Shanoa
from Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Why Shanoa?
Both my boyfriend and I are huge fans of the Castlevania series. When the two of us decided to compete as a team for the World Cosplay Summit Prelims, we decided to go with Shanoa and Albus from the DS game: Order of Ecclesia. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia takes right after the era of Richter Belmont. Since the Belmont Clan had vanished by that time, several organizations are created in order to research countermeasures against Dracula and his eventual return. Among these organizations, the most promising was the Order of Ecclesia, who created a triad of magical glyphs based on Dracula's power, named "Dominus." Shanoa is a member chosen by the order's leader, Barlowe, as the human vessel for Dominus. As the ritual begins, the Dominus glyphs (Anger, Hatred, Agony) are stolen by Shanoa's colleague Albus, and Shanoa loses her memories and emotions. She goes to retrieve them, unaware of his true intentions.
First Debuted: Katsucon 2013
How It Was Made
The base of this dress was fairly simple. I drafted out the pattern and after several different versions, I settled on the final version. This dress had to have an immense amount of structure, as it had to hold an armor plate and still be open backed. After playing and studying the environments of the game, I opted to go to a suiting with a very mild stretch so that it would have flow and give for form, but have the structure needed.
The armor was my first time working in with thermoplastics. And it was a learning experience. But I'm still very proud of how it came out, but it was a definite learning curve as worbla was still not a common cosplay material at the time. The learn by doing was my best option.
One of my favorite details is the edging of the skirting. I created the torn edging using a silk stitch. Cutting the excess material off, then burning the edges to give it a raw, yet finished, edge.
