because I've not had as much budget to spend on comics as I once did) but it was still a lot of fun swatting up for the panel.

I thought it would be quite interesting if I wore something superhero inspired for the panel and I decided to take this opportunity to make a ridiculously girly Wonder Woman inspired skirt.

I also hadn't ever made a full circle skirt before so this was a really fun project to practice on. I used this McColl's pattern which is a little annoyingly stereotypical but is actually so easy to sew and in a more solid fabric minus a poodle. 

Look at how big the skirt is!!!

And here is a picture of me at the panel, feeling a bit like a celebrity... I was so nervous during this it was unreal. But it was really a lot of fun!

Skirt: Home made

Belt: ebay

Blouse: Next

Shoes: Clarks 

A Vivien of Holloway for a work party

Just a short outfit post today, largely because I don't have very many pictures...

Work functions are always a little weird, it blurs the professional boundaries and its often really hard to know where to pitch outfits, how formally to dress, is dancing expected, how far should you go with hair and make up?

As a sort of demure compromise I found a lovely dress in the Vivien of Holloway sale section. It is the 1940s peach blush dress and it is still available in the sale section in a slightly larger sizes. They do have this 1940s shape dress in quite a few designs in a big range of sizes all in the sale.

I think this dress is really beautiful. It is a fabric that is similar to crepe but a bit more sturdy and it drapes really nicely. It was also really comfortable and great to dance in, which lets face it, it always a winner.

As for styling I wore a late 50s cocktail hat (which is brilliant as it clips on your head) and had two large victory rolls on the front of my head and a roll on the back of my head. Again, this was a great combination for dancing as it meant my hair didn't get all hot on my neck (a feeling I really hate!).

Dress: Vivien of Holloway

Bangle and necklace: Vintage

Hat: Vintage

Shoes: St. Michael

What sort of thing do you wear to a work event?

Cosplay: Toon Zelda at London Comic Con October 2014

I'm not exactly sure what happened to this post. It seemed to get lost in the ether only to re-emerge 4 months after the event... Oh well.

At long last, here is my post on day 2 of MCM expo 2014 or London Comic Con as its also known.

This was the Saturday and it was insanely busy! You can really tell geek culture and cosplay are becoming more and more popular as in three short years MCM has become so much more popular than it was.

This year I wore a Toon Zelda costume from the Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. I chose this version of Zelda as it was different from my Skyward Sword costume at Hyper Japan but it was quite a bit simpler than the Twilight Princess version of her costume. It allowed me to work on some techniques without having to delve into the world of Worbla which I wasn't quite ready for at that point in time.

I also made a very, very rushed Link tunic for my husband. I tried very hard to get him to buy a blonde wig to go with it but he wasn't having it, still, steps in the right direction ;)

Here we are with an awesome Midna cosplayer:

First I thought I would share a few of my favourite cosplay costumes from the day:

 There was quite a heavy Lego presence this year, possibly something to do with the amazing Lego movie.

And as always, lots of Links, but I think that Tingle costume steal the show!

I thought that these Lutece costumes were AMAZING! The outfit, hair and make up was all so perfect!

I felt that this female Cap deserved a place in my gallery because she must have worked really hard to get those victory rolls in that wig!

Double Princess Power!

I also ate a ridiculous amount of takoyaki. It is one of my favourite things.

I was really pleased with how this costume turned out. I made the whole thing from scratch including the 'armour' which was a first for me.

The dress was made using a vintage Butterick pattern, but I gathered and lengthened a very full skirt instead of pleating it. I then added a cape to the top part and created the flap part for the skirt (I have no idea what it is called).

I made all of the head, belt and armour pieces using craft foam and I hot glue-gunned it together, then painted it all gold - or pink.

For the skirt I hand painted all of the skirt pieces. I drew the basic design with tailors chalk and then used a fine and thick paint brush to draw the design. I did use acrylic paint which means I can't get the dress wet but it meant it was very easy to do and far cheaper than fabric paint. I suppose of you were planning on wearing a costume a lot then you should definitely use fabric paint instead.

 The make-up for costume was quite fun, I really enjoyed playing with the blue eyeshadow and false lashes. I need to learn to lighten my eyebrows to really complete this look in future though.

And of course, here is a Legend of Zelda #Selfie...

Have you though about going to comic con?

The problem with vintage reproduction tartan circle skirts...

Or should I say my problem with vintage reproduction tartan circle skirts... is that I have too many.

I am OBSESSED!

I have always loved tartan (I think its something to do with growing up close to the Scottish border, or and being and 8th Scottish) its so wintery and cosy. I also love the fact that tartan comes in a range of fabrics now, not just the heavy, dense, wool of old but in warm but movable flannel and many other light weight fabrics.

At last count I have 7 tartan skirts, although one is a pencil skirt and two are box pleats that are currently sitting in my for ebay stash, but that still leaves 4. One of these skirts is true vintage and I found it in a charity shop (yes!) and I will show you that one later in the winter. But the other three are vintage reproduction from Vivien of Holloway and cost £45 (although I must warn you they are sold out in many of the larger sizes i.e. 16+).

I am showcasing two today as I bought the third one with m christmas money and am still waiting for it to arrive so I can take pictures, but it is very similar to these two only it is blue and green (swoon!).

Here is the first one, it is mostly blue with a red and white tartan stripe. Blue and red are my favourite colours so this skirt was an instant winner for me.

The circle skirt itself is amazing, it has such a large amount of fabric that you really feel like you are getting a lot of skirt for your money (£45).

The amount of fabric also means you can do this:

The second one is a red tartan which is a more traditional and stereotypical colouring. I actually don't have any red skirts so that was the driving force in my decision to get this skirt.

Skirts: Vivien of Holloway

Jumpers: Vintage

Boots: Doc Martens

Hat: Accessorize

Scarf: Thrifted

Coat: Vintage Laura Ashley riding coat 

I have every confidence that the blue and green skirt will be brilliant too and I promise I will show you once it arrives!