Honestly, I didn't start out thinking I would ever want to
do more Firefly cosplay.
Having made my Kaylee costume,
I figured it would be just fine for whatever purposes it would be for.
And maybe it is. But...
It was probably after I went to the Can't Stop the Serenity event that the thought even entered my head. They had raffles at the event, and one of the prizes was a Jayne hat (as in pic of Jayne at right). I didn't win the hat, but I got to wondering what I'd do with it if I had won. I might feel compelled to actually cosplay Jayne. Hmmm...
I am a member of a few Firefly fan groups on Facebook, including a couple of costume-related ones. People post their own cosplays of other characters, and after a while I couldn't help but get interested in certain aspects of the cosplay process, and thence to thinking about how I might approach doing some of the other characters, if I wanted to do them, not that I was planning to.
So, it was because I had given some thought to the idea that
one day, when I was out clothes shopping, I was attracted to
an interesting crocheted top... It was supposed to be a bathing
suit cover-up, but I thought it looked like something River Tam
would wear, similar to the one in the pic at left.
But no, I didn't buy it then, because I wasn't planning to
do more Firefly cosplay.
And so it was that some time later I got an advertising email from an online retailer (specifically, The Animal Rescue Site) that showed this cute red tunic-dress on sale, and I again thought, "That looks like something River would wear." Then I thought it was also something I could wear normally as well. Plus it was for a good cause. Plus it was on sale. So... you know the rest--I had to order it.
So, the dress I had ordered seemed similar in style to
the Jaynestown or War Stories dresses.
Although it had a subtle design on it, it basically
looked like a pretty solid-color red (more like the War Stories dress).
When it arrived, I gave it a quick try-on; realized it was
a little shorter than I thought it would be, but it was
okay--I still liked it.
I was pretty enhusiastic about doing a River cosplay
by then, so I went back to the store I had been to
before to see if I could get that crochet top.
I found one... it didn't tie in the front like
the actual Jaynestown one, but it was reasonably close.
I also found an oversize lightweight sweater in sort of
ombre shades of
pinkish-orange. I thought, if worn with the red dress, it
would resemble the "Safe" outfit, only with the colors
upside-down, with the red on the bottom and the pinks
on top. It occurred to me it would actually be
close to Jayne hat colors, which clinched it.
I bought both of them for top layering pieces
(and they were on sale, so it didn't cost too much).
So, time to test them out by trying them with the dress.
Alas, it became apparent the dress was a bit too short to
wear by itself as a dress...
Although a couple of the online reviewers had said they
wore it as a dress, it was, in fact, sold as
a tunic.
I'd need some other layer
underneath to make it work. Perhaps another longer
skirt (might look similar to the 2-layer skirt from
"Safe"), or bike-type shorts (seen under River's skirt
in "Safe" in the pic below, and also worn in a couple
of other episodes):
So I checked out several stores, both on-site and online, looking for something
that would work, but without much luck.
Although I wasn't on any kind of schedule or anything,
I was getting impatient.
One thing I did find
was a very nice longer dress in a similar style and color
to the tunic.
It was, again, something I might wear otherwise, and
it was on sale at a reasonable price.
Getting it seemed to be the best solution, even though it
meant completely replacing the item that actually started this
whole thing.
So that's what I did, and it worked pretty well--it looks good
with either of the layering pieces. So now I have 2 River outfits.
In the show, River walks around barefoot a lot, and I've
heard about cosplayers doing that, but I ain't.
Otherwise she has her little feet in huge combat boots,
like in the promo photo above.
I figure the boots I got for my
pirate costume will work fine.
The second thing I need, of course, is an occasion to wear
the outfit(s) so I can get a picture.
Addenda 1a:
I finally was able to put everything together and wear
the outfit with the sweater to Supercon 2016:
(following update added 7/17/16)
Addenda 1b:
I was able to wear the other variation of the costume,
with the crochet top, 2 weeks later at our local
Can't Stop the Serenity event.
They had River's reaver weapons there to pose with, so:
(following section added 1/15/18)
I was at a party in Connecticut and a woman there
was wearing a sweater that caught my eye, mainly because
it was a pretty shade of blue that I loved.
As I looked at it more closely, I noticed that, except for
the color of course, it was almost a perfect match for
River's sweater in "Safe": it had the loose, lightweight, textured
knit; wide neck; long sleeves with with wide (uncuffed) ends; sort of
ragged-ish edges. I was so intrigued, I had to ask her where
she'd gotten it, and she told me
Eagle Ray Traders, where it's called a "Knit Double Top."
