The uniform itself is made from a bottomweight cotton fabric, which was incredibly hard to work with because it would unravel at every cut. Having not yet bought my serger I was fighting this costume the entire way. All of the white and blue details on the skirt and top are appliqué which, with such an unstable fabric, was a hard time. The skirt itself has nearly four yards of fabric in it and pleated with 1" pleats, I re-did it twice until I was happy with it. Both the top and the skirt are secured and fitted with a zipper.
Due to the anime not having been released yet, choosing a color was a more artistic choice. The artbook seems to suggest that Fukawa's outfit color is a dark brown, while many other sources see it as fully black. However, in the game as well as in in many cosplays, her uniform is blue. I decided to go with a dark navy, a traditional color for many uniforms, and one dark enough that it could reflect the actual game color while not being entirely black.
The details on the front and sleeve of the uniform were hand painted, as they were much to small to properly appliqué onto the fabric. The wig itself actually had, at the time, wires in the braids, so I could mimic the crazy patterns of Fukawa's hair. However, the wire began to harm the fibers of the wig, so after this photoshoot I restyled the braids without the wires inside.
As for the photoshoot, we found an old abandoned hotel that ive been using for photoshoots for years now. It's currently being renovated, but when we arrived we asked and were given permission to paint any of the upstairs levels because they were just going to paint over it anyway and hadn't started renovating past level 3. It was really a treat to get to be some of the last people to see the graffiti in that old Orlando urban exploration landmark, and leave a bit of our own. I wanted to use pink paint instead of red to reflect the iconic pink blood of the game, even if it was just for a censorship issue.
Overall this costume had a lot of work put into it and i'm incredibly proud of how it turned out. I really hope to wear Fukawa again soon!
This costume is one of my absolute favorites and one I am incredibly proud of. It's my first time making a seifuku and it was an interesting challenge, especially since i've never patterened a seifuku collar before. This costume won Best Craftsmanship at Florida Anime Experience 2013!
