Introduction

So you pick a character you think will be pretty simple...well, I did anyway. I thought: gotta pick a character who:

1. Is from an anime I like (I chose “Bleach”)
2. Is a character I like (I chose Kuchiki Byakuya)
3. Has something like my body type (freakishly tall, long limbed, thin, long haired)
4. Won’t be too hard to dress up as

I blew number 4.

I thought: shinigami, simple, straightforward–just need a kimono, sword, and hakama. No biggie, right? But then–after this choice had been made and progress began–I really started looking, and I came up with this list of stuff Byakuya wears:

1. Kimono (plus under-kimono)
2. Hakama
3. Obi (obi = traditional Japanese belt-sorta-thingie)
4. Sandals
5. Tabi (those are those white socks with the gap between big toe and the rest of the toes)
6. Gloves
7. Sword
8. Scabbard (and a way to secure it to his waist, which you don’t generally see)
9. Scarf
10. Two porcelain head-pieces (plus, I’d need some extra hair because I just didn’t have enough. I chose to dye mine black instead of using a wig, and then add some extra hair on top)

So here’s my advice: know what you’re getting into.

Don’t get me wrong, I had great fun making the costume, and it was awesome seeing it come together, but it was a lot of stuff to make. And because you can’t just go out and buy hakama, kimonos, gloves like Byakuya wears, those shimigami sandals, etc (okay, you can but then it’s a “store-bought” costume, which is cheating, and it probably wouldn’t fit me anyway) almost everything had to be made from scratch. A few things were modifyable, but it still took work to make those things correctly, too.

To help other cosplayers who might be undertaking a similar sort of costume, I decided to summarize my efforts in this little mini-site for all to see. I hope it’s useful.

I should also be very sure to mention that my cosplaying efforts were not undertaken alone. I had a friend who was also dressing up as a Bleach shinigami (Renji) and we worked on this together. I’m making this mini-site by myself, (and it doesn’t include Renji-specific items) but the costume making was a team effort.

So feel free to browse through the sections I’ve put up. They might be useful–or at least you might see all the mistakes I made and be able to avoid them yourself. I made a lot of mistakes, and then had to try to live with them or fix them.

I wore the costume first for the 41st annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival (Sakura Matsuri) which took place in San Francisco, on April 20, 2008. I consider it my trial run with the costume. I think I looked pretty good (most of the shinigami there had store-bought costumes anyway, so–in my opinion–that automatically makes mine better) but there were still things about the costume that didn’t work well or bugged me.

The biggest issue were the “porcelain” (actually cardboard and white clay) head pieces and my hair. The hair in front just wouldn’t part correctly or stay out of my eyes. It was a little windy, also, but man, it was really an irritant. The headpieces were always shifting, too. We had a tough time getting those headpieces attached to my hair and keeping them secure, and I’m not happy with them. I’ll probably be making a new, lighter and somewhat smaller, set for next time around. I’m not sure if I’ll tackle it with cardboard or plastic, but mine were just too bulky and heavy (though they were the most accurate of the three Byakuyas at the Sak Fest).

I also had trouble with my sword and sheath. I’m glad I secured my sheath to my waist, not just tucked it into my obi, because it was almost constantly falling out. It might have been better to go with no scabbard at all.

I was always worrying about my pleats in my hakama, and fussing with my scarf–which I had been smart enough to pin down in a few places, or I probably would have lost it. My friend (Renji) told me later that her philosophy was to just not worry, that once you were wearing the costume and on location, you just had to go with it and try not to let I bug you. I’ll try to keep that in mind next time.

So the Sak Fest was stressful for me. I wish I could have had a better time, but I spent way too much time worrying about my costume and making sure it all stayed on. My friend and I were a little rushed getting everything on in the morning, too, which certainly didn’t help. There were a few great moments. We got photographed a whole lot, which I liked, even though I hate seeing myself in photos. I also coaxed some other cosplayers into play-fights, which was fun, and got to interact once or twice with the crowd, which I love! I am totally a “break the 4th wall” kind of gal.

The construction process was frustrating, but also really satisfying. I have a hakama and kimono now that I can say I made myself. Plus, I love my haori, which I made totally by myself, and which really says “Byakuya” to me, especially along with the green scarf. My friend and I also had fun, I think, I hope. I know that when I get frustrated I’m not always the most pleasant person to be around, but I hope it wasn’t too hard to deal with me. It was that darn hair in my eyes all the time! Grr.

Personally, though, what I took away the most from this experience (so far, and this may sound a little strange but–) was a greater fondness for and deeper connection to Byakuya. Since I have a theatre background I know that this is true, and have felt it before, but never quite so strongly as this time. When I put on a character, it’s more than putting on their clothes. I try to step into that character and feel what it’s like to be him or her.

I had a day of being Byakuya.

I do believe that every character a person plays comes from within (and yes, I know Byakuya is fictional, but still) and so trying to find Byakuya in me and connect to him was interesting. Maybe non-actors can’t understand this, and I don’t think all cosplayers do this, but if I go in costume, I’m going as Byakuya, not a kid dressed in his clothes. I thought I would be so excited about the event that I wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face, but most of the time I had no trouble with that, because I went as Byakuya.

I thought about his past and things he’s said and done in the anime, and things he’s been through, and internalized all that, and drew on it, and I’ve got a few pretty sorrowful events in my past that were already in my heart, so I had things to relate to. Plus, it wasn’t a huge stretch from my personality to his, the main difference being that I have a goofy, impish streak in me which comes out when I’m feeling really relaxed and safe with the people I’m with (I think Byakuya may have this in him, too, but he’s not letting it come out), and I adhere less to tradition and decorum.

There is a great central strength in Byakuya, I think, a heart of powerful feeling coupled with a logical, analytical, and highly astute mind, which is incased in a cool, soothing sort of tranquility which is deliberately maintained. He’s very observant, controlled, and precise. And then swirling around all that is a veil of grief and fear of losing those he dares to love, and above all, a shroud of loneliness, because of that fear. People with big hearts experience big pain; sometimes so much so that they’ll cut themselves away from others to avoid feeling that pain again–or at least they’ll try to.

Obviously, Byakuya failed at that after his wife and parents died; he got attached to Rukia, whether he meant to or not, and I think he’s a little attached to Renji, too, but he might still be fighting that attachment. And then there are other ways he and I are alike, such as our unending quest for competence, control, and personal improvement, desire to be treated with respect (and that all people treat each other with respect), rapidity at forgiving those we care about for slights or wrongs (we deserved to be wronged, after all) but inability to forgive ourselves when we’ve wronged others, even when they have (for some mysterious reason) forgiven us (we don’t deserve to be forgiven until we’ve suffered long for it), and downright confused joy when it appears that someone actually cares about us. We don’t understand how someone could care about us, so when someone does, we treasure them (in an internal I’m-not-going-to-show-it-too-obviously-because-I-can’t express-my-too-big-feelings way) and are terrified of doing something to upset them.

So I guess that’s what I got from being Byakuya for a day.

Oh, and one more thing. Why does Byakuya never smile? Because the damn hair hanging in front of his eyes is so annoying it’s driving him up the wall–but he can’t show his annoyance because he’s trying to be perfect.

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