Jeanne

Character: Jeanne
Variant: Phantom Thief, manga version
Series: Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne
Status: Active
Debut: SeishunCon 2010
Photo Credits: DimHorizon Studios, Durel
Awards: Best in Show at SeishunCon 2010

Info: I’ve been wanting to do KKJ cosplay ever since I read the manga a few years back. I love Maron, but also felt the strong need to make Jeanne’s costume first.

It took a few months just to gather the different fabrics and wig/crafting supplies. As I always, I started with the accessories. The gems are cast in polyester resin with opaque dye. I chose that over transparent because I really wanted the colors to “pop” in photos. I didn’t have a mold for the crescents on the earrings, so first I made the shapes out of sculpey, baked to harden them, and brushed layers of latex to make my own mold. The bracers are made from craft foam, shaped with heat, painted with 2 different shades of gold acrylic paint, and fasten with velcro. The cross is also made from craft foam and acrylic paint. I had to do 3 different layers of material for the cross, and it took several times to get the shape of the cross to look nice.

For the costume, each garment is made from a different fabric because I was going for a textured look. The following fabrics were used in construction:

White Outer Haori – Shantung
Red Inner Haori – Casa Satin
Skirt – Stretch Poplin
Red Obi – Flowered Brocade
Gold Obi – Swirled Brocade
Purple Sashes – Crepe-back Satin

Everything is either fully lined or has finished seams. I tried to be as accurate as possible, but also added my own personal touches and interpretations for the costume. The obi has a detachable back bow because Jeanne wears one in the final battle scene of the manga, and a handful of artbook illustrations as well. The sashes have silver eyelets that had to be punched and hammered on — 80 total.

The wig was my first big styling project. It started out as a Cosworx “Ivy” in #25, with matching wefted and non-wefted extensions. I had to sew lots of wefts into the wig because it was so thin. After that, everything was pulled into a high ponytail, stubbed with caulk and covered with an egg-shaped foam piece. Extensions were added to the egg, and the ends were curled. The whole process was stressful and tedious. If I were to do this wig over, I would definitely use a “Clover” wig instead because those are both thicker and easier to pull up. Overall though, it was a great learning experience!

My baton prop was fairly simple to make. I used wooden dowels and other small wood pieces. My husband drilled/glued them together for me and I added paint, shiny varnish, and a thick red ribbon.