Evolving
Pokémon
Dress
From normal to water
I finally got pictures of my Evolving Pokémon Cosplay! Earlier this month, Stephanie and I got dressed up and took a bunch of pictures out in the woods. Major “a wild (fill in a Pokémon) appeared” vibes, if you know what I mean. Our original plan had been to get some photos at Ikkicon, but after dealing with the drama of the overbooked hotel and moving to a new location, we scrapped the idea and decided not to stress over it. We were also juggling a healthy dose of nerves as we waited for our judging slot and then the actual cosplay show. We figured our time would be better spent practicing our stage choreography and actually figuring out where/when they needed us to report for the show.
Along those lines, Ikki was a total mess this year. I don’t mean to put them on blast, but the organization, haphazard panel set up, and communication (or lack thereof) was incredibly frustrating. During the first day of the convention the only directional signage was a piece of printer paper with an arrow drawn on it. We also weren’t able to access a usable version of the schedule until day two. *And* this is all after we spent the majority of Friday trying to figure out our hotel room situation after booking a double room but receiving a single. Drama.
Anyway, back to the cosplay.
This Eevee to Vaporeon transformation dress is probably my best technical creation. I really challenged myself to finish all the parts of the cosplay that usually are given the “good enough” stamp and really work on the technical construction. Since there are lots of moving parts to this cosplay, I knew that I would have to create a sturdy build that would hold up to the rigors of the transformation. I am really proud of the results.
A few of my favorite details:
- Color changing hair: I wanted to figure out a way to go from an all brown Eevee look to a teal/aqua Vaporeon. One of my biggest challenges was finding a way to transform the wig. I wanted to end up with a blue wig, but didn’t want to give anything away while dressed as Eevee. To achieve this, I cut the front half out of a brown wig and sewed it into the lining of the hood. I then placed a couple magnets to keep in in place so it wouldn’t shift around. This worked really well and I didn’t have to worry about my hood shifting throughout the day.
- The mermaid cut: I knew I wanted the final form of this dress to be mermaid cut. What I didn’t know was how to realistically make that happen. So I did what everyone should do in this situation, cut into you fashion fabric and make it up as you go (just kidding, I do not recommend doing this). Most transformation dresses pivot at the waist and are able to conceal the bulk of the dress under a layer that folds down under the skirt (Designer Daddy dress for reference). Since my pivot point was down at my knees, I had to find a way to get the top layer of fabric to fold in on itself so that it wouldn’t end up being longer than my actual skirt. To solve this, I tacked the skirt to the lining with nearly 30 anchor points and concealed them with little bows.
- Skirt fabric: This one is small, but I really love the fabric I found for the skirt portion of the Vaporeon dress. It makes me feel like I’m controlling a wave whenever I walk.
- Finally, since both of our Pokemon use stones to evolve, Stephanie 3d printed a water and fire stone for us to use during our cosplay stage performance. We had some fun with them and you can see them at the end of the TikTok video to the right.
That’s it for now. If you have any questions about the constrction of this cosplay, feel free to reach out. We’ve also got more pictures and videos on social media (@HistoricallyLaced on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok). I’ve got some big plans in the works, so keep an eye on this page for updates.
Can you believe *this* is hiding under that brown dress?
@historicallylaced Looks like this trend has... evolved 😉 #pokemon #pokemoncosplay #ninetales #vaporeon #eevee #vulpix #ikkicon2022 ♬ It's All Coming Back to Me Now (Radio Edit 1) - Céline Dion