Medli
I was just a wee youngin’ when I played Wind Waker, and I remember being so obsessed with Medli. She was my favorite character by far (probably because of the duck beak). In fact, Medli was the first character I wanted to cosplay… before I even knew what cosplay was! It took me quite a few years of cosplaying, but I finally had the chance to dress up as her back in 2012, then later updated the costume by adding articulated wings in 2013.
My Medli wig was a Persephone from Epic Cosplay. For her beak, I created a custom prosthetic using 407 Latex. It attached with spirit gum.
Her circlet tiara was made from sturdy copper jewelry wire, strung with blue stone beads and gold seed beads as spacers.
The tabard was made from red suede with bias tape for the trim. Both the small symbols on the lower edges and the goddess symbol on the front were made with iron-on appliqué with satin stitching around the edges. I used cotton sateen for the dress and a thicker cotton for the trim on the sleeves and lower hem. Her scarf was also made from cotton sateen; the goddess emblem was sculpted with clay and painted with acrylics.
Medli belongs to a race of people known as the Rito, who are essentially half-bird. Her feet are shown to look like bird legs; to replicate that in real life, I interpreted them as digitigrade boots. I used a pair of 5.5″ platform stilettos, cut off the heels, then created vinyl covers.
For the wings, I referred to Sunnybrook’s Realistic Wing Tutorial to gain a general understanding of how to approach this part of the project. I ultimately changed a variety of aspects for my own wing build, but I highly recommend consulting that tutorial if you wish to create something similar. I wore the wing harness beneath the dress to conceal it.
(Featured photo by Kyle Mistry Imaging.)