He Is My Master: Sawatari Mitsuki 02

Izumi's younger sister who was also hired by Yoshitaka to become one of his maids, Mitsuki is an industrious young girl who, with the help of Yoshitaka's media archive, makes her older sister a "Net Idol". Izumi's popularity and Mitsuki's hard work, eventually allows Izumi to pay off her debt. Mitsuki also gains popularity and has her own fan club from her school and other schools as well.

Cute cosplay! I really love her expression in this photo. It's a bit similar to Orihime's isn't it? Thanks to Lila2021 for sending this in!

Technorati tags: cosplay, cosplayer, holic, role, play, roleplay, costume, anime, manga, he, is, my, master, sawatari, mitsuki, izumi, young, sister, hire, yoshitaka, nakabayashi, maid, industrious, girl, media, archive, old, net, idol, popularity, hard, work, pay, debt, gain, fan, club, school, other, cute, expression, lila2021, コスプレ, コスプレイ, これが私の御主人様, 中林, 義貴, 沢渡, いずみ, みつき

Paul Smith modifications - a review

As the proud owner of one of Steve Ricks’ famous Tennant Coats, it was only a matter of time and money before I commissioned him again. This time though, it was the Matt Smith look I was working on.

A bit of background: when those pictures were published of that Southerndown beach shoot in July last year, a lot was made of the tweed and bow tie. However, for me, the two most striking elements of the costume were the boots (oh those elusive All Saints...) and the shirt; such a strange but stylish pattern, when combined with the bow tie and tweed gives a strangely modern but retro look at the same time. In fact, when I first snapped eyes on the shirt I thought ‘old-man’s shirt’ - kind of knackered, charity shop style. It wasn't until you venture up close and see that design that you realise there is more than meets the eye.

My good friends on Gallifrey Base went into costume over drive and we soon worked out the various brands: All Saints boots, Topman trousers, Harris Tweed jacket and... a Paul Smith shirt. Yes PS by Paul Smith to be precise, but I was surprised.

I checked out the John Anthony website and they were selling the burgundy shirt, but only had S, M and XXL. Now if I knew what I know now about the sizing, I would've snapped up the XXL there and then, however I decided that at £55, I wanted a good fit. So I noticed an alternate colour, navy blue and grabbed an XL and was disappointed to find it was very very snug. Now I don’t consider myself a particularly large chap, but I was making this thing bulge out in a not too attractive manner! So, in the wardrobe it went for a while.

When subsequent filming shots of Matt Smith were released from Croatia (I think), he was sporting that navy shirt (he had been in burgundy up until then). I was immediately fired up to get this shirt of mine wearable. Enter Steven Ricks.

So impressed was I by his customer service and top quality work, I asked him whether he could mod my blue shirt in the MS style - the factory shirts come with little blue sleeve straps to tie the rolled sleeves back. These are removed and stitched onto the edge of the cuff to create a distinctive finish. Also, the buttons are covered by fabric on the PS shirt but not on the Doctor’s.

Steve told me to send the shirt to him so he could examine the pattern so he could prepare a reproduction and while it was in his possession, he would perform the mods. Not only that, but he said that he could also provide me with more breathing space by letting it out at the back.

When the shirt returned to me a few weeks later, it was as you will see it on screen. Finished beautifully, the cuffs are brilliant now and the buttons are visible (on a button stand I believe - am not particularly well versed in tailoring parlance). But this is the clincher - it fits like an XL now. God knows what kind of sizing Paul Smith were using for the factory shirts - I nearly went for a Large, which is what I am in a Marks & Spencer type shirt. All this for a very reasonable price.

Steve Ricks: The man is versatile, thoughtful, very amiable and communicative and above all, his final product is so worth investing in. I can now wear this shirt day to day and not worry about breathing in the whole time. Money well spent.

All I need to do now is find those damn boots...

11 shirt - Paul Smith modifications pt4

I’ve now finished the three main modifications I needed to do no my Paul Smith PS shirt to make it into a Matt Smith shirt: Breast Pocket, Cuffs and Buttonstand.

There is, however, one more modification I am going to make, which may not be strictly screen-accurate – but it’s for my own personal comfort!

The Paul Smith PS shirt is very tailored, in that it is very fitted and quite tight around the middle, being intended for a considerably slimmer frame than most normal body sizes.
The shirt I bought was an XXL, which for me is ludicrous, as I normally wear a simple L. As a result, the sleeves are bordering on being too long and the collar is slightly too big for my neck, BUT the body of the shirt is tight around me.

