I Do What I Want, Thor!

...including wearing a Mulan/Loki mashup costume three days after the midnight opening, at a random theatre in Daly City for an early afternoon matinee. If that's not an anticlimactic cosplay opportunity, I don't know what is.

My parents' house has no good empty backgrounds for taking photos. Also there are cats just waiting to photobomb.

What did I say about the photobombing cats?

Emily's was a slightly more subtle, modern day femme-Loki outfit, plus horns. 

"[We are] the monster that parents tell their children about at night."

"All humans crave subjugation." 

"Kneel, you mewling quim!"

My mom asked us as we were leaving the house if anyone else would likely be dressed up to see the movie, to which we had to admit that no, it's just her daughters that are that ridiculous. My dad thought I was supposed to be a Chinese fairy. Needless to say, we were the only ones dressed up for the movie.

At the movie theater, with my light-up scepter! More about the making of that in another post.  You can kind of tell here that the cape is just attached to the edges of the center gold piece of the necklace. 

"I am burdened with a glorious purpose."

It was gratifying to cosplay at an "event" (if you can even call it that!) that had no other cosplayers, though -- we got lots of appreciative clapping, shouts of "Love your costumes!" and whispers of "Daaaang!" under the breath, and even one couple who asked us to take a picture with their son -- despite being an introvert, I do love being the center of attention if it's for something like this!

So sad when kind-hearted strangers' photos turn out blurry. 

I started with my Asian!Loki costume (it's not totally out there, right? both are second-class citizens in their culture, and they go all out waging war to make a point to their fathers, and they wear dark green in their respective movies...yeah, totally makes sense) right before I left TCOCC, and finally finished it in a fit of last-minute sewing and crafting this past couple of days since my sister and I decided that we wanted to see Thor: The Dark World yesterday. I sewed up the cape/necklace combo (gathered rectangle bound at the top with bias tape, pinned to the necklace), the black gauzy overskirt (gathered rectangle with an elastic waistband...that's 120" of chiffon about my waist, believe it or not) and made my own version of the Chitauri scepter (how to in an upcoming post). The long green silk charmeuse skirt is actually an $8 thrift store find from 2006 that I've saved (and never used!) until now...thereby rewarding my hoarding tendencies. A gold tie belt with Chinese knots continued my theme, but it was mostly hidden by the black overskirt, unfortunately. The crowning touch, of course, was Loki's signature horns, which I improvised with the help of a cheap Forever 21 necklace and some hot glue.

It was harder than it should have been to find a thick, round gold cord. It bothers me that it doesn't quite match the richer gold of the tassels. 

Necklace turn headdress, thanks to hot glue and some twill tape to tie it on with. 

The back is a hot mess...because I used hot glue. Get it get it get it??

While the finished costume isn't exactly Loki or very historical, it still gives some nods to each:

Teen Loki from Young Avengers gave me the idea for the horned headdress.

I didn't take too much direct inspiration from Loki's actual costume other than the dark green, black, and gold color scheme, plus the scepter and the gold bit at the top of the chest and a cape. 

The historical inspiration is a bit more obvious, I think. This Song Dynasty painting shows the overlong sleeves, flowy overskirt, dangly bits at the belt, and a cape-y thing. 

This diagram of a ruqun was another inspiration image. While there were certainly changes over the couple thousand years of Chinese history, the basic costume was remarkably similar, as can be seen on my pinboard for this project. 

For example, this Wei Dynasty statue from ~500 BC has the crossover top, overskirt, and voluminous sleeves...

...as does this lady from a mid-18th century painting.

It probably took me a total of forty hours spread over a few days earlier this year and in the last weekend to finish this costume. It was quite economical, considering the many parts (thrifted fabric for the top and a thrifted skirt, finally using the last of the leftover chiffon from my Girl on Fire dress, and more leftover black faux suede for the cape; the staff cost less than $15 to make, making the jewelry the most expensive parts at $8 each necklace), and definitely fun to wear.

Back home, after the movie, with the cape off so you can see the outfit better. 

Probably the most gratifying moment was walking back through the parking structure after the movie and catching the eye of a little boy...he just stared and stared until I smiled at him, then he gave me the hugest grin in return. I love that cosplaying can bring a little more fun and whimsy to people's day!

Goodness knows, we had enough fun, trying to wrangle two cats into taking pictures with us!

I'm so glad to have a sister who loves being goofy and dressing up too!

[Title references this random panel from a comic, which I have not read, but still find convenient for justifying this bizarre cosplay mashup, even if it's not truly Lokean in ideology.]