Londo Mollari VERSION 01 Londo's like Quent, not really my body type and not the best character for me, but quite a fun persona to do. The idea came from someone prompting me to do a skit with her Princess Leia costume, mentioning she liked Babylon 5, me coming up with a genius script, and then her cancelling on me. By then I was already committed to the costume so it was too late to change. So, it has quite an unnerving and frustrating backstory but it did provide this year's complex project up to Balticon standards, and the solo skit I whipped up is definitely something to be proud of. The purple suede was a great find. Obviously intended for the coat, but I also used it inside-out for the lining (and pockets). So I have lining that looks darker and different than the outside even though it's the exact same fabric. I went through so many ideas for the gold elements of the jacket and my first several plans all involved creating them myself, but then I found this amazing super-thick gold strap split down the middle. This strap was just so perfect. And expensive too, so I returned stuff all the gold fabric I didn't need. The strap being split down the middle saved me from having to create that effect myself. It was perfect for the front of the coat. I just had to cut little triangles of gold satin (of course, that SAME gold satin I've been using since Palpatine!), hem them with glue, then glue them onto the tips of the straps. Slick little slits down the middle made it so that I could sew the gold buttons directly onto the coat and literally slipt them through the gold straps. My gold straps are therefore functional: one could, in theory, unbutton them from one side, flip them back and button them onto the other side, effectively closing the coat. I doubt the actual coat from the show does that. Of course it probably looks like hell and I didn't even bother to try it, but it's a personal accomplishment knowing it can do it. I also used more lengths of that strap and the same buttoning trick to make the shoulder-top straps. There was also super-shiny bias tape for the edges. For the cuffs, I sewed more Palpatine gold satin on the inside of the sleeve (so it could be folded over), then ran exactly twelve decorative seams about half-a-centimeter apart along it, and finished it with more bias tape. Then, the collar. By far the most finicky aspect of the whole coat. Started with a nice fancy decorative strap onto which I sewed two smaller straps then used gold thread to properly hide the edges. Something like that. Lots of minutia work. Then the two shiny buttons finished it. That coat sounds compicated, but the vest was actually by far the most complex piece. Different kinds of gold satin were used for the lining and the outside. I had to fabric-paint those random pointy designs of gold, brown and black all over the outside AND lining of the two front panels, as well as the collar. I had to paint the lining because the lapels flip out. Another reason was that I changed my mind as to which side was going to be the lining and which was going to be the outside halfway through, by which time I'd already painted most of the side that was now going to become the new lining. Lots of extra work but I don't regret it. Gives me stuff to yak about at judges' table. It's also incredibly hard to paint smooth areas with fabric paint but I managed it. But the hardest part was yet to come: the black and gold trim. I don't know if the B5 designers had access to trim that was already black with a gold line down the middle, but I had to make my own. First I added black tape to the whole vest, front and back. Then I added gold trim smack down the middle of that bias tape, both inside AND outside. Again, I had to do the inside because of those damn lapels that flip out. It was insane sewing one trim and then sewing another on the other side, trying to make them match up exactly. AND this stuff FLAKES! I thought I'd learned my lesson with Palpatine all those years back. I just had to be very, very careful. And since zigzaging across made it look ugly, I had to sew carefully down one side and then the other. And let's not even talk about how heinous those corners and tips were. And I was using very expensive metallic thread throughout this whole thing, too. At least I didn't have to add gold trim to the back of the vest, just like I didn't paint the back either. Finally, this leaves the magnets. Found perfect checkboard fabric to make the closures, snapped the back piece off some metal buttons and painted them to make the center irridescent ivory, then hot-glued the magnets. An extra couple of little pieces that attach onto the vest are those weird cuff things I saw under Londo's wrist when he waved. They just looked like long shapes running up his wrist with two buttons on them. They obviously have some kind of practical purpose on the actual coat, but mine works fine without them. This means I only had to worry about doing them for visual and accuracy purposes. I made two tube-shaped pieces of interfaced gold satin dotted with a couple of button holes each. Having added some shiny gold buttons on the cuffs of the sleeves, those two mystery pieces could then button onto the cuff and fulfill their completely useless purpose. Working my way further in we get to the shirt. The shirt was very plain but still a lot of work. I used more of my little 'hook and eye' leftovers instead of buttons. The fabric itself isn't just plain white. When