I had to check it out, and it was on sale, so I had to get it.
But what color to pick?
When watching the show, it's hard to tell
exactly what color River's sweater is.
Depending on the lighting, it can look pretty orange
(as in pic at right), or more deep pink (as in pic
under Research, above).
Perhaps it's actually red, similar to the dress I got
for Take 1.
In any case, the available colors for the Eagle Ray Traders sweater that
seemed most likely were called pink, fuchsia,
coral, and burnt orange.
In my mind, the sweater seems to be a deep pink, like magenta.
So I ordered the fuchsia.
I was a bit surprised when I received it that the sweater body is actually
2 layers, but when I looked back at the pictures of River's,
I see hers is the same. The fuchsia color
is perhaps too dark, but we'll
see how it comes together.
(Side note: After going through this process, I later saw a
small item on River's costumes in the
Firefly: A Celebration
book, in which costume designer Shawna Trpcic referred to the sweater
as "garnet".)
The other main element of the outfit is the skirt.
It looked like it would be easy enough to make,
2 circle skirts in slightly different shades of pale pink.
But I figured before I got started doing that, I should
check online to see if I could find something similar for cheap.
Sure enough, there are plenty of "skater skirts" on
Amazon
for less than $10.
I ordered 1 in pink, and it looked great for one layer.
Then I ordered a 2nd one in a different brand,
trying to get the longer, slightly darker layer;
alas, it was much too dark (it was called "hot pink" but
I'd decribe the color as "vermillion").
Wasn't gonna work for this purpose, but interestingly,
it looks pretty good with the "Jayne hat" sweater
(1a)--better than the dress, which is a
bit too long.
I made another attempt and ordered a 3rd skirt in "light pink", but it was
almost exactly the same color and length as the 1st one,
so I returned it and
gave up trying. The outfit should read well even with just
the one skirt. If I decide I need to have the double-layer, I guess I'll
just have to make it myself.
Since the new skirt is rather short, I'd definitely need the black biker-style
shorts (shown above under Take 1).
I already had some similar shorts, but they were made for
biking, with the extra padding in the crotch. I really didn't
want to have the padding for cosplay, so I again went shopping, and
found something suitable at Marshall's.
My first opportunity to wear the costume was at
Paradise City Comic Con in January 2018. That was after I had
completed the ice planet prop, so the pic is included in that section
here, which immediately follows.
So obviously, there's a stick, and a string, and a ball
of ice cream. I did wonder how the ball of ice cream was supposed
to not just drip all over everything, and slip quickly off the
string. I'd kinda figured it was some future freezing method that
kept it from melting too quickly... until I happened to read in
the script (in the
Firefly: A Celebration
book) about how it's supposed to work, as follows:
Aha, interesting! The cookie-bowl part was not obvious in any
of the screen captures, but I knew I wanted to make mine
suggestive of that.
I figured I could make the ice cream/cookie bowl by using a styrofoam
ball, and apply something
(yet to be determined) to give it some texture
(probably using different textures for the ice cream and the cookie bowl)
before painting appropriately.
So then I got to wondering about the stick-how long was it,
what was it made of. I was thinking maybe a chopstick would
be reasonable... seemed like a decent size, and logical
considering the strong Chinese influence in the Firefly
universe.
But then I stumbled upon the following picture online, which
apparently was taken backstage with a flash so we can see
it a lot better than we can in the screencaps:
It's a little cockeyed, but you can kinda see something that looks
like a bowl on the bottom. And, interesting, there are stars on
the string that I'd never noticed in the screencaps or
while watching the show.
And, even more interesting, the stick looks like it might
be hollow; in fact, it looks almost exactly like the cardboard
tubes that come on certain types of wire coat hangers.
And I had some of those exact hangers!
I was also thinking about the colors.
In the pics, both ice cream and cookie bowl look about the
same shade of white.
For the ice cream, it's probably vanilla, no problem,
and in fact the Paperclay dries a pretty nice shade of white.
It looked a bit too dry though, so I covered it with
some Mod Podge (which I had in my rock-painting supply stash)
to make it look more wet, more like real ice cream.
But what about the cookie?
I don't think plain cookies are ever actually white.
The cooking process turns even white ingredients
at least somewhat brown.
The only way a cookie would actually be white, it seemed to me,
was if it had icing on it.
That meant a much smoother texture than the plain styrofoam.
The Mod Podge should work for that too, but I'd still need
paint to ensure a smooth appearance.
