Howl Cosplay-Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle

This year for Rhode Island and New York Comic Con I decided to create a Howl costume, since Howl's Moving Castle has always been one of my favorite Miyazaki movies.
As this is one of my favorites, I wanted this costume to be truly amazing, and, I have to say, I was pretty pleased with the result, as where many fans.
The Basics:
The basic parts of the costume where straight leg black pants (which I made but can easily be found at thrift shops and such), a white poet's blouse, black boots, and of course a blond wig. I decided to use blond so I could use the diamond jacket, because I really wanted to make one of those. I bought the wig from a cosplay wig maker, and it was actually a replica from the film(so it was quite expensive, although if you are on a tight budget you could just buy a cheaper blond wig and do some styling) and already had the boots, but here's what I made for the basics: ( I didn't show the oants here but i'm pretty sure you can imagine what they look like. If you really have a terrible imagination then just scroll down a bit)

After that it was time to make the jacket. This was probably one of the most fun parts of the costume, as I made my own pattern, and they where very fun colours to work with! The not so fun part was that I had to cut out all those diamonds, and when my original plan didnt work, I had to do it ALL over again. But here is how it came out in the end, and its so great I just want to wear it all the time.
(if you are looking for a pattern for this jacket or want to commission me to make you one, feel free to send me a message or a tweet)

 The last of the simple things I had to do for this was to make the jewelry, which was incredibly easy. I just simply whent to the local craft store and bought two small green stone pendants for the earings and one large blue one for the necklace. After this I bought a gold chain that was seperated by larger links, to be more true to the film. Here's a photo of both the earrings (which I had to make clip on because my ears aren't pierced) and the necklace. You will notice that they have two gold beads with a red one inbetween them in transition to the pendants. If you look very closley, this is what they are like in the film. As for the rings, I just ordered replicas of those.

 Here is a photo of the costume how it is as I have described the process so far: (this is how I wore it to New York Comic Con)

 OK now to the difficult part,which is also the most important. THE WINGS.
After going through billions of prototypes (which is an exageration, yes) I finaly reached one that worked, which I proceeded to create in full scale out of foamcore for testing. The testing went well and I started work on the frame out of basswood so it would be strong and lightweight.

 My favorite part about making these wings was ordering 500 feathers. I really like feathers. Anyways. After the frame was completed I started simply hot gluing the feathers to it while it was in extended position. After hours of gluing and one tragic break in the frame ( which is the reason I could not wear them to New York) I finally got them all trimmed, cleaned, fixed, and smoothed. Almost every hole was covered and they where ready to go! (if you are looking for more specific info about how to create your own articulating wings or would like to commission me to make some for you, please contact me)

 Here are some photos of the costume as I wore it to Rhode Island Comic Con (which I brought back a 3rd place trophy from the cosplay contest!) first with wings spread, second with one open, and third with them both closed:

 and: me standing on stage showing off my costume at Rhode Island Comic Con: (photo cred: Vander Photogrophy)

Overall, this was a fun costume to make, and got really great response from everyone who saw it.

this costume WITHOUT wings:
Level: Easy
Budget: Low to Medium (especially if you already have many of the items)
Time: This costume took me a very short time to make and if you have experience it will take you a very short amount of time as well.

this costume WITH wings:
Level: Advanced
Budget: High (feathers arent cheep)
Time: As I said before the basics took a very short time, although the wings took a very long time and where very frustrating at times and have many variables to think about while making and wearing them. They are delicate.

Sorry about the intense marketing on my behalf in this post, but this costume was a lot of work and I don't want anyone walking away with my designs (particularly for the wings), so:
if you would like any more specific information about how i made any parts of this costume feel free to comment, send me a message, or send me a tweet @kleinenrabe. If you would like to know about commissions or purchasing patterns, please email me or use any of the other methods mentioned above.