you look carefully you can see some fine curvy prints. It's actually made all the more difficult to detect given that the shirt is fully lined (two layers on top of each other muddles up the details of the print to some extend) but you can still see it up close. That's yet another level of detail that comes up as you move in closer. See, most costumes start revealing all their flaws when you move in closer, but this is one that instead shows greater and greater levels of complexity and detail the closer you look. Speaking of detail, I did catch a shot of Londo's shirt showing a seam on the breasts of the front, just like that seam across the back that all dress shirts have. And so I went out of my way to re-create that, too. The cufflinks were actual cufflinks from the vintage thrift store up my street. I obtained buttons with a round mirror-like surface, snapped off the back of them (just like I'd done for those buttons I used with the vest's magnets) and hot-glued them onto the cufflinks. Anytime you see anything underneath Londo's vest lapels, you see red. Either he wears a red shirt with white sleeves (which would be awkward) or he has a kind of red ascott. I went for the latter. So I made this red triangle out of shiny red leftover from my Quent bottle 'flames', attached to a single length of red ribbon that snaked through a series of rings to make an adjustable piece. I'm rather proud of the logic I displayed in making that piece. I didn't invent anything here: they've been making neck pieces like this for ages, I'm simply proud of having reverse-engineered the process in my head. The shots of the pants I could catch from the show depicted them remarkably featureless. Just very dark gray and fairly close-fitting. That's exactly how I made them. Fully lined, with pockets, and since you never see the waist line I was free to fasten them any way I wanted. I chose a pair of fancy metal hooks. The boots were fairly featureless, too. After hours of internet research and the conclusion that eBay just doesn't have any cheap tall boots, I settled on my old Kanda boots. Beat up as they were I had to hot-glue pieces back on and painted over the scuffed parts. The props were a massive job, as expected. All Wonderflex, all fully gold leafed. The belt is borderline between prop and garment but making it out of Wonderflex like the broaches was really the only way to go because of the intricate relief detail work on it. I started with a single layer of Wonderflex shaped to go around my waist, then added one or two layers all around the rim of it. From that point I just went nuts adding random designs. I actually made a decent effort to recreate the front part visible on the pictures, but beyond that it was just random shapes. Then the complete leafing job on the outside (on the inside I just used cheap gold leaf paint). I also must say that this is the first job I've made with this new Wonderflex 2.0 with smooth side. No more ugly mesh if you're careful to expose the correct side! It sure paid off: I didn't have any smoothering job to do on this piece. No resin, no gesso, no sanding. Just applied the leafing directly. And finally the magnets. After two of these super-strong very expensive magnets it's still not very stable. Well the ones on the vest only had a few layers of fabric to work through. These guys on the belt have several millimeters of Wonderflex between them! So I think a physical little hook of some kind wouldn't hurt. I cut out the shape of the chest broach from paper first then from Wonderflex to get the base, onto which I kept adding relief shapes until it was just right. I think I'd cast the dark jewel in advance (with a Wonderflex mold I made myself), so it'd be ready to embed directly into the activated Wonderflex when the piece was done. Some hot glue also insured it would stay. Finally the leafing, and the magnets. The matching magnet for this piece was glued directly on the inside of the coat. The last piece is the neck broach. I made a red jewel with the same mold and glued onto the broach, which was a fairly simple triangular shape with a big of depth. I then glued onto the back of it some pin backings. So it essentially pins onto the coat. Each edge pins onto one of the sides of the coat. This means the two sides of the coat never have to quite come together, which is good because the neck area ended up being a bit tight. Finally you can't have a Centauri costume without that Centauri hairdo. I got a medium-length lace-front wig (my first!) and spiked the hell out of it by laying the wig head flat on the table. Then, because the hair was way too thin to create the necessary effect, I cut off strands of hair from a 'hair-on-track' package, sprayed them, then glued them onto the roots of the wig. After several batches of those extra strands it began looking like something. It was good enough for one day at a con but the whole thing will definitely need reinforcing in the future. I almost forgot to talk about my masquerade prop. Well just as well because it belongs to the costume even less than all my Wolf's Rain apparati. It was also extremely simple: a recycled thick cardboard tube used as poles onto which I hot-glued a long piece of black lining fabric (that's all I had that was big enough in my leftovers). On one side I fabric-painted 'K*O*S*H' in M*A*S*H fonts and on the other 'Babylon Five-0' with the Babylon 5 fonts. I had just barely enough yellow paint to do it all. - J-F Bibeau