Yona
Without a doubt, Yona is one of the characters whom I truly connect with on a personal level. I relate to her in so many ways, and moreover, I look to her as a source of inspiration. As such, I wanted to make this costume my own by adding personal touches and original designs to interpret her basic outfit in a way that made it special and important to me.
For Yona’s cape, I opted to make it a 3/4” circle cape to add extra volume. I weathered the bottom hem by cutting a frayed edge and burning the fabric with my soldering iron.
I pattern Yona’s tunic by draping it around my dress form. I used brocade for the tunic; for the neckband, I purchased gold cotton fabric, and painted the black lines on with fabric paint. For the obi, I used a damask- printed cotton for the obi, which I then added 300 beads to by hand to emphasize the pattern.
I draped the dress pattern, giving it a full circle skirt to give it a great amount of volume. The dress is lined with peachskin. I chose to use silk for Yona’s dress as another personal interpretation, even though her outfit is canonically made of simple cotton. I hand-dyed the silk with pink acid dye. The front of the bodice is smocked. I designed the flower pattern based on several of the outfits Yona wears in the manga, and added it to the skirt using silk painting.
My quiver has two parts: the thinner inner tube which is covered with black suede, and the wider outer tube, which has a loose fabric covering of pale olive linen. My bow is made from a base of MDF and insulation foam, all of which was hand-carved and shaped. It is strung with elastic to make it convention-safe.
My most recent Yona wig is a Jane in Crimson from Arda Wigs.
(Featured photo by World of Gwendana.)