Yuri on Ice Eros Corset Cosplay

So I know I've been quiet on this blog.  I've been doing a lot less sewing and steampunk related stuff.  For personal reasons I'm not able to get out to events and cons the way I used to.  I won't be attending a single steampunk event or vending at all this year.

But I have been rather obsessed with a fandom: Yuri on Ice.  If you're not familiar with the show, it's an anime about men's figure skating.  I adore it.  And naturally, falling in love with a show made me think about how I could create something to celebrate it.  Once I learned that the creators of the show would be at Animefest in Dallas, I knew I had to attend, and wanted to dress for the occasion.  So I hope y'all don't mind that this really isn't steampunk, but it is corsetry and cosplay.  And hey, this is my blog.

The show has a lot of figure skating costumes naturally, but the most distinctive is undeniably the Eros costume.  It's supposedly inspired by "bondage and lingerie."  And as I looked at it, I started thinking about how I could turn it into a corset. I could recreate the mesh pieces in corset mesh, and find a way to shift the lines to make a more feminine shape.


So I made a sketch of how I would adapt the costume.  I'm REALLY bad at drawing y'all, so you have to excuse my terrible excuse for a human form.  The basic idea was to create the corset from black spot broche and corset mesh, and somehow attach the sleeves and yoke to the top of the corset.  The rest would just be an asymmetric skirt and leggings.

I later decided that to get the shape of the panels and mesh bits right, the corset needed hip gores, which I'm kinda terrible at.  So I started with a corset pattern I knew fit me well and had the right fit in the bust, and generally the right shape.  I made up a dirty mockup in cotton sheeting and then remarked all the seam lines to create something close to what I wanted.

My first real mock-up was extremely rough.  The patterning was weird because the whole corset is asymmetrical and I was trying to have the hip gores totally different at first.  I decided after this that the gores would have to be more traditional and I wouldn't extend the mesh all the way to the bottom of the corset.

I made a second mock-up very quickly but although the patterning was better, the mock-up was kinda a disaster.  So I made some changes and then decided to bite the bullet and start work on the final corset, because I was running out of time for the con.

For the rest of the pieces of the costume I bought some 4-way stretch lycra for the sleeve, and thin lycra for the skirt.  I wanted it to have a lot of movement like a dance skirt.  For the mesh sleeve, I used some mesh I had on hand.  It was white, but in the interests of not spending money I dyed it black with iDye Poly, which worked GREAT.  The only problem was I had less than a yard on hand, so I couldn't mess up with it.

For the crystal accents, I originally thought about casting them from resin.  If I were going to do a really serious cosplay of this outfit that's probably what I'd do.  But because all the shapes are different that would involve making a bunch of different molds and...wow, that's complicated.  Plus expensive because while I have clear resin I don't have mold making materials.  So then I considered using rhinestone crystals to create the shapes.  And then realized just how many thousands of rhinestones that would take, not to mention the time involved applying them.

So finally I found a site that sells extra large rhinestone gems.  I decided that this would be the easiest way to get an approximation of the gems on the costume.  Plus they would be sparkly.  In hindsight I should have bought more of these, but they were a little pricey.   I bought two sizes of Navette shaped stones and one pair of diamond shaped ones.  I should have gotten more of the extra extra large navettes.  When it finally came to applying these to the costume, I also used some rhinestones I had lying around to fill out the space.  As well as some clear beads I'd bought that I thought might work for this project.  I knew I wasn't trying to recreate the costume exactly, but rather making a piece "inspired by" it, so I tried to give a similar impression with my stones.

As for the top, I ended up adapting a pattern I had already.  It's a knit crop top from this pattern, which worked fairly well as a base.  I changed the front seam line and extended the sleeves down into fingerless gloves, and changed the collar.  One problem I had was working with the mesh.  I thought serging all the seams would make it secure enough, but the mesh tore easily and little holes opened up alone the seams as I wore it.  I thought of having the mesh cover my torso completely, but it made the corset mesh  much more opaque.  Which meant you couldn't see my lily-white skin as clearly and the decorative lines didn't stand out at all.  So the mesh and spandex just barely covers my breasts.

I made the skirt very hastily, and I'm not all that happy with it, since it falls weird.  But I was literally doing it the day before I left for Dallas, so there was a limit to how much I could mess with it.

As for my hair, I refuse to wear wigs.  I have a big head so they're mostly uncomfortable and hot.  So I dyed my hair dark brown (it was half bleached from having it purple) and slicked it back with large amounts of industrial hair product.  I had considered going so far as to have my hair cut into more of a boy cut, but didn't have time.  And I was doing a female version/inspired by sort of costume anyway.

So that's that.  I wore a costume that is half mesh out in public, including on public transportation(!).  The picture to the right is at the end of the day, in 100 degree heat and I'm melting.

The con itself was alright, I was very happy to get to gush with other Yuri on Ice fans and see the creators talk.  But the organization was poor, and I wasn't able to get autographs despite waiting for hours on two days.  I spent most of my time in lines.

The costume isn't perfect, in my opinion, especially the way the top and corset interact.  But for a rush job, and a really challenging corset to pattern and execute, it came out pretty good.  I hope I have a chance to wear it again to another appropriate event.