Louis Cosplay: Vest

After many trials and tribulations, and failing to find a waistcoat in my price range that would work for Louis, I ended up settling on this gold brocade gothic/steampunk waistcoat from Darkrock.

(March 2023 edit: This gold paisley and velvet waistcoat from Darkrock is closer to the on Louis wears, but it either wasn't available or I missed it when I was originally putting together this cosplay. Alas!)

It looked... fine, but a few simple tweaks made a notable difference to the overall vibe.

The first was simply painting over the cheap plastic buttons. They stood out like a sore thumb with the brown and gold color scheme, so I painted them with a dark bronze color I happened to have in my ancient stash of Games Workshop miniatures paints. I didn’t even bother removing the buttons to paint them. Instead, I wrapped the vest in kitchen plastic wrap and taped the shit out of it so I could use a spray topcoat to seal the paint (also leftover from an earlier project)

 

Here it is with just painted buttons but not yet hemmed, to illustrate the difference just that made to the look. 🥰

I also took in the sides so it fit better and hemmed it to be straight across the bottom, which is more period-appropriate and accurate to the film.

And here's the final result! These are small changes, but I think they make a big difference!

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