Tag: cosplay couture

Cosplay Couture Khan

From the archives December 2013:

Cosplay Couture interpretation of Khan Noonien Singh/John Harrison from Star Trek: Into Darkness

Costume (Shirt, jacket and coat) and styling by Courtney Coulson

Photography by Luke Milton

Location Claremont Quarter carpark

I love Star Trek, Benedict Cumberbatch, Khan and the costume designer Michael Kaplan and this year they all came together in one to create a seriously cool villain.

The moment I saw Khan I was in love with his fashion-forward look, Benedict always rocks the long coats and high collars. And that hair, I had to get it cut like that whether I did this shoot or not, it’s so damn cool!

My auburn hair has kind of become a signature part of my look throughout these shoots, but every once in awhile I find it’s not approriate for a certain character, Khan being one of them. I used a temporary rinse, the auburn still kind of shows through, but it’s darker at least.

I spent a long time really considering the designs and styling, I redesigned the silver coat a few times. The black jacket is a reference to the shirt he wears once he has been taken aboard the Enterprise with subtle nods to the other variations of the Starfleet uniform. For these designs I was looking at asymmetry and complex lines, triangular shapes being my main inspiration. There’s something about triangles that are aggressive and masculine to me.

Khan wears five coats in total, two silver, one black and one brown, the fifth being the alternate brown coat he wears in some promotional photos which has a similar but distinctly different look to the one used in the film. My silver coat is a mash-up of all of them. I chose silver because nothing sells the idea of futuristic like silver. The upper half is lined with a silk/cotton which was originally peach, when I dyed it grey it still retained a lot of that pinky quality on the other side. Unfortunately it doesn’t really read on camera but it does have an odd shimmery quality, grey with flecks of pinks and purple. The collar and right lapel is quilted, which was the most time consuming part. The lower half of the coat was left deliberately unlined to keep it as light as possible, it creates quite a dramatic look when walking or it’s windy.

And it was pretty windy when we shot, great for the coat, but not so much for the hair. I had to use so much product and continually comb it to keep it up. Thankfully Khan has it down just as often as he has it slicked back so I had options to play with.

The last time I “played” Benedict, in my Sherlock shoot, I kept the make-up fairly subtle and androgynous, it was all about trying to emulate the shape of his face. This time around I did pretty much the same thing with the exception of the eyes. I went with a really heavy all black smokey eye, because nothing says fashionably badass quite like it!

Finally the biggest challenge turned out to be body language/mannerisms. I have spent quite a while studying the way Khan moves, it’s this distinct, rigid economy of movement. He’s got the posture of a supersoldier as you would expect. Although he gets to move around a lot in combat, his general state of being is standing or sitting perfectly straight with only the slightest robotic tilts of his head. Usually I try to mix a bit of fashion modelling in there, but it felt wrong for Khan, in fact a lot of things did. So Khan ended up being more subtle in a way, I focused on channelling that imposing unnatural posture, the intense facials expressions.

-Courtney Coulson

Courtney is by far a bigger fan than I am of this particular character, and to be honest it wasn’t something I was overly excited about when we first started discussing this one. However, seeing the amazing designs for the jacket quickly changed my mind. I love the sleekness and audaciousness of futuristic clothing – it’s hard thing to get right, but I think Courtney managed to find that balance. I knew straight away that the silver jacket was going to be the star of the shoot and she ended up making the very impressive black under jacket as well.

Location wise this was all about finding sleek, white, metal environments. The car park is a little grungier than I intended but I still think it works. Khan is often seen operating within the futuristic city in the film, so it’s not a bad fit, even when nondescript signage and things appear in the background. I really wanted these to almost look black and white, with the main bursts of colour being the lips and eyes. The goal was to make things as slick as absolutely possible.

Luke Milton

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Cosplay Couture Henry V

From the archives, October 2013:

Cosplay Couture interpretation of Prince Hal from the Hollow Crown

Costume and styling by Courtney Coulson (jacket, t-shirt and cape)
Photography by Luke Milton Photography
Sword by Jack Barbour

Shot in King’s Park

I absolutley love Tom Hiddleston’s performance as Prince Hal/Henry V, I thought his costume was cool too, but completely inaccurate for something supposed to be set in the medieval ages. That said, the clothing of that era is not very appealing so I can understand why they didn’t want to go that direction. Then I remembered that these plays were originally performed in “modern” clothing, so I looked at 16th century costume and decided it made more sense for Hal and I wouldn’t have to deviate too much from the costume in the series.

Just as with all Cosplay Couture, this was about representing not just Hal in terms of appearance but also examining his character, personality and history.
It took me a while of researching before I decide on a punk/glam rock approach.
As a prince he was a scapegrace, reckless and rebellious but as a king he was said to be the epitome of a leader, a particularly defining quote is this one: “Depending on his mood, his eyes flashed from the mildness of a dove’s to the brilliance of a lion’s”

I had a lot to work with, the plays cover a great deal of his life plus he was based on a real person. This was definitely an interesting and complex man and I wanted to represent that duality of who he was as a prince and who he became as a king.

