This costume has taken on a life of its own, in a way I never could have anticipated.

The decision to don Lady Two-Face stemmed from how much I enjoyed wearing my gender-bent Princess of Persia. Two-Face has always been one of my favorite Batman villains, right up there with Poison Ivy and the Joker. While I enjoy most Bat-flavored entertainment, Dini’s Batman: The Animated Series has always been at the top of my list. As such it seemed a good fit to opt for the comic styling from the TV-show, rather than the more realistic interpretation that came courtesy of the movies. It was also an attractive challenge to try something simultaneously glamorous and grotesque.

Harvey Dent/Two-Face from Batman: The Animated Series.

Honestly, the costume itself wasn’t that hard to pull together. In total I clocked in two or so weeks securing all the pieces. The majority of the time was consumed ferreting out similar cut double-breasted suits on eBay. The white one is Ralph Lauren surprisingly, and I nabbed it for only $30. I won the black pinstripe suit for $10. I ordered two of the same pair or shoes and two of the same corset – one in black and one in white.

I commissioned a professional tailor to stitch together the suit, knowing full well that I would butcher the job trying to rush in the limited time I had before SDCC. We took in the jacket to an exaggerated degree so to contrast the baggy slacks.

After ordering the coin replica and a plastic Tommy gun online, all the pieces were in order.

I didn’t tease the fact that I’d be wearing Lady Two-Face to SDCC, instead leaving it a surprise in case the makeup didn’t come together properly. Hydred – the amazingly talented makeup artist I hire every year for SDCC – and I discussed the execution in great detail for weeks, hashing through the construction and toying with different ideas. In the end I shouldn’t have worried, as Hydred knocked the look out of the park.

Makeup and hair in full took six and a half hours – twice as long as I wore the costume at the convention. Hydred began by painting my left side (face, neck, and even bust) with blue latex. For delicate areas around the eyes we instead used a saturated blue eye shadow. From there, Hydred built up the mouth with wax, using Spirit Gum to adhere it to my face. We filed and painted acrylic nails yellow to use as the teeth, which were carefully placed and secured within the wax structure. Next, gums were layered on and attached above the teeth, before being painted various shades of black, red, and blue.

In total hair and makeup took six and a half hours.

We decided to exaggerate my features with animation-esq lines, drawn on with black eyeliner and shaded by a careful hand. Even my eyebrow on the right side was made to be a bit more angular, hinting at the inborn deviance of Two-Face. For hair we opted for flowing curls on one side, contrasted by a wild, white up-do on the other.

The final touch was the single yellow contact, which was a bit of a challenge to wear as I’d never successfully used one before. Somehow I lucked out and it stayed in for most of the convention without issue.

I finally made it out to the show floor around 2:00 PM Saturday of SDCC. Walking about was complete madness, and I’m still astonished by the reaction of fellow attendees. I’d hoped fans would appreciate the costume, but never expected to be stationary for hours inundated with photo requests. It was difficult to talk or smile, otherwise I’d have been grinning ear to ear.

Funny enough, I didn’t even name this character myself. The Internet sort of did. I was struggling to come up with a name for the character even as put on the suit – I vetoed Harley Dent early on for the obvious lack of originality. Someone dubbed me “Lady Two-Face” and it stuck.

It’s going to be hard to top this costume next year, as somehow a rumor got started that I “won the best costume of SDCC.” While I have no idea where it originated, I’m pleased by the sentiment. I’m also quite happy that the risk paid off, proving that fan service doesn’t always require an excess of skin. Not that I complain when it does.

As with every SDCC, I shot a set of photos with LJinto and they turned out fantastic. Check out his work and a gallery of show floor snaps below. Enjoy!

Lady Two-Face Portfolio

I’ve wanted to whip together a Black Canary costume for some time, mostly fueled by my enjoyment of the admittedly horrible Birds of Prey TV show and the few  (quality) trades I’ve picked up over the years. It was also a practical costume to add to my collection considering the amount of DC cosplay groups I’m asked to join every year.

The costume itself was really easy. I already had the black combat boots for various other ensembles, and fishnets for my Zatanna costume. I also already had a blond wig thanks to my Chobits cosplay a few years back, and the gloves came from Target. That only left the body suit and the gold buckles. The buckles came from JoAnn Fabrics – cut up from a long gold strip used for belts and whatnot, and were attached to my boots and gloves with fabric tape. I had several options in my wardrobe already for the leotard, but as I wanted to go with the more modern look with boy-shorts and gold zipper, I decided to commission it from friend Christa Browning to ensure it was just right. With that the costume was done!

Friend and photographer Chanh Tang snapped the below shots at our annual FallCon comic convention – quick captures to document the costume. I plan on shooting a second version of Black Canary’s costume (high heeled boots, leather jacket, and no buckles) at a later date with a fellow  cosplaying  friend joining me as Green Arrow. I’m excited to knock those photos out as the shoot will be significantly more elaborate

For now, enjoy the gallery below!

There are some fantastic femme fatales in the Batman universe and Poison Ivy has always been a favorite of mine. Hands down. Selena Kyle, who I’ve already tried on for size, is fun and frisky. But Pamela Lillian Isley is a creature all her own. A botanist turned eco-terrorist, Poison Ivy is a character you love to hate, or vise versa. No matter how bad she is, I always find myself rooting (pun intended) for her maniacal and misguided schemes.

