Oerba Dia Vanille
Oerba Dia Vanille is a project that I revamped three times, and in spite of that, I was never entirely happy with it. In my final rendition of this costume, my main focus was improving the beading. On my first attempt I used pony beads because I was short on time and money, so this time around, I splurged a bit. The strands around the chest were all shell beads, and the others are coco beads. In total, there were 2,876 beads on this costume, 771 of which were hand-painted. Talk about tedious! Not to mention that it cost me over $200 for the beads alone.
To add visual interest to the waist skirt (affectionately referred to as a “butt cape”), I chose a spotted wolf faux fur.
This wig started as a Clover-L from Cosworx in Dark Pink. I dyed it with a watered down FW Ink dye mixture, so that I’d give it more of an orange tint as opposed to an all-over coloring job. Afterwards, I back-parted it using a pack of loose extensions that had also been dyed to match. I then added a latex back-part to make it look more natural. Finally, I curled the pigtails using plastic curlers, a blowdryer, and lots of hairspray.
I really loved Vanille as a character, and it was fun to make multiple attempts at this costume! That being said, Vanille was definitely a project that pushed my construction skills at the time, and to this day, I still admire that I was so adamant about remaking her so many times.
(Featured photo by Kyle Mistry Imaging.)