FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
Cerberus Witch
(click images to to enlarge)
Outline the story …
I was watching my husband playing Dark Souls 3 and the aesthetic striked me. It’s a big world full of (un)dead people, there’s no living soul out there, like a kind of hereafter. So I figured out that the “into another world” theme would be quite suitable for a costume inspired by this universe, the other world being the game world AND the world of death at the same time. I even managed to tie this costume to the imaginary world our medieval fantasy association is based on where there’s a place known as the Cerberus Tower where necromancers and witches do all kind of experience relating to death.
The whole costume is meant to evoke death attributes like the torn fabric recalling a worn out shroud creating a ghostly effect as it flows when I move or even the bands that can relate to mummification. I also created a ribcage harness being worn above the dress and corset and added a resin cast fox skull on the headdress to bring the skeleton aesthetic into the whole costume.
I chose to use only grey and black tones to stick to the tarnished ambience of the Dark Souls games, creating gradients by dying and bleaching the main fabric.
Outline the construction…
The dress and cape aren’t very complex pieces on their own but I had to do a lot of wear-and-tear to make them look worn out and old. To do so I started by cutting an irregular shape on the edges then I had to wear it out even further using a combination of sanding paper and simply rubbing it on pebbles with my foot. Once I was happy enough with the effect I dyed the fabric by soaking only the bottom part of the dress and cape to achieve a gradient. I then added a good amount of bleach mixed with water in a spray bottle and sprayed the fabric in some parts so it will create even further worn out effect. I used the same technique for the arm accessories except for the dye part where I just used a brush to apply the black dye on the edges after I soaked the entire pieces in water so the dye would spread more to create the gradient on smaller pieces. I distressed the tulle on the corset using a bread knife to tear the edges.
Another element that was quite challenging to create was the leather harness, I had to experiment all the way with trial and error as each “rib” part is different from one another and it needed to accomodate my body. The spine part was complicated too as I wanted to achieve a three-dimensional effect and not leaving it flat.
Well done, your harness really pulls the outfit together and distressing fabric is so much work, but your did it so beautifully.