Widow’s Kiss

“Hm, par excellence.“

Widowmaker tattoo kit now up on my Storenvy

Cosplayer: Lady Nikoru Photographer: Paul Hillier Photography Costume: Henchmen Studios Tattoo: @alexsaurusink

Ooh boy! 2B is a fun one.

Fun fact: I work for Henchmen Studios, and we recently did 2B for Square-Enix’s booth at PAX East. My part was mostly in casting the katana, but I did a teeny bit of consultation for the appliqué and skirt because I have experience with laser cutting and horsehair. 

Extra fun fact: You can infer that anything I’m telling you here is an approach approved by Square-Enix.

Anyway, here’s our girl here:

Look at that skirt! Gil (@gillykins) and Kiga (@blackwatercosplay) nailed it, in my opinion. (Also, @paulhillier for that photo.)

Here are some general thoughts and feelings about 2B’s design:

In my opinion, there is no better fabric option than velvet/velveteen. Aside from taking the fabric nap into account it’s fairly forgiving for beginners and it is beautiful. It has a lushness to it and a level of luxury that suits her O-esque blindfold-and-boots, leather-and-lace aesthetic. Velvet also sucks light in and gives nothing back; nothing looks as black as velvet, and nothing captures a nice velvet’s ability to have dimension while remaining fairly matte. The game textures support it being velvet, too; satin just ends up looking the mildest bit cheap and overly shiny, even when care is taken to find a more matte satin.

The skirt owes its flare to two main elements: its gore-style pattern and horsehair braid. The gored skirt adds trumpet-like shaping seams up the hips to the high waistline but flares out at the bottom in a way that a regular circle skirt simply wouldn’t provide. The horsehair braid –– ideally as wide as 6″, but at minimum 2″ –– sewn in around the bottom of both the skirt and the lining forces the skirt hem to stand out. You’ll want to make sure you pull in the drawstring on the horsehair, too, in order to get it to curve nicely, but the result is a skirt that sits out beautifully on its own. (The weight of the fabric comes into play here, too; anything too light/loose will collapse at the top, but a fabric with enough weight will have the integrity to hold up.)

Here’s one of my shots of the skirt from PAX East the other week; see how the fabric has that dimension to it but resists being blindingly shiny? See how the skirt sits out in big body ripples instead of pooling? Velveteen and horsehair braid, my friend.

And applique –– even if you didn’t ask, a couple other anons did! Today I put together Henchmen’s digital pattern for Nier’s skirt and bodice appliqué. Shameless plug, ahoy, but it includes a skirt pattern! For methods, we did ours with peau-de-soie appliqué. If you want to do the same, iron a double-sided fusible adhesive to the reverse side of your fabric, trace out your appliqué pattern and then cut out (or laser-cut) all of the filigree. Apply to the surface of the skirt, and then topstitch for security and aesthetic. Time consuming but a) not as time consuming as painting or satin stitching and b) extremely clean results. I’m basically never going to do super delicate appliqué any other way from now on.

(I don’t have any good pictures of it but the inside of the skirt is done the same way, but black on white liner.)

Both layers of the skirt (self and liner) are finished by being bound together at the hem. Be careful, though; really thick bindings plus two layers of horsehair can be TOO stiff, so keep your bindings as light as possible.

DoomFist @ the Overwatch World Cup

For the past 6 weeks, the Henchmen Studio team has been putting together not just one - but two - Doom Fist costumes for Blizzard. Look out for them at San Diego ComicCon and the Overwatch World Cup in Sydney Australia!

Cosplayer: Rocklyrock Costume: Henchmen Studios

Widowmaker

“...At the moment of the kill, they are never more alive.”

Widowmaker Tattoo Kit’s available on my Storenvy

Cosplayer: Lady Nikoru Photographer: Paul Hillier Costume: Henchmen Studios

DoomFist @ the Overwatch World Cup

For 6 weeks, the Henchmen Studio team has been putting together not just one - but two - Doom Fist costumes for Blizzard. Look out for them at San Diego ComicCon in California, and the Overwatch World Cup in Sydney Australia!

Cosplayer: Rocklyrock Costume: Henchmen Studios

Widowmaker

“Oh. Did that sting?“

I had such a great time working this project. Building and painting Widow’s Kiss was a treat, and assisting on photoshoots is one of my favourite ways to pass a weekend - ngl.

Cosplayer: Lady Nikoru Photographer: Paul Hillier Photography Costume: Henchmen Studios Tattoo: @alexsaurusink