Queen Beryl (Live Action Sailor Moon)

This commission included a purple snake skin corset and flared skirt, magenta shawl and train, gauntlets, shoulder armor, torso spider, crown, bootcovers, jewelry, and wig.

This was a very special costume because it was created in collaboration with two other companies.  Lab 604 did the spider, shoulder armor, and crown, while Steve Hightower Hair Studio did the wig.

This costume won Best in Show at Ohaycon 2010.

Front Costume View	Back Costume View
Corset Closeup	Jewelry Closeup

The corset is fully lined (in a matching purple poly) and has 28 steel bones.  The back features two part grommets, in a matte black finish.  The corset is comprised of four layers - purple snakeskin, baby flannel, cotton coutil, and lining.  Nicole, my makeup artist, was super helpful and put her glue skills to work adding rhinestones to the top of the corset.

The skirt flares out from the knee down and has an invisible side zipper and hanging straps.  It is fully lined with the same purple poly as the corset.  Each panel of the fashion fabric is also flatlined with a sturdy poly/cotton for extra durability.

The train and shawl are made out of a magenta poly organza.  The shawl features a very small 1/8" hem all the way around, while the train has a beautiful beaded trim.  Because the trim was so delicate, it had to be sewn to the train by hand.

The bootcovers are made of the same fabric as the corset and skirt.  The snakeskin had a slight stretch to it, making the bootcovers very easy to remove for cleaning.  Although the plain fabric bootcovers were lovely, we thought it would be fun to add some feathers to the toes and rhinestones to the heel.  By the end of the convention, we had dubbed the shoes, "Beryl's Boudoir Boots."

The gauntlets were made from heat formed plastic sheeting.  I cut out the details with a drill, then smoothed out all the lines with a dremel.  They are secured via a stretchy cord.

The chest plate was fabricated by Lab 604 out of fiberglass.  I then covered it in the purple snake skin, as well as some additional Swarovski rhinestones.

The ostrich feather boa was ordered through a local fabric store in a custom combination of pink and lavender.  I felt having two colors would add interest and depth to the costume.

There is a crinoline under the skirt.  It was made out of 20 yards of black tulle, as well as a few yards of ribbon.  The ribbon attaches to an elastic waist band.  This allowed the crinoline to not only have a fully adjustable length, but because it was open all the way around, the client didn't have to completely disrobe to do simple things like go to the bathroom!

Finished Crown and Wig	Finished Torso Spider (top) and Crown WIP (bottom)
Shoulder Armor WIP	Finished Shoulder Armor

The crown was custom molded by Lab 604.  Made out of a flexible foam, it was able to bend and twist without breaking.  The boomerang is a hard piece that needs to be handed a bit more carefully than the crown itself.  Both pieces are fixed to red netting (to match the wig).  Once we secured the netting/crown to the wig with red hair pins, everything blended in flawlessly.

As you can see above, the shoulder armor was also done in clay first, then molded in fiberglass.  Each of the holes on the horn were individually cut out with a dremel.

The spider was also custom sculpted.  It attaches to the chest plate via screws.  So, it is fully removable for cleaning and travel.

We were able to find a stock wig that was quite close to Beryl's hair style.  Red, curly, long - it was pretty much ready to go right out of the bag.  However, I wanted to make sure it matched the flamboyance of the rest of the costume, so I asked Paul of Steve Hightower Hair studio to tease it to high heaven!