Series: Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Debuted: Boston Comic Con 2017
Notes:
I'd been wanting to cosplay something from Star Wars for ages since my family had been huge fans since I was a kid. I had recently read Carrie Fisher's biographies and was inspired to cosplay Leia. I chose her outfit from Endor in Return of the Jedi because, to me, it was really when she started becoming a "general" and I loved the inherently 80s style of her outfit. I was luckily able to get two outfits in one with this cosplay since she wears the rebel uniform and then the later one with the poncho.
To begin, I started with a lace front wig from Arda. I didn't want to sculpt her buns in case I wanted to use the wig later and also because I wanted a more natural look by pinning her hair up. The braids on the top were styled in place and I braided her back two braids. Every time I wear it, I spin the braids in buns and pin them down. The gun was altered out of random materials in the fashion of the original series costume designers who took random knick knacks to create their props.
The pants, poncho, vest, shirt were made from altered patterns. I installed a pants zipper into the bottoms and added the bias tape contrast on the sides. The shirt has facings and little pockets on the sleeves in order to keep it lightweight, yet functional. The vest was interfaced to give it that structured look with multiple seams, as in the references. I built her watch/vest detail with various pieces of thermoplastic. The poncho was sewn and then, to mimic the semi-camo style, was dyed. To do this, I had 4 buckets of different dye and blotched the dye in different sections of the poncho. Afterwards, I distressed it to age the poncho. The belt was dyed as well to get the correct color and the pouches and gun holster were made with soft lambskin.
Photos: Melissa Lee, Hung Ngo