Created back in the 60s, Poison Ivy has seen many different costume iterations over the years. I’ve always loved Ivy from the Batman animated series, but the costume was a bit too simple for my tastes. Uma Thurman’s take on Pam Isley in Batman & Robin was a bit more attractive, especially the long and glamorous cape. Ultimately though I drew most from Ivy’s various comic appearances, ending up with the traditional leaf covered leotard and leggings. Can’t go too wrong with that. Still, the end result was more my interpretation of her various outfits than an exact replica of one in particular. While many think of Ivy as a sexpot who manipulates people to her advantage, I always liken her to a classic (and classy) vixen – sexy, but not overtly so. Mysterious and slightly wicked, but only because she believes so strongly in her cause.

I ruled out the green skin immediately. I am a realist when it comes to cosplay, and body paint rarely looks good unless sprayed on by a professional. Starting the costume was easy enough. I ordered a brilliant red wig with big curls from eBay and picked up some green leggings at Target. The bodysuit came from Kohls, and I picked up the red and green leaves at JoAnns. I hot glued the leaves to the bodysuit, which took at least five or six hours and cost me my fingertips. The result was fantastic however, until I tried to get the thing on. Although I made the suit while on a dressform, the hot glue made the entire piece into a cast, so it was impossible to pull the thing over my wide hips or bust. There was absolutely no give. This meant that I had to remove all the leaves from the back, tearing the off in order to give the garment back its stretch. This left the back totally destroyed, and provided me the incentive I needed to make the cape I always wanted.

The cape was easy after finding some nice light green fabric to compliment the darker colors on the bodysuit. I accented the top of the leotard with red leaves, and did the same on the bottom of the cape with some intricate green and red lace. The cape ended up being my favorite part of the outfit, even if I didn’t use it in many of my photos.

I polished off the look with a pair of sequined ruby boots that I already owned, never throwing them away because I knew they would come in handy some day. I added ornamental flowers and ribbons to the sides of the boots and put a matching bloom in my hair. With that, everything came together.

I debuted the costume at FallCon 2008 and it went over well, but I was still pretty unhappy with the fact that the back of the costume was ruined. If I didn’t pose just right you could see where the fabric was shredded. Additionally, the thing didn’t fit very well and ended covering up my curves rather than accentuating them. So I decided to redo the costume entirely before my photoshoot, which I finally got around to this August.

Having learned from the first version, I knew that I would need to make something that resembled a corset – so that I could pull it on and off without ruining the carefully glued leaves. Corsets are expensive, so I opted to use the one I wore under my wedding dress instead of buy a new one. It was an underbust corset, so I decided to stick with the theme from the first costume version and accent a bra with the bright red leaves to play up the color contrast. From there the process was pretty much the same – gluing green leaves on every exposed piece of the corset. It took multiple test runs in the costume and plenty of time in front of the mirror to insure that every inch was covered, but it worked.

After I finished the gluing, I swapped the ties in the back of the corset for some green cording. I finished the costume with a green “leaf thong” that I whipped up quickly, realizing I hadn’t thought of what I was going to wear for bottoms. Since the tights I bought were entirely opaque I didn’t even really need anything, but it would have looked odd not having anything down south.

For the shoot I called on photographer David Nusbaum, who I had worked with once in the past at a group shootout. David has a fantastic eye for outdoor photography in particular, so he was a perfect fit for the concept. Makeup, which helped to pull together the entire project, was courtesy of Ali Beuning, who also did the makeup for my Marie Antoinette ensemble and Elektra costume (pictures coming soon). I only gave Ali a small amount of guidance. She did the bulk of the imagineering herself. I love the leaf eyebrows, making the whole look slightly wicked even when smiling. The red coloring by the sides of the face and green on the neck and collarbone were other great touches.

We scouted out a location near the historic Fort Snelling for the shoot and spent the better part of a day on location. The bulk of the time was spent tramping through the forest looking for interesting growth and structures to pose with. Some of my favorites were a downed tree and some beautiful hanging vines. The pictures look fantastic and effortless in some ways, but the shoot wasn’t easy – especially in heels. I ended up with hives all over my body by the end of the day, stung by every type of spiky plant imaginable. I also realized I was lying in animal scat while on the downed tree a bit too late. But hey, I was one with nature.

When we finished up in the forest we ended the shoot down near the Mississippi river for a few final ideas. I had stitched Pam’s initials onto a straitjacket (yes, I had one lying around), using the prop for a few pictures to make it look like she had just escaped from Arkham Asylum. I am still kicking myself for forgetting that we have branded AA straitjackets at work from the recent game release – a huge missed opportunity in my book. It would have been perfect. But I think you get the idea I was going for.

I was also inspired by a piece I saw of Ivy on Deviant Art, where she appeared to be watering herself in a fun and slightly cheesecake manner. I had purchased a watering can just for the occasion and the water felt great on all the random rashes I was developing on my arms and chest. I ended up in the river for a few shots, thankful for the warm weather, then called it a day. The shoot was a success in my book.

Having recently shot the costume, I think Ivy is retired for the time being – but just until I recruit my friend to whip up a Harley costume. Then the pair of girlfriends will come out to play.

Enjoy the photos!