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| Photo by Arian Hormozi Photography |
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| Another done by Arian Hormozi Photography. |
To begin with I had to figure out how was it going to relate to Pippin. I have no knitting skills so making his scarf was out. Plus making a vest, skirt, and blouse Hobbit inspired felt like I was cheating and just copying Mouse's Cosplay's Bilbo costume. So I found myself in a bit of a pickle. And when in doubt do you know what I do? If you guessed re-watched Lord of the Rings you are correct. If you didn't you should keep it in mind because that is pretty much what I go straight to.
In Return of the King there is that scene where Pippin is basically demanded to sing by Denethor. I love that scene. It's striking seeing the harshness of Denethor compared to the more gentle and young soul of Pippin. Pippin -bright, happy, and mischievous Pippin- singing something so solum and sad strikes a cord. For here is Pippin who is still young and still had somewhat of a childlike confidence and who seemed to feel friendship with every one he met and still feels guilt for the loss of Boromir and then heres damn Denethor who just sent his son off to his death and is eating his dinner seemingly unbothered by it. Here is someone who is full of heart and then here is someone who is almost heartless. Here is someone who in a time of sorrow or fear would rather keep people close and here is someone who will cast others away not caring that they are hurting as well. The scene holds greatness for me in the parallels of those two characters. My only complaint is "Edge of Night" isn't longer.
Plus Billy Boyd sings like an angel. Have you heard "The Last Goodbye"? If you haven't, do so. It makes me cry. Which my friend Charlotte and I informed him and he apologized and we had to explain, "No, its a good cry."
But back on topic. I was watching that scene and loving it like always and I realized that Pippin's Knight of Gondor tunic is a bit more distinctive than his shire clothing and I could probably play around with that. This led to my journey of trying to find good reference photos of that specific outfit. Which turns out I suck at doing. Literally I could not find a good shot of the front of the tunic when I needed it. So I just kinda went off of what I could and hoped for the best. Which frustrated me later on when I did find a good reference photo and discovered I put two of the stars in the wrong place.
The dress itself consists of two parts, the main dress and a red circle skirt. The main dress being the black tunic like bodice piece and sleeves. The red skirt I had actually ripped off from my Sailor Science Bros cosplay I did last Fanime with Charlotte. Luckily enough for me I had already had yards upon yards of black cotton fabric, so the only thing I needed to get was the silver trim and the fabric for the sleeves. I chose a light grey fabric for the sleeves to be kind of reminiscent of the chain mail that he wore. I wanted it to be an inspired look and not come across too costume like and making chain mail would be tedious and costly. The white fabric paint from a previous project so that was on the plus side as well. A problem arose with my stencil plan for painting the White Tree of Gondor it did not work as well as I had hoped it would and I had to go back and hand paint over it again hoping to smooth out the edges. I went to bed the night before the con a bit wacky from lack of sleep and terribly frustrated with the dress all together.
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| Dear stencil it would have been nice if you had done the thing and not messed up. |
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| At this point I was like this is gonna be super nice or super bad. |
Waking up that morning I kinda saw the dress with new eyes. It actually looked better than my sleep deprived brain told me it did. Throwing on the wig on with it just kinda completed the look. I had even made a Merry bear wearing a little Rohan vest to go with it. Charlotte ( Evil Queen Cosplay) was kind enough to loan me her cloak. She even made my Merry Bear a cloak to match! And by loan me, I mean she's pretty much let me steal it as I still have it in my closet and I keep forgetting to give it back. I swear some day I'll return it.
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| ITS ALIIIIVE! |
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| Most people who know me know I try not to smile too big in photos or else I look like an idiot. But in that moment I could not care less. I was far too happy. |
In a true hobbit fashion we went out and had a picnic for tea time outside the convention area. Where I, in true Pippin fashion, stuffed way too much Lembas bread into my face. Have I mentioned that Charlotte is a chef? Truly the best kind of friend any hobbit could have. The goodies she packs when we go places are so flipping good. She even gave Billy Boyd some of the chocolates she's made. He enjoyed the colors and was nearly convinced they were bouncy balls.
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| Yet another by my ever lovely Arian Hormozi Photography |
On a sad note, I shall not be able to wear this complete outfit again for a while. While traveling to Sacanime in January one of my suitcases was stolen and unfortunately within it were my Merry Bear and the wig. The dress was happened to be in another suitcase, thank Yavanna. Or else typing this post would have been entirely too depressing. I hope to find replacements for it soon though!
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| Arian Hormozi Photography |
To end on a funner note, a friend of mine gifted me an Epiccosplay wig at Sacanime and I discovered that with a brown wig thrown on top it becomes, as my friends affectionately labeled it, a "pin up Aragorn" look.
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| Photo by Pio Buenaventura |
Until next time,
Ashley