Having studied the shirt carefully, I realize there is an easy way that I can make it fit better. The back of the shirt has a dart on either side, taking in around and inch each side (see above).

Notice how the shirt is quite taught around my tailor’s dummy.

Because the shirt isn’t lined, these darts are simply sewn and the fabric is not cut in any way, so I can carefully unpick them and press them flat.
There will be a little scarring where the stitching was, but this will be in the back and will hopefully get lost in the pattern of the fabric anyway.

Furthermore, the centre of the back has a double-pleat, as do most dress shirts. However, a conventional shirt has just the tops of these pleats sewn at the yolk-line, allowing the folds to drop out within a few inches. The Paul Smith PS shirt does this a little differently, with a line of stitching running the full length down the back to keep the pleat sharp to the hem. My plan is to unpick this as well and re-sew the hem opened out, giving a further inch and a half across the back.

This will give me a grand total of an extra 3.5 inches across the width of the back!

The fabric is very thin and delicate, so the un-picking has to be done with care. All goes well and after doing all I intended I find the back has become a lot more loose as required.

All I then need to do is re-hem the bottom where I have released the centre back pleat (see left).

So finally I have done all the modification I wanted to do and have a shirt ready to wear  – with comfort!

You can see in the picture (see right) how loose the back now is compared to the BEFORE picture at the top of this posting (shown again, below).

So at last I now have my fully modified shirt ready to wear!

below is the burgundy version for myself.

And here is the blue version for my friend.
Look out for his Review of his shirt in a future posting.

Laugh of the Day

Does Mac look like a siomai or something?

That old man is going to devour him.

Naruto 484: Their Team 7

What a sad reunion.

Bleach 393: The Burnout Inferno

Gee...Yama-jii is getting serious with Aizen.

What's with Wonderweiss?

Blog Review: The 'Otaku' Elimination Game

This weeks installment of Blog Highlight belongs to The 'Otaku' Elimination Game.


I came across this site when I finally had time to take a look at my referrals from Site Meter. They seemed to have started this on 10/30 last year by their first posting. As the name suggests, they are out to eliminate anyone who uses the "Otaku" and is not an "True Otaku" per their insights.

Before I go any further, I have to say that my site was eliminated by them in Round 6.

They can be harsh as well as kind in reviewing other sites that are "Otaku". I was amazed by the number of comments on each blog. If you want to start a heated discussion, then this was a great way to do that. I have to say that they do know how to ruffle feathers. They have a keen hatred of Danny Choo and anything that has to do with him as well. I can understand that as I have a love/hate relationship with some of his stuff as well. I have to say, I do not need to see his work desk every week - dude get over yourself.

They seem to also have a dislike for "American Otaku Culture" as it does not seem to meet their standards as well. They feel that "we" (US) took the name and "bastardized " it for our own meanings. Not sure how they decided to become the judge, jury and executioner of what is Otaku, but they do relish the hunt. Even if you are approved, they are still watching to see if you screw it up.

I read their About page, but no where is there a definition of what an Otaku is or how they are judging. If you have a game, there needs to be rules so everyone understands what is expected. As defined by Dictionary.com, an Otaku is "an avid collector or enthusiast, esp. one who is obsessed anime, video games, or computer and rarely leaves home." Literally the work also means 'house' in Japanese.

UPDATE: OEG definition: The Word 'Otaku' ~ thanks ninjovee

Why was I eliminated?

From what I can tell - "I am boring" to them. I guess I will have to spice it up a bit O_o. They seemed to have taken the title literally and thought it was going to be primarily about Anime. I created the title as a jumping point to ask the question. After that, I went into stuff primarily about Japanese Culture, Anime. Manga, Figure or anything that peeked my (or maybe your) interest. I also seemed to have 'affiliated' myself with others they disliked, so I am assuming that was another nail in my coffin. They did offer some kind comments and I will take it under advisement.

I am not going to defend or ask for a recount as this is my personal blog about what I like (and that you may like as well). If I am a "True Otaku" or an cheap imitation, that is up to me to decide and not someone else.

UPDATE 2: Something I forgot to mention originally - I have never used the name "Otaku" in my profile nor in my recently created Who Me? page. :P ~~~~~~

Drop by and take a look to see if you were Approved or Eliminated! It does make for a good read.

11 shirt - Paul Smith modifications pt3

Today I tackled the buttonstand on the Paul Smith PS shirt, and found sometimes things are easy, and sometimes they are not!

