First worn – Anime Expo 2001
Ahhh Princess Zelda. I love Zelda so, so much. The Zelda series has always been one of my favorites. Zelda’s pink dress from Zelda II has secretly been my dream dress ever since I was young and inspired many drawings and dress designs throughout my childhood. To me, she was the perfect ideal princess. I loved her even more in A Link to the Past, but she really became something amazing in Ocarina of Time, where she became Sheik, had an active role in the storyline, and showed her power… all with the gentle grace and wisdom of a magical princess.
My friend actually suggested I do this cosplay. Ocarina of Time was his favorite game, and he wanted to be Link. It was my first time cosplaying a blond character, and I honestly didn’t think I could pull it off. As much as I always loved and admired Zelda, I never could imagine myself as her. It turns out I look good as a blond! I was delighted, and immediately added all the other versions of Zelda to my Wish List. 😉
This might be my #1 favorite costume. My parents and I put a lot of work into this costume and learned a lot from experimenting with new techniques and materials. I made the base of the armor out of thermoplastic and used a combination of illustration board, styrofoam, wooden beads, and paper clay for all of the gold pieces. My dad helped me cast ears out of latex. They didn’t turn out the greatest but they served their purpose (we had NO idea what we were doing). My mom did the sewing as usual, as I was still learning to sew at the time. I hand-painted the banner. (Personal quirk: I HATE embroidery. ESPECIALLY on animated characters. I feel the clean, sharp lines of paint suit the look and style much better.) Unfortunately, the one thing that held us back on this costume was the lack of reference pictures. My friend taped the ending sequence of Ocarina of Time on VHS so we could try to figure out what Zelda looked like. I also had 4 inch figure of Zelda, but of course there isn’t a great amount of detail. Pretty much all the details on my costume were made up or just plain wrong due to lack of reference. I was one of the very first Zelda cosplayers, probably for this same reason, and very few people recognized me. Someone even said, “Look, it’s Link and Deedlit!”
A FEW MONTHS LATER, Super Smash Bros. Melee was released, with Zelda as a playable character. FINALLY HI-RES REFERENCE…. and an onslaught of Zelda cosplay. Much more recently, I was able to find the reference image shown here. I love my Zelda costume, and it was very well received, but in order for me to fix it and make it accurate, I would have to start from scratch. Actually, I really want to, since it’s my favorite costume. Not sure if I’ll ever get around to it, though.