Modesty's Costume Closet

 Kitsune or fox characters are not strictly a Japanese only thing. There is a Korean and Chinese version. European and Native American cultures have their own version of fox beings. I mention this because although my titles say "kitsune", I'm lumping in other fox traditions too. (And I wanted to pretend I'm not as ignorant as I may seem. *hiding*)  Your fox can be red! For this costume concept, the most identifying or Iconic Feature is:  Tails and Ears. That's right, foxes have distinctive tails, ears, and markings but kitsune are specially identified by these features. Specific types of Kitsune have multiple tails. (Kyuubi has 9 tails.) This is certainly a feature we must consider... Considerations for Kitsune/Fox Person Costume When coming up with your costume design, these are things to take into consideration during the planning phase:  Number of Tails : At the minimum, one tail is expected. However, as previously mentioned, some versions of the creature have

 Arguably, the most difficult part of the horse half are the legs. They are oddly articulated and thin. When translating that into a costume, it becomes a bit of an issue because if the leg structure is not sturdy, it will make the horse half very heavy and droopy.  So, let's look at the source!  Horse Anatomy 101 Hind Leg Bones This is what the bones of the horse's hind leg look like. Already it looks like things are pointing in every which way! But from the bottom up we have the hoof bone (coffin), the pastern (toe bone), fetlock joint (technically like a knuckle joint but it looks like an ankle), cannon bone (the tarsal bones of your foot), the hock joint (like your heel and ankle), Tibia, knee joint, femur, hip socket into the pelvis. This skeleton shows a bit of spine.  While this may look complicated, it can be simplified.  Simplified Skeletons When creating the hind legs for our costume, this simplified skeleton will help serve as our guide for measurements and joint pla

 Obviously one of the most challenging parts of the costume is the horse half. Horses are particularly tricky creatures to recreate. There are a few ways to make it more accessible or challenging depending on what you want to do and what your skill level is.  To make the costume as convenient as possible, you want to make sure the horse half stays light-weight and balanced.  Inspiration References First, let's consider various depictions of centaurs or horses throughout media and history.  Some of the more popular or at least what I know are Disney's Fantasia, Chronicles of Narnia (BBC and Disney), and a Wrinkle in Time.  For horses, we can look at My Little Pony, Spirit Stallion of Cimarron, again Disney's Fantasia, or the myriad of horse characters from animations.    These depictions of centaurs and horses (particularly in animation) can simplify the design of the horse in ways that may make the creation of our costume design much easier. Pay attention to how they handle

This is going to be one of my first series of costume concept designs giving you tools and ideas to make your own version of this concept. I have a few other creatures in mind but we'll start with the toughest: the centaur/centauress.  Now, to be honest, I have not yet attempted to make this myself. These are my design musings. I borrow heavily on my past costuming experience and what I've gleaned from tutorials. Some of the tutorials that were particularly helpful for my research are:  Ginny Di's   Centaur of Attention Book  and Video .  Kopolenske's Walking Centaur Instructables Trilemma Adventures: Halloween moving Centaur And Write of Passage's WordPress Blog   Then I looked at other people's attempts at this costume and tried to decipher what they did.  This will be a series of blog posts that will act as guides for different parts of this costume. Centaur Body Design Considerations Concepting a Character Building up a Horse Body Suggestions for Horse Legs