I eventually (and somewhat anally) decided to first paint a
light brown directly on the styrofoam, to suggest the cookie, and
then put on a couple of layers of Mod Podge mixed with white
for the frosting. And here's the result, which I'm very pleased with:
I used the prop the first time I wore Costume 2 (described previously),
at Paradise City Comic Con in January 2018. I am very pleased
with the whole result:
Note: most of the Firefly photos here
come from
Can't Take the Sky.
Return to main Cosplay page
It looked like I was gonna do a River Tam cosplay after all.
So, I figured I should do some more detailed research.
River has an assortment of outfits thru the series.
There are probably 3 outfits that you see enough
to really get a good look at.
The one at left is from "Jaynestown" but is also seen
in "Objects in Space"; the dress alone, without the crocheted top, is
in "Bushwhacked."
At far right is a promo photo, but it looks to be the same dress
and funky sweater-top that she wore in "War Stories."
The screencap at near right shows the outfit from "Safe."
I observe that River
mostly dresses in cooler shades of warm colors-- bluish reds and pinks,
browns, etc.;
usually mid-length skirts or dresses, often layered.
A lot of her clothes seem a little oversized for her...
but then, she's a tiny little thing, so she probably has
a hard time finding things in her size.
River Tam Costume, Take 1
>
The other thing I think about with River is that she usually
has messy hair, often wet-looking.
The poster for the Serenity movie (shown at right) may be the
most extreme case of this.
I was wondering if I could do something like that with my hair,
and I recalled I had gotten some odd hair products to play with
when my hair was growing back after chemo.
I checked and found I had some hair gel that looked like it might do
something similar, and experimented with it on Halloween... sure
enough, I think it'll work, although it's not as extreme as the poster.
So, at this point, I still need 2 things.
The first is a prop that can help identify me as River.
I read an article some time back about why
"There's no such thing as good Firefly cosplay."
The basic reason (according to the article) is that
the clothing is basically pretty normal, so the
looks aren't really distinctive.
For example, Storm Trooper costumes are obvious.
Star Trek uniforms are obvious.
River Tam, not so obvious.
Now, being screen-accurate can help address that issue,
but that's never been a goal of mine, and
it doesn't help much in the case of River anyway.
(Or any of the Firefly cast, for that matter, which
I guess was the point of that article.)
Choosing the right prop is another way you can help
address the issue. That's why, for example, I decided
I needed to have a parasol when I did my
Kaylee costume.
A lot of people who cosplay River like to do her with
the reaver-fighting weapons
from the movie, Serenity, as in the poster
to the left. But I really prefer not to do weapons, especially big
ones, for practical reasons as well as philosophical.
So I figure the perfect prop would be a stick in the shape
of a gun, as in "Objects in Space" (pic at right).
I just need to find one.
(following update added 7/8/16)
(end of addenda)
River Tam Costume, Take 2
While I wasn't unhappy with my first takes at doing River Tam, I
knew there were improvements that could be made.
I don't think the stick-as-gun prop works very well, for example.
And, as much as the "Jayne hat" version
(1a) amuses me, I don't think it
"reads" very well as River. I think the crochet top
(1b) "reads" reasonably well though.
So I was planning to do a different prop, but wasn't
really thinking about a new costume, until...
Prop 2 - Ice Planet
As mentioned above in the discussion of Costume 2, I didn't
think the stick-as-gun prop that I had gotten for Costume 1 worked
all that well.
I had seen some online pics of other cosplayers using the ice planet
(her "problematic food"
from "The Message" episode, pic at left) as a prop, and it occurred to
me that that was a pretty-near perfect choice: it can't really
be mistaken for anything else. It's not something you can
just go out and buy, however--it does require making.
So, I knew I wanted to make one for the next time I played River,
but there was no specific plan for that, so I had a lot of time to
think about how to do it.
... short sticks that dangle strings off the end.
Each string runs through the middle of a ball of ice cream
that is supported by a bowl-shaped cookie attached (under the ice cream)
to the string.
So, now that I had a good idea of where I was going with this,
I started in earnest. I had some styrofoam balls, but the 3"
size that I thought would work now seemed too small.
I had one 4" ball that had been allocated for a different
project, but that project was far down on my list so I
decided to use it for this one.
I had a leftover piece of string that looked the right
thickness and poked and pulled it thru the ball.
Then I marked the line on the ball where the top of the "bowl"
would be by pressing the styrofoam in a little
(see pic at left).
As I was thinking about the textures I'd need, I figured
the styrofoam itself was OK for the cookie,
but clearly not for the ice cream.
After pondering various options, I remembered that I had
some Paperclay that I thought might work well.
And sure enough, I was pretty pleased with the result
(pic at right).
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