Costume Details

Where to begin with this monster of a project! I started this costume with the intention of challenging myself in many ways and hoped it would give a huge boost to all of my crafting skills across the board. It took over a year to make and was just as much a mental challenge as it was a physical one. Not even one single component of it seemed like it would be easy — and I was right! To briefly summarise the main components…

• Boots: Combined traditional shoe-making techniques for the soles with the classic cosplay method of stretchy boot covers, including rubber-cast flexible parts for the thigh “garters” and ankle details. I used Polytek Poly PT Flex 60 Liquid Casting Rubber, poured into a mould brushed with gold casting powder. This was my first time ever casting using flexible materials and it was very tricky due to the short working time of the rubber combined with the intricacy of the piece. I love the final results though!

• Skirts: As with most designs in Genshin Impact, these skirts completely defy the laws of physics by appearing to flow naturally, whilst also holding a very rigid, well-formed shape. I achieved this by using heavyweight interfacing for the main yellow skirts, which were supported underneath by a bustle pad and voluminous white circle skirt.

• Bodice: The bodice construction started with making a steel-boned overbust corset, which provided shape and helped support the weight of the aforementioned skirts. This was another first for me! The bodice itself was a patterning nightmare, due to all the strange layers which was also partially supported with additional spiral steel boning.

• Vinyl: Like many previous Genshin cosplays of mine, Navia included a lot of heat transfer vinyl! I chose to combine different shades of gold glitter HTV alongside black flocked HTV. I discovered flocked HTV through this project and have since fallen in love with it! I think it especially complements the navy furnishing velvet fabric that I used on other parts of the costume to add to the overall opulent feel. As usual, I make all my vinyl SVG files using the sketch tool in Fusion360.

• Wig: Without a shred of doubt, this was by far the single most challenging thing I have ever made! This was my first time making a “helmet”-style base, which consisted of a hard-shell wig cap made from batting and metal strips. The structure for the drill curls was formed by shaping aluminium wire, then wrapping it in tape and hot gluing on more batting. I then had to painstakingly glue on wefts of wig hair onto every part of the wig, which took at least 20 hours for each drill curl! In total, this wig took almost 6 months to make and was a true test of patience.

• Umbrella: A deceptively complex part of the costume! Navia’s specific umbrella comprises of 6 spokes with a curved pagoda shape — unfortunately, this exact combination of umbrella frame does not exist in real life! So I had to purchase a 12-spoked pagoda umbrella, dismantle the frame to remove every second spoke then assemble it all back together to create my desired 6-spoked frame. Patterning the cover was also tricky due to the delicate balance between the tension required to keep it taught whilst also allowing the umbrella to open and close freely. Overall, it took remaking the cover 3 times to arrive at the final version.

I started this cosplay in September 2023, and finally finished it in November 2024. I entered it in the UK Crown Championships of Cosplay qualifier at MCM Birmingham later that month, which I placed 1st in! I later went onto win 3rd place at the global finals in Chicago at C2E2 in April 2025, which was truly a dream come true and a fitting end to the Navia journey. Despite having cosplayed for over 10 years, I hadn’t ever placed in a major contest like this before so it really made it all feel worth it in the end.

In between contests, I was also able to bring Navia to Vienna where I shot her with my dear friend Malimoria at the beautiful Palais Daun-Kinsky. I couldn’t ask for a more beautiful set of photos to show off my most elaborate creation thus far.