The shirt Matt Smith wears, although it is a Paul Smith PS shirt, has visible buttons when it is worn (see right).
Studying the pictures, the buttonstand needs to be a full three columns of squiggles wide, lined up accurately on either edge (see right, inset). So I need to bear this in mind when I am reworking the fabric available.

The original shirt has a concealed buttonstand, making a very clean line (see left).

Sometimes these concealed stands are tacked halfway between the holes to help keep it in place, but thankfully this shirt does not have that, which should make things a little easier.

This is very simply created with a single line of stitch which basically forks the shirt front into two equal width fold: the lower has the buttonholes; the upper hides them from view.

The best way to show how the fabric is folded and sewn is in this diagram (see left).

I have a couple of shirts to do modifications on, one for myself and a couple for friends. Mine is a XXL shirt, and both of my friends’ ones are XL in size.

Before starting work I need to take a little time to look the shirts over and asses what to do and the current structure of the shirt.
To my surprise I noticed something curious, and a little annoying!

My XXL shirt has the buttonstand’s edge lining up with the edge of the column (just the way is needs to be) (see right), but both the XL sizes has it breaking a column in half (see far right).
This makes my work a little harder, since it means I cannot use the existing buttonholes for the XL size, and my approach for each will be very different.

Either-way, I need to unpick the existing placket to see what I have to work with. There is a single line of stitch which makes this, and I need to release the top and bottom so I can press it out flat (see left).

Now what I do depends on how the shirt was originally made.

Buttonstand for XL
Both the XL shirts I have have the pattern falling in exactly the same place, with the edge of the existing buttonstand cutting a column of squiggles in half. This renders the existing buttonholes useless to me.

I therefore have to cut them clean off, which I do as close to the holes as I can (see right).

I then press everything out flat and see where the column of squiggles line up with the front of the collar stand, as this will determine where I start from. I can then press the left edge of the new buttonstand and the width of it to three columns wide.

All I then need to do is pleat what is left to create an edge between the new buttonstand and the shirt front.

It was difficult to show this in photos, but I have done another diagram to show what I mean (see above). This is what I am aiming to achieve for both sizes of shirts.

I then had to re-sew the buttonholes through the new stand I had created (see right). I kept the discarded strip of original buttonholes and use this as a position guide.

For my own reference my settings on my buttonholer were:
 Length=halfway Bight=H Space=A.

The finished result came out pretty well (see left).


I am very pleased that the front edge of the buttonstand lines up perfectly with the collar stand.

The second XL shirt I had to do modifications to was the alternative blue version, which Matt Smith has been seen wearing in some of the later episodes, as well as the new series teaser trailer.

Buttonstand for XXL

The XXL shirt has the existing buttons in the right position, so this one is a little easier to do.

Again I unpick the existing buttonstand and open it out to reveal as much fabric as possible, which I then press out flat.

I then fold and press the edges of the new buttonstand to three columns of pattern, with the existing buttonholes in the centre.

It is then a relatively simple process to re-pleate the rest of the edge to create position the new buttonstand in the correct place, following the above diagram as closely as I can. This is stitched through all layers to the front (see right).

It does, however, finish with the edge just short of the collar stand (see left), but this isn’t visible when the shirt is buttoned up.

Sssankyu!

by Stein Vivero
www.banazure.deviantart.com

I can sense that the cosplay community in Bacolod is aggressively progressing. This would not be possible without those people who strives hard to support the city's cosplay movement.

2009, our group was formed. It was a sluggish process looking for people to be part of the group. Elle and I was initially planning to be part of a cosplay group or just be a cosplay duo for the coming Electric Maskarra 2009. Fate played its part, with the help of Plurk and Facebook, we searched for people and groups who can help us. A number of people declined and a few people showed their interest.

Mac, Mao, Von, Razel and Romel.. the first few who affirmed and committed, Hitsuzen Inc was born. Forming the group was not that easy, it was a total chaos. Believe me, it was. And hurray! everything was resolved.

2010, started with a BANG! Series of shoots done and more to come. It was amazing being a part of the first cosplay convention in Bacolod. It is amazing how people love cosplay. It is amazing to see the growth of cosplay community in the city. I am still hoping to meet more people with same addiction and work with them as well, may it be in conventions or in a simple photoshoot.

Bacolod, thanks for embracing cosplay. Ganbatte minna-san!

Still Doll

D.N.Angel: Hiwatari Satoshi

The police commander in charge of capturing Dark, Satoshi graduated from high school at the age of 8, and college at the age of 13. He enrolled in Daisuke’s middle school as he knew Diasuke was Dark’s alter ego. Although most people find him cold and distant, Daisuke insisted that they become friends.

