batman – Travian Designs

Dark Knight Rises Catwoman

From the archives, 2012

Costume and make-up by Courtney Coulson

Photography by Luke Milton

I made this costume to wear to the opening night screening of the Dark Knight Rises. 2012 was a wonderful year for movies, I have many happy memories going to opening nights in costumes with my mates, usually preceded by a pre-screening party; Batman, Avengers, Men in Black 3, Prometheus, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Dredd. I don’t know what it was about that year, but the blockbusters were big and fun and coming in rapid succession. I haven’t been that excited about modern cinema since then. Or maybe there’s just something special about that time of your life, being in your early 20’s, in university, particularly an arts university. We had the time and freedom to turn little things like going to the cinema into big events.

The bodysuit was made by me, the gloves and boots I already had. The mask was a fun challenge. It was made from leather that I engraved myself. The head mounted goggles were constructed from Lego pieces with the assistance of my father. It’s the one time he ever worked on a costume with me.

These photos are stunning, some of Luke’s best. They’re my mother’s favourites too, they’re still in her bookcase.

July 7, 2025 by Courtney Coulson Categories: CostumesTags: Anne Hathaway, batman, Catwoman, DC Leave a comment

Cosplay Couture Robin (Carrie Kelly)

From the archives, February 2014:

Cosplay Couture interpretation of Carrie Kelley as Robin from the Dark Knight Returns

Costume and styling by Courtney Coulson

Photography by Luke Milton

Location Claremont

I’ve always been a huge fan of Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns. The female Robin is a nice twist but what I’ve always loved about the design is that it’s very androgynous. As a teenager first seeing Carrie Kelley Robin I wasn’t even sure if it was a boy or a girl. I think it’s the glasses that really make this one. Without them it could be any Robin, but with them it’s definitely Carrie.Location wise the goal was to keep this as absolutely simple as possible. Miller uses very sparse backgrounds, and there’s so much iconic colour in the Robin costume itself that I didn’t want anything competing it. We waited until the sun started going down and tried to get some striking, colourful shots with the Robin character spotlighted.

– Luke Milton

This is my first superhero Cosplay Couture and while I like comic characters, they are re-designed all the time, whether it be by official sources or the fans. They are also very much tied to their specific colour schemes and logos. It’s a bit intimidating to try and adapt to fashion. But there’s something about Carrie that just spoke to me, I love her androgynous look, I love that her costume is just thrown together and mostly from a halloween costume. She’s scrappy, she’s plucky, she’s my Robin.

My intention was to create an outfit that felt as if she had found all these items in her own wardrobe and there are many practical items in this outfit, for example the cape has been replaced with a hood that sits like a collar. But of course I still wanted to keep that sense of fashion, the vest is the statement piece and the utmost attention was payed to the tailoring. Overall the silhouette had to be sleek. As for the make-up, I decided to go with black lipstick as it’s bold and lends itself to the graphic (novel) look.

-Courtney Coulson

June 8, 2025 by Courtney Coulson Categories: cosplay coutureTags: batman, comics, cosplay, costume, DC, dc-comics, fashion, robin Leave a comment

Arkham City Bane Cosplay- One Day Build

This was a heap of fun to put together, I was on @thebatminute and one of the hosts, Niall asked if I could make a Bane costume for the promo photo. I couldn’t resist the challenge, in less than a week (and with less than $10) I had to throw this all together and get photos. Couldn’t have done it without the help of Alex for lending me parts of the costume, and helping me to build the rest (more details on the build in another post). And thanks to @sabkitten for shooting this in my apartment today with the most cobbled together lighting setup ever.

Bane is a character that’s always meant a lot to me, but I always dismissed the possibility of cosplaying as him, I’m just a tiny little girl, that would be ridiculous. But I’m beefier now than I used to be. I’m really happy with how these photos came out, I didn’t want to go for a cutesy or sexy version, I just wanted to be Bane, roided out, balls to the wall insane. He’ll blow up your plane. He’s coming for Bruce Wayne.