Barbara

Genshin Impact

Status: Retired
~$170
Bought and worn in 2022

Cosplay has changed a lot since I first started, and any popular series generally has pre-made costumes available for purchase, so I tried DokiDoki for the first time and bought their SSR Barbara costume and matching wig. It included everything except for the boots, which I made on my own to match (as always, from a thrifted pair of boots with Angelus Paints and fabric glued on).

This costume from DokiDoki definitely seems well-made. I didn’t spot any flyaway threads, and the fabric is not see-through. The details are impressive! The book that comes with the costume is where effort seems to have been skimped upon. The fabric covering appears screenprinted, but it wasn’t aligned well, so there was just a…strip of orange on the edge? It was odd, and I colored over it with a fabric paint pen. The “pages” are a cardboard box, which is probably what I would do to save some money and make a prop on a budget, but it definitely stands out as a lack of effort when compared to the dress.

The dress also comes with invisible straps to help keep it on, since it’s largely off-shoulder, and that was an important part for me!

Some of the odds and ends of the costume didn’t survive the shipment in one piece, which wasn’t entirely their fault, though I do wish they had packaged those parts more safely. I used some super glue to put them back together, and I ended up gluing them to the costume itself rather than pinning them on with the pins that they originally used as attachment. This way, they stay more flat against the fabric as opposed to dangling. (This does mean that the costume has to be spot-cleaned, but that’s how I clean 90% of my cosplays anyway.)

I never ended up bringing this to a convention because this was during more peak covid times, and I didn’t want to risk going to Anime NYC in 2022 in light of a surge of infections, so I wore it for a photoshoot, and it’s been in my cosplay since, because I’ve also since fallen out of playing Genshin Impact. (I built my Barbara to be a DPS unit. For fun!)

Photos by Ethereous