Robed Man (FFVII: Rebirth)
Type: Cosplay
Completion Date: May 2024
Time to complete: Approx 1 Month
This was a quick and dirty cosplay! My partner was playing through Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, and it's one of those game series we turn into a joint living room hangout of a playthrough where he plays and I ramble about the game the whole time. I've always wanted to revisit cosplaying from the series since I last made Cloud, but frankly, after having a pretty big bout of body dysphoria surrounding cosplay and myself (thanks, social media!), I didn't want a repeat of the Young Link experience where I felt really dissapointed once I put the costume on and didn't magically turn into a 3d-modeled, perfect fictional character. So most of the main cast was out of the question.
I was considering my options, until I told my partner that seeing a couple of those robed men walking around lost at a convention would be pretty funny... And I realized if I wanted to see it, I might as well do it myself! It was a perfect storm of circumstances; I wanted to move away from hyper-accuracy cosplay stress and have something simple that was actually comfortable to wear at events.
The robe started as a modified version of Julie-Chantal's Jedi Robe pattern, with the front closed off and some extra scarves attached to it with snap buttons. I roughly painted the symbol on the back with fabric paint, then went to town weathering the entire robe with scissors, sandpaper and more paint. That's all there is to it, really! There's some embroidery on the hood I omitted; I was trying to let go of the perfectionism stress there and it didn't bother me much in the end, so it's a win to me.
I had a lot of fun messing around with the costume at the convention, though I was a little dissapointed people didn't really notice or recognize the character; I suppose it's a bit hard, since it just looks like a weird scary hooded man from the front out of the game's context. Oh well! It was definitively comfortable, and it's so easy to store it'll be great to keep around to take out on a whim in the future!
Photo Gallery
