I don't know what to say. I saw a Fan Sub of Mononoke Hime and was absolutely blown away. Soon it will be in American theaters (sometime in October) and everyone will know what I'm talking about. But after I saw it I had to make the costume. I didn't care that I'd recently chopped my shoulder length hair. And I know that my body hasn't been able to pass for that of a young girl without a lot of binding in YEARS. But I loved the character design and the attention to detail. So in April 1999 I took a week to sew and BOOM.
Costume Notes: I was on a bit of a budget so I began pillaging my costuming supplies to make most of the costume. The body of the costume is an old vintage dress I already owned that was coming apart (the sleeves were falling off and beyond repair. I dyed it a dark blue with Rit and chopped it up. The apron was sewn from scratch with leftover off-white cloth from an art project I'd once made. All the jewelry was shaped by hand from various shades of sculpty. Hand sanding and layers of appropriate colored acrylic paints and gesso completed the accessories. The fur cape was fake fur that I had hot-glued the some soft, off-white cloth to the back of (I HATE the texture of the fake-fur backing, it ruins the illusion). And lastly, the boots were Keds with canvas hot-glued to them with a ton of faux painting with burgundy and brown watered-down acrylics.
As for the mask: I used what art supplies I had on hand. The base of the mask itself was created by shaping artist's clay into a basic armature. I then applyed rolls of plaster gauze/wrap to the armature. After I'd building up enough layers of gauze and letting the plaster dry I scooped the clay out from inside the mask. I then painted the mask with a few coats of Modge-Podge to even out the surface. Before coloring the mask I stitched elastic directly to the mask (you'll need a thick needle, thread, and thimbles), cut eyeholes, and glued foam to the inside of the mask to fit my face. I painted the mask with a series of straight(from the tube) acrylic paints interspersed with layers of muddy acrylic washes (the mask had to look like it had seen battle). Fake fur and leather ears attached with a hot glue gun finished the look.
For more information on San, Mononoke Hime:the movie, or other Miyazaki movies, hit The Nausicaa Net.