Construction Details:

The hakama is made of a cotton/linen blend for appropriate weight and drape. The hardest part was pleating, but even that wasn't terribly difficult. 7 hours of painting rendered the stripes on the fabric, and I like how it seems like a faded screenprint.

The gi is made of a rough silk - period-accurate - and I was practically jumping up and down when I stumbled on it. It's red but has a massive amount of pink in it, rendering it the perfect color for Kenshin. The patterning was rendered with a narrow zigzag stitch and a button hole stitch both. It can be worn properly and open, the way Kenshin prefers to.

The tabi socks are 100% cotton dyed red with Rit. The tabi sandals are painted white sandals.

The sword is a wooden imitation sword that came with a black blade. I painted it silver and added striation markings to the wrong side to more closely resemble a sakabatou.

The scar is created with a combination of collodion and makeup and it looks more impressive in person than in pictures.

Personal Thoughts:

Kenshin is a cosplay I'd been gunning to do for about 6 years. When I turned 28, I thought, 'I'm the same age as the character. There will never be a more perfect time!' and here we are.

Styling Notes

The wig already had a good shape and color when I found it, but to get the anime-esque spikes I sat around with a bunch of Got2BGlued styling gel and spiked it by hand. The wig didn't have enough volume in the back, so I purchased an extra weft in an almost-identical color, wrapped it around the rat-tail of hair Punky XLs have, and covered the wefted ends with the ponytail holder (a black strip of fabric). The fabric was hot-glued in place.

Wig Review

Heavy wig is heavy! I need to pin it to my forehead.

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