Aerith was what I call a “reset” build—a small build I wanted to make to cool down before a large one. My friend was making Tifa for PAX West, so I thought it would be a fun one—especially because she was easy to pack in a suitcase. Although many premade Aerith cosplays existed, I felt none of them felt “real” or matched the slums she lived in, so I opted to make my own.

I wanted a more “lived in” look for her garments, more real, so I utilized that + a mix of in-game renders. The dress fabric is a pale pink linen combined with dyed pleather, denim, and faux suede for the jacket (and brown belts) and a dyed poly dupioni for the ribbon.

The wig was an Arda Arwen and wefts in Spanish Brown styled by my good friend sola-heika, as this was one wig I did not want to tackle. Additionally, the boots are just standard bought ones from Amazon.

The dress was a pattern from Indigo Patterns (currently unreleased, as I tested it). The bodice is lined and has petite adjustments. The “design” was a vector turned stamp based off the custom fabric I bought from Dangerous Ladies (which unfortunately came too late), so I stamped all of the pink fabric by hand and used my own trim, dyed.

The jacket was an altered pattern from PatternCosPatterns. All hardware is real, including the punched rivets and functional belts + eyelets. It is also lined in rayon challis, and I added functional pockets.

The bracelets are a resin kit from Dangerous Ladies and finished with Rub n’ Buff in Pewter, Copper, and Antique Gold. The “necklace” is suede cord and gold jewelry caps with the “flower” being a vintage button. The ribbon was a custom pattern—a sideways 8 shape—and pinned to the wig braid.

The guard stick was a 3D model from Dangerous Ladies (materia is also from them), which was sanded, primed, and finished by myself. It was prepped in glossy and flat black, with Vallejo Metal Colors in Steel as a base, Dark Aluminum as shading, and White Aluminum as highlight, used via airbrush. Weathering and blackwash was added by brush and used black acrylics. The “grip” is old pleather bias tape wrapped around the base and weathered with acrylics.

The entire stick breaks down into 3 pieces and can fit into a suitcase for packing and ease of travel. It is also slightly “smaller” than in game to accompany the fact I am quite tiny and most “big” props overwhelm my frame!

Though the build log does not include the guard stick as I did it quite quickly over 3 days, my build thread for Aerith is here.