This is Hagaren, the same cosplayer as X/1999’s Monou Fuma. When I first saw this on Deviant Art, I immediately fell in love with the photo, so I had to feature it here!

Important Announcement!

Please take note that Nanao's Cosplay Research may be closing down soon! New cosplays will be added on Cosplay Holic from now on. Thanks for everyone's support! Watch out for more cosplays here on Cosplay Holic!

Technorati Tags: nanao, cosplay, holic, research, anime, manga, game, cosplayer, costume, role, play, d.n.angel, hiwatari, satoshi, police, commander, dark, mousy, graduate, high, school, college, age, 8, 13, enroll, middle, daisuke, alter, ego, people, cold, distant, friend, hagaren, x/1999, manou, fuma, deviant, art, love, photo, feature, announcement, important

Photo Shoot: Evangelion EX Sweet Witches Figure feat. Okama A: Rei Ayanami

I promised I would get out and do a photo shoot of her, so here you are. I used a snow mount as her pedestal while I was shooting. The only bad part was the strip mall in the background. I tried to get it out of some of the shots. I also froze my leg trying to get some of the shots - oh well, the sacrifices are well worth it. I did have some issues with shadows with a high sun O_o doh!

Here are the normal panoramic shots of her in full view. I hope that these will give you a good 3D view of her. I did seem to jump a step, but you get the idea.




Now we have the more detailed shots and closeups. I was a bit pissed about which way the black cat was facing as it was opposite of her - WHY!!!!! The stand is okay as it gives the illusion of wind (I am guessing). I also found an orange mark on the base on one of the swirls. I have no fucking idea how that happened as it has been in the box since purchase. I do like the white gothic witch outfit as it works better than if she was in all black. I am sure they did this to keep her in character. I am sure this is also why she has the green scarf and purple broom bristles.

Pantsu Shot ?!?

I Can Fly!

Vocaloid: Meiko

One of the first Vocaloids created by Crypton Future Media, Meiko’s voice is based on a Japanese female singer, Haigou Meiko, whose singing is suitable for any musical genre. The anime character added on the box of the DTM (Desktop Music) software had nothing to do with the singer’s image, but her appearance had an appeal to the mainstream audience, selling the software quite well.

Beautiful cosplay! I love how she did her make-up and nails in Meiko’s signature red color. I wonder if this cosplay is from one of her music videos? Thanks to Lilica for sending this!

Technorati Tags: nanao, cosplay, holic, research, anime, manga, game, cosplayer, costume, role, play, vocaloid, meiko, first, crypton, future, media, japanese, female, voice, singer, haigou, music, genre, character, box, dtm, desktop, image, appearance, appeal, mainstream, audience, sell, software, make-up, red, cards, dress, video, lilica

My one year in Konohagakure.

by Von Fritz Evangelista

Today I celebrate my first year in Konohagakure. It's been a year since I bought the pirated Naruto DVD Collection at 888 and entered the world of Naruto. Wow, it's been just a year but it seems I grew up with Naruto and his friends all along.

I didn't have any idea about Naruto until late 2008. Though, I love ninjas ever since. Oh well, when I was introduced to Naruto, my world was turned upside down. Change of lifestyle. My room became full of Naruto collectibles, I began studying Nipponggo, I was addicted to cosplay...and anything Japanese. Seriously, I love Naruto.

I learned a lot about this boy who was from zero to hero. He's my new best friend...since Harry Potter grew up fast after the last book and married Ginny. Haha. Yeah, I was an HP freak way back but now that Voldemort's dead, I got to find a new pal. I could see myself in Naruto. He loves his friends and so do I. And I admit, his set of friends is what I wanted to have...for reals.

Naruto's world is a beautiful complexity. That's why I consider Masashi Kishimoto a god. I met a lot of characters and they're awesome. To mention a few, I love Rock Lee, Shikamaru, Itachi, and Hinata. Haha. These people have something in common with me...striving against all odds, wisdom, the love for a sibling, and secret feelings.

Naruto is not all about the heroes. It also gives a glimpse at the life of villains...making us understand how they came up evil. And that has something to do with cruelty of life as is. Everything has a reason. Now Naruto has only his charm to change things.

It makes me sad whatever is happening to the latest chapters in the manga. Everything gets darker. It's disturbing how everything started so happy and then crumble to ruins. Oh well, let's just hope for a very good ending.