Hello! It's Sabra again! About a year or two ago, my best friend Katerina Marie Ibrahim received a lot of backlash for cosplaying as a Victoria's Secret Angel, yet she also received a ton of support. She had always asked me to cosplay with her and finally the next year I said yes. I did not want her to get crazy harassed alone. Also what girl hasn't wanted to be a VS angel at some point in their life? Or even just a model? The idea of it seemed fun. The excitement of my friend really left me aching to do this cosplay with her.
She had been traveling all year to so many countries, I could not wait to see my friend again for the highly anticipated DragonCon! I had a dear friend lend me his house to spread feathers and chicken wire every which way!
The struggle was real, in the end I scrapped that ENTIRE frame. So many cuts from chicken wire were had... The idea was simple, make a base from gauge wire, wrap the rest in chicken wire, duct tape the edges, wrap everything with felt and hot glue it all together, then FINALLY hot glue the feathers. The feathers I used were black ostrich feathers. This was my final result.
After making the frame and gluing feathers all I had left was sewing some straps together and looping elastic in them.
The last part was wearing it to a con. Altogether the wings took 3 days to make. I was both scared and apprehensive to wear these to a convention. My friend did get cyber bullied and several mean comments were said about her the time before, but surprisingly not a single person confronted us negatively the entire con. Growing up watching America's Next Top Model and all was always so amazing. Being a model was something I had dreamed of often, getting to be that for a weekend was an awesome experience!
We did at least two video interviews together, many people were super respectful of us, and lots of smiles were had between two best friends. Overall partnering up for cosplays is something I would love to do in the future. It makes the art so much more fun when you get to share it with friends.
After the con I did see a few spiteful threads directed at me and her online on some sites, however I think the entire experience was a positive one.
I am on the far left, Katerina is on the far right!
One day when I remake the wings, I would love to do an in depth tutorial. I would also love to make wings to a specific cosplay rather than a VS cosplay. Maybe a Rinoa from Final Fantasy VIII with wings, who knows?