MORE ABOUT YONA

Yona of the Dawn was a such a cute little action adventure show and I still think it deserves a season two or reboot. This show was also so visually beautiful (the colors stand out to me even now) it inspired me to into branching away from costume accuracy and into the realm of original interpretation in my cosplays. I ending up choosing to cosplay Yona because I didn't want to wear faux fur in a Shin-ah cosplay and I saw Yona's garments and developing story as a blank canvas for the inspiration I was experiencing.

I apparently completely missed doing a write up for this costume and am now tasked in 2025 with trying to remember how I made it. It has been so long since I made this costume. I believe this costume was created with heavily modified patterns — I think this was around the time I was effectively using patterns with simple shapes as slopers, without knowing how close that process was to pattern drafting and just how much work I was doing. I unfortunately either don't still have or can't find progress pictures to confirm. It features my first attempts at transforming an existing design with original design choices, and the choices I made are rather simple but were influenced by both the manga and the anime of the same name and set me down a path of creating I have followed ever since. I chose to use brocade and jacquards and scraps of silk and painted polyester satin that was meant to mimic painted silk. This costume also features a polyester satin skirt with my first ever hand embroidery project that I designed based on the anime opening, and a prop bow (and arrows!) I made from sculpting expanding foam and covering it in paper maché.