October 27, 2012

Having always been a Final Fantasy fan, I was quickly enamored when concept art was revealed for the "Shiva Family" in Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. Final Fantasy's latest incarnation of Shiva featured her as a wonderful mother to several "Shivans" and introduced a new husband for her: "Shivar"

The costume was the product of my frost-bound blood, sweat, and tears -- And it served as a teaching aid for future costumes. The main fabrics are a wonderful cotton mole-skin, with hand-made vinyl trim that was a pain to sue through all the layers at that size. The silver decorative work is all very thin vinyl, hand drawn designs ironed on with heat-bond. As for the jewelry, it's made of beads strung on strong fishing line, with the larger snowflakes comprised of painted styrene (the type of stuff you see on "For Sale" signs!) I've gotten some compliments on the ears, which are adhesed directly to the wig instead of being placed on my own ears. They're made of "model magic", a Crayola-brand modeling clay product.

Being able to cosplay a humanoid Final Fantasy summon is a rare treat when you're a male cosplayer. Femme fatales can look towards Shiva, Siren, and Garuda -- but if you're a guy with a slender frame, Ifrit and Odin are no easy sell. This seemed like a match made in heaven.

While the design is somewhat obscure, coming from a Nintendo DS sequel to a Playstation 2 game, people seemed to receive it quite well even if they didn't know what it was.

I am beginning to compile all of my cosplay work under one website, Pharaohmone.com. For video (and some extra images) of the costume, here's a direct link.

Cosplayer: Pharaohmone

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