- Award: Mysticon 2013 Best Recreation Award
- Character: Korra (season 1)
- Series: Avatar: Legend of Korra
- Estimated build duration: Few days
This award-winning costume, built from mostly stitched existing clothing, is an exercise in excelling without being completely authentic or accurate.
The goal of this costume is to build a quality costume and be environmentally conscious. I accomplished this by reusing thrifted materials and avoiding materials that are environmentally dubious.
This costume was mostly made of reusing thrift store finds, old t-shirts. In the original show, it would have been worn in the Southern pole, where more likely, they would have worn thicker materials such as leather. Unfortunately, such thick materials such as leather are not only expensive, but also, somewhat against the wishes of the creators.
I learned that one of the creators of the Avatar series is vegan, and would probably not like the use of leather. So, as I reflected on my costume and as I was presenting my costume, I realized I could justify my costuming decisions in other things besides accuracy. The creators would have probably been happier if I reused materials and rather than go for pure accuracy!
Media/Materials used
- T-shirts for armbands and skirt
- turtleneck sleeveless shirt for the top
- white bias tape
- faux fur
- pulled exercise pants/boots
Patterns
- top armband, with decorations applique’d
Construction Notes/WIP
This whole thing was made of reusable materials, either from thrift store fines or old t-shirts. The main garments were made by thrift store skirt, exercise pants, and a sleeveless turtleneck shirt I found. All armbands were cut of of old t-shirts. The hairbeads/hair-loopies were made of plastic tubing. This was a littel tricky, since I was using it on my thin hair.
Results
Ultimately, I hope this cosplay shows an example of the creativity that you can give yourself when crafting. With the design goal of reusing materials and avoiding others, one can still make a quality costume.
Image gallery
