Twilight Witchking Costume Detail

 This costume is quite impressive, and didn’t involve ALL that much work, surprisingly. We started off with the concept that he should be tall. Very tall. My client had a pair of construction stilts that increased his 6’2” height to 7’6” – a very good start. I used 33 yards of material for this outfit – not quite the 50 meters used for the Black Riders, but impressive none the less. The pants are basic drawstring waist pants, made of white trigger poplin, but starting at the model’s actual knees, they flare into bell bottoms, slit up the sides and closed back up with Velcro. This is so we could get the stilts on and off, and keep them hidden. The bottom of the stilts were covered first with plastic mesh like you’d use for needlepoint, then overlapping cardboard plates, all covered with aluminum foil, similar in look to armored boots, only really, really big. I made a shirt, using one of the model’s dress shirts as a pattern, out of white dupioni silk, trimmed with silver. I used 2 “frogs” and hook and eye tape for the front closure, added ripped chiffon at the cuffs and old pearlescent buttons on the cuffs. We studied the “bowling pin” Nine Kings photo and went back and forth through the brief scene on Weathertop and decided on a sort of Asian look for the rest of the outfit. I made a long tunic of natural lightweight linen by cutting two strips of cloth long enough to go from the floor up and over shoulders and back down to the floor, then sewing in triangular gores at the waist line at center back and sides, making a fuller skirt. I made a wide “obi” type belt of linen, a smaller belt of white muslin with a fake buckle and those layers were just secured by velcro in the back. The tunic was permanently closed in the front by some old cool buckle pieces from my “junk stash”. Then the cloak—it was just layers and layers of chiffon, sparkle organza and gauze/cheesecloth, sewed together near the neckline and pinned to his shoulders. He wore white gloves and carried a plastic “Morgul Blade”. To top it all off, he found a great bargain basement old man’s mask, which he painted white and cut out the eyeholes for better visibility and greater comfort. I had an old white wig for hair, and he wore creepy red contacts. The crown was a work of art, done mostly by my client. We made a brim of cardboard cut from one of those “decorate your own” boxes at Ben Franklin. The spikes were made of balsa wood, shaped and sanded to replicate blades. The remainder of the crown was made of Sculpey and hotglued all together, followed by numerous and varied coats of paint. His final height was well over 8 feet. Tall.