Carmilla and Charlotte

EDIT: Here is the reference collage I compiled for Carmilla, for those not familiar with the character.
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I competed in another contest lol! Truly, I did NOT mean to make two costumes in 5 weeks and enter two giant contests within 3 weeks.... but with how full my work schedule has been all year, there was only a 1 and 1/2 month break available to me where I could work on my own costumes. And all the contests I would consider entering are usually at the height of summer during my busy season, so there is no way for me to prepare anything for them.

So New York Anime Fest came at a great time and the Yume Cosplay Contest was an event with a thoughtful and generous prize from the organizers. No other US convention has been that generous to cosplayers before, and in my opinion, valued our community enough to want to put such an award forth (more often than not, costume contest winners get a certificate, that's it. Maybe sometimes donated items from dealers... I sometimes feel like certain cons don't understand HOW much work all the contestants put into their entries, and don't value Cosplay as an entity enough to put more effort/budget into their contests.) The Yume Prize however means a paid vacation to Japan, Invitation to attend Tokyo Anime Faire and $1000 shopping spree in Tokyo.

I hadn't competed at an anime con for 7 years prior to this past weekend but I was intrigued and welcomed the challenge of creating something worthy of such a contest.

My friend Klytaemnestra (Anna) and I chose Vampire Hunter D and we made our respective Carmilla and Charlotte costumes within a month and a half. Amazingly, we were chosen as the winners of the Yume contest.

I am off to another con right now (Realmscon, Corpus Christy, TX) so I don't have time to make a real construction report right now, but I answered a lot of questions for www.girlsentertainmentnetwork.com and they put up an article of our NYAF Yume experience. It has lots of info and more photos/videos from the contest.
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Also, for those interested in seeing our skit, check this link, thanks!
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Lastly, thank you, Dressdragn (Anna Fisher), for the lovely (and fast) photos!!!

Other Deviations of this costume: