Espeon Build Book

Espeon full-body shot from The Cosplayer Annual Zine, Fanime 2022
📸: TheCosplayerAnnual

The design of this costume was a decade in the making; I was a part of a cosplay group that didn’t happen, but the design was there. Espeon is a psychic cat pokemon, an evolution from Eevee.

I wanted to design this costume as first, as a way to fully practice sustainable crating processes.

When you’ve done this as long as you’ve had, you possess many fabrics, with little way to reuse them. You don’t see that bright purple striped fabric very much in media, so it’s hard to envision where to reuse it!

The skirt became a history of my craftsmanship. Fabrics in the skirt come from my first costume production, first cosplays, and even fabrics for future cosplays that didn’t happen!

Quick facts:

The skirt’s bottom tier is 75 yards alone!
Each tier is 2x the length of the one above.
I also arranged each tier by color and alternated colors to distribute them all evenly. This process involved plenty of measuring, designing, planning, and sewing to get the effect right.

Another design goal was to be true to Romani culture, a core influence in what we see as a fortune-teller today in modern culture.

The usual family tree exercise in classes is an uncomfortable one for me. As a Latina, it is relatively common that records of one’s family tree are gone, due to fires and conflict in South America.

So, this design exploration was to explore a culture I may have come from. I loved seeing their long, flowy dresses and billowy shirts, all with natural metaphors. I incorporated many flowy elements into the design, along with leaf metaphors in the hem of the skirt and the jumper dress. The silver trim and jewelry is a part of showing your wealth from romani culture.

I incorporated many flowy, natural elements into the design, along with leaf metaphors in the hem of the skirt. I glass-fused the necklace to have the same colors as Espeon, with a natural feel.

To add to the mysticism, I added electronics that twinkled on my head and hem of the long skirt. I have over 240 LEDs in the garment.

I also made the Espeon babies, using measurements from my cat. I made this as a way to have a part of my kitty with me wherever I go. Each pokemon has magnetic feet for ease of attaching to me.

Supporting Submissions

My supporting materials are:

this build page
my twitch streams outlining the process, and
the Zine made dedicated to this project, which outlines the project at a glance

Twitch Crafting Livestreams

Below is a collection of livestreams relevant to the project. My craft livestreams are more of open office hours/ help desk, so the narratives are centered around educational content.

Twitch Livestreams

The Cosplayer Annual Zine: Espeon

The Cosplayer Annual Zine, for my Espeon build. Espeon costume and props made by means content written by me. Photographer and Zine designer is 📸: TheCosplayerAnnual .