Soujiro Seta
Rurouni Kenshin
Sword of Heaven
First worn to the Rurouni Kenshin photo shoot, spring 2010
Price wise I spent $40
Worked on this for about a month
My lovely friend Megan made an amazing Shishio costume for AFO, since then she has always wanted to put together a Kenshin cosplay group. After some talk amongst our friends we decided that it was a good idea and everyone began to pick their character. I had never cosplayed as a male character before but Soujiro Seta had always been on my list and this was a wonderful chance to finally give it a try.
I really wanted to do the version of Soujiro where he fights Kenshin before his confrontation with Shishio. This version is different slightly; his hakama are tied at the kneee, he wears knee high tabi socks, his sandals are tied to his feet and he wears arm guards.For this costume I used basic 100% cotton for both the top, pants and arm guards. Dee was a wonderful help with this costume; she helped me alter a robe pattern for the top and she also drafted a pattern for my hakama. The top of course was made extra long so that I had enough to tuck into my pants, the sleeves came out a bit too long and I will probably shorten them a few inches. All the bias on the top was hand made which meant I spent a lot of time with my iron. The pants were a huge obstacle to get over, seriously hakama were not meant to be tied at the knee it was a lot of trial and error. Once we had the pattern drafted we started to form all of the pleats in the front and back and made sure to have the slits in the side. The pants went a bit below the knee which was too short to tie so I added a 4 inch tie to the back of the pants and used that to pull them forward and tie them in place. I ended up tucking the extra fabric in to the ties and used a few safety pins to hold them in place.
Megan was nice enough to give me the perfect pair of sandals and I purchased some twine to attach to them. I didn't know how easy it was going to be until I saw a panel in the manga that showed he just literally ties them around the straps of the sandals and then around his ankle. For the arm guards I just used white fabric and ironed on some interfacing to stiffen them up, then I traced fabric paint around the edges to give it a raised edge. After that all I had to do was hammer in some grommets and I looped elastic cord through them and made a loop for my finger. The velcro I sewed on ended up not holding very well so I just used some elastic bands around my wrist and below my elbow to keep them tightly in place.
I had a backless white collared shirt that I wore under the robe, I added two extra buttons so that it would button up all the way. To finish the look Dee flat ironed my short brown flip wig and Indra gave me some good cross-play make up tips. I had an amazing time wearing this costume and getting to glare insanely at the camera.
I had a backless white collared shirt that I wore under the robe, I added two extra buttons so that it would button up all the way. To finish the look Dee flat ironed my short brown flip wig and Indra gave me some good cross-play make up tips. I had an amazing time wearing this costume and getting to glare insanely at the camera.