_________Pharaoh Atemu

_________Costume Stats

Character Name: Pharaoh Atemu (Yami Yugi)
Series: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Specifics: Pharaoh Outfit
Cost: $150
Time: 5 days (practically non-stop)
Started: August 8, 2004
Completed: August 13, 2004
Worn: Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie Premiere, CN Anime 2004,

_________Reference

Images from Kokoro no Naka and Yu-Gi-Oh! - König der Spiele Homepage

_________Information

I had wanted to make a Yugi costume for over two years before I started this one. My first pj!Yugi costume from last year left a lot to be desired, so I promised myself I'd make a real Yugi costume eventually. Earlier this year I was looking at screenshots from the most recent Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes in Japan and loved the pharaoh's new look. I knew I had to cosplay it. And so, I began what I dubbed my "suicide" costume.

The fabric part was surprisingly simple. I made an extender tunic for the pale "dress" he wears and the blue and white "flap" was rather straightforward. The hard part of this costume was everything that wasn't cloth.

I debated on what to make the jewelry out of. I finally settled on vinyl. Since finding a strong gold vinyl is not only difficult, but expensive and hard to sew, I decided to use the reverse (fabric) side of some regular FabricLand vinyl. I made the jewelry out of newspaper and used the drafts as tracers to make the vinyl versions. Since I used the fabric side, I was able to put the vinyl through my sewing machine with ease, which gave the jewelry clean edges. It also allowed my to sew velcro into it, so I had a system for taking all the jewelry on and off. For the neckpiece and the arm cuffs, I used a soft rope for the detail work. For the rest of the pieces, I used stitches and my ye old sewing machine to get the look I wanted.

The headpiece and arm "blade" thingy were a little harder. After looking at a variety of reference images from the anime and manga, I concluded that the headpiece made no sense. If I made it look right from the front, I couldn't make it look right from the sides and vice-versa. Much like Yugi's (or in this case Yami's) hair, it makes very little sense in the three-dimensional world. And so I threw accuracy out the window and just went with it. It's still somewhat accurate, but it doesn't fit in his hair the same way it does in the anime.

I made the headpiece out of layers of cardboard. I used craft foam for the detail work and model magic for the millennium eye. I picked up the navy jewels downtown and used elastic to attach it to my head. The arm "blade" was made the same way using cardboard and craft foam, and is attached using a high-tech gadget known as a bobby pin and also snaps into the tunic. The rings were simple pieces of craft foam glued together.

As for the millennium puzzle, I ripped the millennium eye off my old puzzle and did some repair work. I then glued pieces of craft foam to it to give it more dimension and made a new millennium eye. I bought a piece of brown leather cording so I could wear it around my neck pharaoh style.

After I completed all the jewelry, I unloaded two bottles of metallic gold spray paint on it. Yay, fumes!

The shoes were made out of old slippers, fabric, interfacing and craft foam.

As for the wig... well, that was challenge. Way back when I made my first Yugi wig out of papier-mâché, I saw a black wig that faded to red at a local costume shop and debated using it. Since I knew nothing about styling wigs at the time, I didn't use it, but it stayed in my mind. A few months ago, I saw they still had the wig, so I bought it. When I got it, it didn't look much of anything like Yami's wig. It had spikes, but they were all concentrated around the middle of the wig, and the rest of the hair just fell flat and very very un-Yugi like. The first thing I did was take out the old spikes on the wig. Then I parted the hair into new spikes and held the parts together with twist-ties.

My friend Amanda (I love you!) came over, and using a high-hold spiking hairspray, took out each of the sections of hair and sprayed them into points. To avoid them being crooked, much of this was done with the wig on my head. After we got a basic shape, I took the wig off and we attacked it with hairspray and a hairdryer until it was the shape we needed.

I bought blond hair extensions that I sewed the front of the wig. We separated them into sections and sprayed each section into place onto the wig and made his sharp bangs. Amanda used black acrylic paint to cover the stitches of the hair extensions so that the wig looked flawless. After adding a few layers of hairspray, we called it a night. The next day, I attacked the points with white glue to make sure they'd hold. Over the next few days, I added more glue to keep it intact. And thus, a Yami wig better than I ever imaged was made. ♥ I love my wig!

The cape... well, it was version two of the came. I first version was made out of too heavy fabric so it was crushing my costume when I put it on. So I made a new one. And thus, the costume was complete! ^^

_________In Progress

_________Misc

I first wore this (minus the cape and necklace, which disappears when he's not wearing the cape o___O;) to the Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie. A bunch of my friends also came in costume and it was fun to watch the crowds at the mall part of us to come through. It was also great to see the looks on all the kid's faces. ^^

I wore the full version of this costume at CN Anime 2004, and got a better reception than I dreamed. Everyone loved the costume -- especially little kids. I've never been in so many family photos in my life. ^^;

Overall, I adore the way this costume came out. Yes, it might be inaccurate, but I still like it. It was like a dream come true. I absolutely adore the wig, and well... everything. ^^ A big thank you for Amanda for her help with the wig and the eye makeup at CN Anime. *glomps*

_________Images

Atemu Photoshoot (CN Anime 2004)




CN Anime 2004




Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie Premiere




Random