Becoming Beidou from Genshin Impact!

I’m playing Genshin Impact already since 2021 and funnily enough, I got Diluc and Beidou in one of my very first pulls! Both are super strong characters and a great combo in the game. I immediately fell in love especially with Beidou’s character and her design! She is a mighty warrior wielding a massive claymore, the protector of the city Liyue and the Captain her own ship, the Crux. So, I was obviously incredibly excited when the developers of Genshin Impact, Hoyoverse, asked me to cosplay as Captain Beidou from the Crux! 

Genshin Impact cosplays are special though. They might look simple at the first sight – especially since cosplay shops are selling them for really low prices and good quality. Creating such a cosplay from scratch though reveals quite fast it isn’t that easy though. My main reference for this costume was actually the Games Fashion Archives. This website contains plenty of 3D models from various video games and it was just perfect to fully unterstand Beidou’s outfit and all her details. 

Sewing Beidou’s dress

I used the duct tape pattern technique to get all the patterns of the dress right. This means, my husband Benni wrapped me first in duct tape, we drew all shapes on and then finally cut me free again. The templates were then traced on simple linen fabric. The final result was a perfect fit and I only finished the look with the cape, with I draped freely. I don’t trust my patterning skills much, but I never failed using the duct tape method. Finally I used a dress form  to do a last fitting test. Luckily I’m pretty close to a standard size 38 EU and so I’m even able to create patterns directly on the dress form. 

Next on it was finally time to trace all parts onto my final material. I considered getting some fancy dupioni silk , but ended up using a very heavy, slightly shimmering silk instead. I’m personally not a fan of buying fabrics online, so I sadly cannot give you a link here. But I got my fabric from a little fabric shop in Düsseldorf run by a very lovely old lady. I would say, it’s always worth to check out physical shops and support local vendors. I also only buy online if my fabric haul wasn’t successful at all. 

The next step was to sew everything together. Since cosplay is my job I’m actually using two machines: A Brother Innovis 550 SE as a main machine and a more simply Brother Innovis 50 for backup and emergencies. However, I personally would say that a standard sewing machine  is completely fine if you want to get into sewing yourself. And as you can see, creating a costume is not really about having the best machine, but getting the patterns right. The result looked already pretty satisfying and I was now super excited to add all the details!

Adding the Details

I also still had to do the cape. Luckily its shape was rather simple and only the lining and details took quite some work. You surely agree though, that the red silk is absolutely gorgeous! The rest of the fabric were golden and black vinyls, which Benni cut out using our laser cutter from Flux. It’s a super handy machine and we use it a lot to speed up our work. Additionally, I hand-stitched a purple lining inside the dress and the cape. I could obviously also use the sewing machine, but I actually prefer the look of hand-stitched invisible seams. 

Next on, my friend Dewil Cosplay, who is selling gorgeous Genshin Impact Visions on Instagram, made me a custom vision just for my Beidou cosplay. Benni and I actually filmed the process of the whole Beidou cosplay. So don’t miss watching the making of video at the end of this blog on on my Youtube channel. 

So, once I got all the details, it was finally time to apply everything. A huge part of the detail work was done with laser cut vinyl. I surely could also cut out everything by hand, however, as we had a very tight schedule, Benni and I had to work as fast and efficient as possible. So, while I was still working on the dress, Benni already made all vector files himself and cut them out with our laser. I personally only have experience with our Flux laser, but if you are interested, you might also want to check out the laser cutter machines from Glowforge . 

All 3D printed pieces like the golden and silver details were sculpted by the Dangerous Ladies btw.!

The gloves, tights and shoes

The last costume elements were the gloves and tights. I used here a stretch faux leather, a thicker black pleather and golden laser cut vinyl details. I actually really enjoyed working with the Ultrapreme material from Joann’s. It’s one of the very few stretch pleathers that doesn’t tear when you stretch them. In addition, I highly recommend amazon link=”B01N3XZCGY” title=”HT2 fabric glue from Guetermann” /]. It’s some truly magical stuff that works just with almost everything! Perfect to glue fabric onto foam as well btw. I usually have around 20 tubes laying around just to make sure. I think I used at least 5 just for Beidou. This fabric glue is just incredibly amazing and I’m using it already for over 10 years for every single of my projects!