The t-shirt, which I made, then painted and burned has the Lancaster house symbol as well as a bit of bloodspatter representing the Battle of Agincourt. The glove in the belt is a nod to the one he swapped with a soldier in the camp whilst he was in disguise. The jacket came together in a really short time, I worked on it for about two days non-stop. It was based on a doublet but I added modern features like the buttons and the zippers and the printed lining to update it.
The scalemail scarf and the bracers I had in my collection for ages but I like how they walk that line between armour and fashion.

I didn’t have to do much with my hair as I did deliberatley cut it to look like his and my hair is red anyway. The make-up was fun, taken right from the 80’s with the bright clashing colours, to get the lipstick to match the jacket I mixed a red with a black.
In terms of physicality, I again had a contrast of playing regal and a rockstar so I had freedom to get serious or playful.

-Courtney Coulson

I have not yet sat through the source material, but was very much sold by the rock slant of Courtney’s re-design and the possibilities of that incredible jacket.

I am rapidly discovering that, location-wise, the most important thing seems to be finding somewhere with a palette that compliments the character. Even in a place as large and lush as (the aptly named) King’s Park we quickly discovered that not all trees and bushes were created equal, and we really had to hunt for those special spots with particular colours and textures, and shelter from the sun. But my favourite place was probably the sculptural metal wall – not something that immediately springs to mind for Hal, but strangely appropriate when paired with the clothes.

And, no! She’s not Joffrey!

– Luke Milton

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Cosplay Couture Tintin

From the archives, October 2013

A Cosplay Couture interpretation of Tintin

Costume (pants) by Courtney Coulson
Photography by Luke Milton in collaboration with Sabatomic Photography

Shot in Atlantis, the abandoned theme park


Tintin has such a simple yet iconic look with a very distinct colour palette, which made him a perfect candidate for a couture treatment. The sweater was a lucky find on ebay, everything else came from my wardrobe already, including the breeches which were originally from my Road to El Dorado Miguel costume.
Hair was tricky to get to stay in place as it was a windy day, fortunatley it’s behaving in these shots.
Make-up is light and all pinks to give a more young, cute kind of look, just like Tintin!

-Courtney Coulson

The most hostile environment, where we battled overgrown paths and giant spiders, but what is Tintin without adventure? I was drawn to the odd statues although they are more comical than old-worldly and it was tricky to take out the clues that many of them are near visible shops and car parks. The real treasure was the rocky landscape that we found in the heart of the theme park which looked far more exotic than the rest of it. I think that much of what we shot would look beautiful in black and white but when you lose the iconic colours of Tintin’s costume you risk losing the sense of the character.


-Luke Milton

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Cosplay Couture Herbie the Lovebug

Photography by @itzu.me
Car belongs to @inatski

Costume and makeup by me


I think I drew the design for this costume about a year ago, then just this past weekend I finally got to bring it to life with a beautifully restored Beetle at my side. I can’t thank my collaborators enough for helping me with this project, it couldn’t have happened without you.

The design process was simple, I envisioned Herbie as a youthful and cheeky tomboy, I took elements from 1960’s fashion as well as race car driver uniforms and accessories. I looked at the likes of Twiggy and Audrey Hepburn for inspiration. I knew I needed a round hat to really evoke the shapes of the Volkswagen, and the dress is a simple A-line silhouette, it was best to keep things clean and minimal and let the stripes do all the talking.

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Cosplay Couture Sherlock

From the archives, October 2013

A cosplay couture interpretation of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes
Costume (coat and hat) and styling by Courtney Coulson
Photography by Luke Milton

Translating the BBC Sherlock Holmes into a fashion interpretation was surprisingly easy, it’s such a beautiful and iconic costume to begin with. The coat remains relatively unchanged from the original as does the scarf and purple shirt, though they are made of finer quality materials.All I really had to do was add the leather pants and boots to give it more of an edge.

As for hair and make-up, I made my hair as fluffy as possible, though mine is shorter than Benedicts’, the make-up was fun because Benedict’s face has a lot to draw from. I emphasised my cheeks and my upper lip and eyes and yet kept it subtle to maintain an androgynous look.

We shot in various parts of the city of Perth, most of the locations were lucky discoveries, amazing what you can find when you just wander around.

-Courtney Coulson

This shoot was all about exploring the city and poking around all the back alleys that we’d normally quickly walk past. We were focused on a very urban feel, but then it was nice to veer into the more serene setting of the church steps as well. This was the first time shooting while a lot of other people were around but it’s amazing how comfortable you feel and how much you can get away with while brandishing a camera.

I had no other equipment other than the camera itself so shooting on the exposed rooftop was especially challenging with all that direct sunlight. This was definitely a baptism of fire.

-Luke Milton

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