Becoming Gentleman Death in Silk and Lace. The Vampire Lestat Cosplay: Part 1

So, since I’ve reread the Vampire Chronicles this summer I’ve been absolutely obsessed with my fictional soul mate, The Brat Prince himself, Lestat. Before my first foray into Civil War reenacting I had been obsessed with the archetypical 18th Century fashion. Once I began to understand a little better about historical accuracy in the 1860’s the more I wanted to created the most accurate ensemble I could. It didn’t take long for me to start looking into the 18th century’s fashion the same way. I began to realize that my favorite period and geographic region was France in the mid 1700’s to about 1780’s more specifically the fashion that would been seen around the French Court at Versailles. And guess what Vampire Fop would have been hunting the streets of Paris dressed in a manner similar to that? Now, I’ll be completely honest, I am one of the most girly girls you could ever meet, so big pretty silk gowns, yes, Please! I would love to have une Robe à la Française, and big hair. But when it comes to the 18th century its all about the men’s fashion for me. Silk frock coats, waist coats, breeches, and stockings, be still my heart. My friends call it a fetish, some people like feet I like frock coats.

But what actually provoked my desire to create a Lestat costume? Well surprise surprise it was Pinterest. It was this little pin. Instantly I was obsessed with the idea of creating an outfit like this. All I would need was a pair of black velvet leggings and and poofy ‘poet’ shirt and where did I go to get that shirt? Jas Townsend and Sons. They sell accurate reenacting clothing mostly focusing on the American Revolutionary War, and, the French and Indian War to the turn of the century

and the early 19th century. This is also where I ordered my silk cravat from.

Then somehow I stumbled upon Dracula Clothing. They are a company based in Prague, and they specialized in Gothic and Steampunk clothing. Dracula Clothing also pride themselves on their reasonable prices and um, Free Shipping anywhere in the world. They have a line of women’s Frock coats. They aren’t historically accurate but for a first costume and something that I would like to wear on a non Lestat occasion it would be perfect. I also decided to pick up one of their mens vests in the matching pattern to the Frock coat so that’s my waistcoat. It should be arriving soon. Or not the USPS is on my shit list at the moment. First it was lost between Chicago and here and then it should have been here Thursday but it didn’t show up. I requested it be redelivered Friday. Then I get a notification that it cou

ldn’t be delivered, which makes no sense because I had another package arrive just fine. And the waist coat shouldn’t need a signature my frock coat didn’t. So I requested it be redelivered I signed the thing I requested it online on the tracking and nothing today either.

Breeches… Yeah, that was going to be a difficult. Historically accurate was going to expensive. Also I have an ass and thighs and hips and I’m just generally shaped a lot differently than an 18th gentleman so I would need custom so even more expensive. So… guess what works? ¾ length leggings.

My silk clocked stockings which are accurate to the period all the way up

through the American Civil War so they work for me for that too. These are from American Duchess. They sell beautiful historically accurate shoes. They have a pair of shoes that I wanted to get for this ensemble but 150 bucks and then 40 ish more for buckles I felt a little too guilty to spend the money. Especially since I don’t do any reenacting or living history for this period of time. So, I started looking for loafers with buckles. So my shoes are not historically accurate.

My shoes are from DSW. They are from London Rag, and the style is the Lindsey Loafer. They are black velvet, with a pointed and rose gold colored buckles with rhinestones and faux pearls. I ordered them in my normal size 9 (us womens) and they said it ran true to size… bullshit. I couldn’t get my foot in them. Like at all. So I reordered them in size 11 (us womens) They fit. The style also comes in cream and navy if you’re interested but order a bigger size!

So, now we come to the most important aspect of the costume, in my opinion, the blonde hair. So I do not have shoulder length, curly blonde hair. With the hair that is currently attached to my scalp I doubt I could even get away with cosplaying Louis. I might be able to get away with Antonio Banderas, Armand in the 1994 adaptation of Interview with the Vampire. I however could not cosplay book Armand. This is because my hair about to my waist and currently the color Amethyst Black, according to Schwarzkopf. I sat out to find me a

wig. Wigs are fucking expensive. I mean I figured real hair wigs would be pricey but I didn’t know how much synthetic wigs could be. Since I was putting so much effort into this there is NO way I’m going to put a bad plastic blonde wig on my head. So I started checking out cosplay wig websites. All I found was quite a bit more than what I wanted to spend. Then I found WIF, Wig is Fashion. It’s a company based in Hong Kong and China. I found a lace front wig that would do the trick and was in my price range. It took a a few weeks to get here since I only wanted to pay for the basic shipping. It’s nice. Its about the right color it’s a little shorter that I had hoped but I think part of that is my long thick hair. My hair makes it a little too small for my head. So the hair line in the front is going to be annoying but I have wig glue for that. And the sideburns are going to also cause me fits. But it might also be because I don’t know how to put on a wig properly.

As for my fangs I’m not happy with them. So about 10 years ago I bought the a pair of Dracula Fangs in medium just for fun. They were too big and obvious in my mouth. So this time I decied to try “Sexy Bites” in Small by the same company. They are still large for my mouth. I haven’t managed to get them to fit correctly with the wax either. The first pair I had no trouble with the wax with the fist pair. While scrolling though Amazon Prime the other day I came across YOHEE Vampire Fangs for like 6.50 so I ordered a pair. They are 13mm and a little smaller than the Small Sexy Bites. They do not come with an adhesive so I used the wax from the other and managed to get them in. These will likely be the fangs I use because its easier for me to speak with them in and it doesn’t look as obvious. They are a few shades whiter than my natural teeth so I’m going to be picking up some tooth whitener I guess. In a perfect world I would have truly custom made fangs with the same upper dental arcade that can be seen in the film Adaptation of Interview with the Vampire. Which to be honest still confuses me. The bite marks clearly show 3. But I can only ever count 2 in the mouth, oh well. But fancy fangs like that are in the 100’s of dollar range and I felt guilty for spending 20 bucks on the ones I bought.

So I ordered a pair of contacts from Coloured Contacts. But here’s the thing I’ve heard about how dangerous it can be to get contacts from not an optometrist. Part of that I assumed was because people were putting un sanitary things in their eyes that they bought at a shady gas station or something. But obviously there is more to it than that, not everyone’s eye are shaped the same or are the same size. But I’m going to be an idiot risk taker and try them. I figure if I don’t wear them long or often and keep them sanitary I should be okay, says the girl before she blinds herself. I don’t wear contacts to correct my vision so putting them in was a totally new experience. I’m not squeamish about my eyes so that wasn’t the problem. The contacts arrived in only a few days. As for the color of blue I don’t know if I like it or feel like its very Lestaty. They looked much lighter on the website. They have a blue that looks a lot like the dramatic blue that is present in a few scenes in Interview. But Lestat’s eyes are gray but reflect violet. So I don’t know what do you think?

I haven’t found any rings that I think would work well that actually fit me. But that’s a minor detail. But the most important accessory I will likely also be without, Louis. But what I do have is a big plush rat cat toy that Gypsy didn’t really like playing with. So I’ll take that and say I’m holding my date’s drink and ask if people have seen him, they wouldn’t be able to miss him he’s always whining after all! I hope I will have an Armand though.

I will do a final update when I’m all put together looking Lestaty. I still need to figure out how to contour my round face to have cheekbones a jaw and a narrow nose. But I’m super excited. Have you done any Vampire Chronicles cosplay? Any suggestions for me? What do you think about contacts? Do you have any experience with them? What about how to properly put on a wig? Thanks for reading!

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