The stockings were actually pants by the way. I hate it when stockings constantly slide down, so I attached them onto some skin colored and nicely shaping leggings and sewed both well together. The result made my legs look really nice and pretty and I didn’t had to worry about pulling up my stockings all the time. 

For the shoes I bought some comfy ones from a local shop. They were completely black and fit therefore perfectly for the tights. I only added some golden details and covered them mostly in vinyl using my fabric glue. The plan was to to wear the costume for a whole day at Gamescom, so I even made a second pair using more comfortable wedges as a base. Being prepared is always a good idea!

Beidou’s Wig and Make Up Test

Last but not least I also needed a wig. I always love collaborating with other artists and getting a professionally styled wig was a great opportunity for this. I invited Florence from Bakka Cosplay to my workshop and got the honor to see her process up close while still being busy with Beidou’s outfit myself. Florence is a true professional with almost 20 years experience in costume design, wig styling and special effects make-up, and it was a great pleasure to spend some time together and share ideas. 

After several days of work the result was a gorgeously styled wig, which would withstand several busy convention days easily. On top, I also asked her to mirror the design of Beiodu’s hairstyle. I have huge struggles seeing with my right eye and would be forced to cover up my good eye with an eyepatch. After explaining the situation to my client, Hoyoverse was also okay to flip Beidou’s head. This included the wig, her eyepatch and the accessories. The result looked still great and I was comfortable and especially save wearing the costume at a busy convention floor. I don’t think anyone would even have noticed! 

The Blackcliff Slasher

As I was super busy working on the costume, it was up to Benni to create Beidou’s claymore, the Blackcliff Slasher. We found a gorgeous 3D model to download and print straight ahead. Thanks a lot to Bruneng for this amazing work!  Size is always super important though, so Benni first made me a paper dummy to check if the scale works with my body proportions. 

Next on we started both of our 3D printers and let them run for around 2 weeks straight. We are actually using two Zortrax m200, which we bought back in 2016. They are doing a great job, but are actually not available anymore. Back then they were super expensive, but 3D printers became pretty affordable since then. So, if you are interested in getting a 3D printer yourself, you might want to check out the Elegoo FDM printer  or the Anycubic resin printer . An FDM machine is great for lightweight and large props and a resin printer is more suitable for small accessories and details. 

Benni worked around 3 weeks on the final Blackcliff Slasher. He spent a ton of time on assembling, priming, sanding and used mainly airbrush paints and acrylics to finish the claymore. I think the sword turned out absolutely amazing! Check out Benni’s full Youtube video to see how everything was made!

My Beidou Cosplay from Genshin Impact was finally done!

And this was the result after 8 weeks of work: Captain Beidou from the Crux with her massive Blackcliff Slasher! 
I’m incredibly proud of my Beidou Cosplay from Genshin Impact and just love how it turned out! Benni, I and else everyone involved worked super hard on this costume and we did our best to bring every single detail of this character to life! After so much work it was an amazing feeling to try on the costume for the very first time! I also was incredibly happy that everything worked out in the end!

Please check out the making-of video on YouTube if you want to see the whole intensity of this project! It takes always a lot of time to create those videos, but I think they are a great insight into our work. On top, we always enjoy to share our thoughts, ideas and even struggles. Hopefully those videos are helpful and inspirational for your own projects!

Last but not least we also did a photo shoot with Beidou! We did a few on location photos, but also wanted to bring Liyue, the city Beidou is from, to life. So, we made a few photos in front of a green screen. Afterwards we replaced the background with a digital city made in Unreal Engine and then combined both in Photoshop. I absolutely love the result and we clearly want to use this technique for our upcoming cosplay projects as well. It’s an amazing way to bring a character to life and we don’t need to rely on good weather or real locations this way. 

I really hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did! Let me know your comments and thoughts about it! With so much work involved, is it even worth to create a Genshin Impact from scratch? Or would you rather buy one if you could? 

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