Bringing Yelan from Genshin Impact to life!

I’m a huge Genshin Impact fan and have already spent hundreds of hours in Teyvat. And obviously, I absolutely love the character designs and have already created something here and there from the game. After collaborating with Genshin Impact to create Beidou, Hoyoverse invited me to bring another cosplay for Gamescom 2023. I always enjoy working together with them, and this time I chose another character I loved: Yelan. I was immediately drawn to her sleek outfit and beauty, her mysterious personality, and her gorgeous weapon, the bow Aqua Simulacra. She looked simple at first glance, but once I studied her design more closely I knew this would be a very complex build. And sewing was never one of my strengths! But it couldn’t be that hard, right? RIGHT?

My main reference here was the artwork as well as the official 3D model from Hoyoverse. In fact, Hoyoverse uploads all 3D models of ALL characters to aplaybox.com! Here is the link for Yelan’s model if you are curious. I also made a little tutorial on how to find all 3D models on their website, even though it’s a Chinese one. You might find it useful for your own projects. And the best: They also offer models for characters from Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero!

@kamuicosplay I just found the most amazing tip for all Genshin Impact cosplayers! 😱 You can download all official character 3D models which is super useful to create costumes and props! Just check out Xilonen for example! She is soooo gorgeous! Absolutely love how much Hoyoverse supports the community! Please share this tip with all your friends! AD | Play Genshin Impact, link in my bio/linktree! @GenshinImpact_En #GenshinImpact #Xilonen #ADayWithXilonen ♬ Originalton – Kamui ✨📚

Let’s start with the dress!

The first step was Yelan’s elaborate and pretty detailed dress. This part already made me nervous just from looking at the reference, so I wanted to finish the most challenging part first. To get the pattern right, I first wrapped myself in duct tape, drew all cutting lines and shapes on, and then carefully cut myself free. My lovely husband Benni was a massive help here, even though it still took a while until we got everything right. These shapes then became the sewing templates for my dummy. I obviously had to adjust something here and there, but soon I was pretty satisfied with the silhouette and began tracing all shapes onto the fabric I wanted to work with.

Yelan is a very elegant and feminine character, so I choose a gorgeous heavy royal blue satin for her dress. It looked perfect for her sleek design, but it was very tricky to work with. Satin slips, frays, and offers no stretch at all. The biggest challenge was the open back. Keeping the dress secure while staying true to Yelan’s design required a lot of problem-solving. For this part I used a black faux leather and combined it with a brown satin on my trusty Sewing machine . At the end, I used a bra that I could strap around my neck and lower back to provide enough support.

Creating the jacket

Her white jacket was another challenging part. In the game it floats magically on her back with no visible straps or attachments. But that was a problem for future me. First, I had to create the jacket itself. I began with a mock-up from cheap fabric, adjusting the sleeve shape and length until I finally got a result I was happy with. From there I transferred the pattern onto the final material: a white brocade with subtle floral ornaments. While the original design is plain white, I like to add details and textures to make the costume feel more believable in real life.

Afterwards I sewed all parts together and added a grey lining for a nice, clean look inside. The sleeves were also extended with a large section of grey and blue faux leather, which added quite a bit of weight. But I tried to stay as close as possible, and faux leather just looked like the right material choice here. Since I’m living on Madeira and getting materials sometimes takes up to four weeks of shipping, I often end up using what I already have in my workshop.

The details made the jacket heavier and heavier, but I didn’t want to miss a single element. I added laser cut pleather, faux fur on the collar, and 3D printed pieces all over the fabric. The laser cutter we use is a Flux Beambox Pro, and an amazing resin printer for small accessories is an Anycubic 3D printer  I can also highly recommend Gütermann HT2 Fabric Glue , which was perfect for attaching everything onto the fabric. Once everything was done, I hand-sewed plenty of press-on buttons onto the jacket and the dress. This way it looks like it floats while still being stable enough to wear at a convention.

Leggings and Gloves

The leggings turned into one of the most complicated parts of the build. Each leg has a very different design, which meant I couldn’t just mirror one side. One leg had a long cut-out with golden ornaments, while the other one was partly made out of mesh material. So I had to pattern both legs separately and solve each side step by step. The leggings alone required five different fabrics, and I didn’t have time to mess something up and redo it again. After all, Yelan had to be done for Gamescom, and there wasn’t much time left anymore. The gloves worked the same way. Both hands featured their own patterns and unique designs, so I had to treat them as two completely separate projects.

By the end I had used more than 20 different fabrics for the whole costume. Thick faux leather, delicate netting, shiny brocade, fluffy faux fur, and heavy satin, and each material behaved in its own way. Sewing them together was exhausting at times, especially with all the asymmetric parts. And then there were the countless tiny details. Most of these were resin 3D prints that had to be primed and painted, or laser cut from colorful faux leather, which required quite some skill with a vector program. They were small, but every detail mattered, and I actually lost count of how many pieces we created and glued on at the end.

Finishing everything step by step

Working on projects like this can be incredibly draining, but I think it’s important not to focus on everything that’s still left to do. That can feel overwhelming! For me, it really helped to concentrate only on the costume piece I was working on at that moment. I went step by step through every detail of Yelan’s outfit, but kept only one thing in mind at a time.

I started with the pattern of the dress and did my best to get it right. Then I traced everything onto the final fabric and put it all together. At that point, I didn’t think about the missing details, and I didn’t waste any thoughts on the jacket or the leggings. I only wanted to finish the dress first. Once it was done, I moved on and checked the references for the next costume pieces. And yes, Benni often asked me how I will do this or that next. But my answer is always the same: I have no idea!

Styling Yelan’s crazy wig

For the wig I asked my friend Krystl Cosplay for help – or better I commissioned her! She did an amazing job capturing Yelan’s extravagant hairstyle. Without her contribution, the whole costume would not have felt complete. Please check out her work as she also does commissions and is an outstanding artist.

Building the Aqua Simulacra

While I worked on the clothing, Benni and his brother Jakob built Yelan’s weapon, the gorgeous bow Aqua Simulacra. Jakob sculpted the 3D model completely from scratch in Blender, which already took more than a week. Printing, sanding, and assembling all the parts took another week. To make sure it stayed strong, they reinforced the inside with a PVC pipe. For easier transport, the bow was also made detachable. We worked here with a standard standard ABS 3D printer .

The paint job was done with an airbrush  and included many layers of blue, white, and gold from Vallejo . The result was stunning and matched Yelan’s in-game weapon perfectly. Getting to this point was a lot of hard work, skill and experience and especially getting the gradients right was anything than easy. 

Counting on Team Effort

In total, this costume was an extremely challenging five-week project with several very skilled people involved. Without Krystl Cosplay, Benni, and Jakob I wouldn’t have been able to finish even half of it. It was one of the hardest cosplays we’ve ever worked on, but also one of the most rewarding. I already knew from the reference that it would take a lot of effort. But only when you’re actually sitting at your sewing machine and working on the real thing do you realize how CRAZY it is to create a Genshin Impact costume from scratch! Kudos to all cosplayers who also decide to make their costumes on their own – even though they could easily buy a ready-to-wear version online. It takes an incredible amount of time, skill, and dedication!

And once we were finally done, we shot beautiful photos at the Monte Palace Garden in Madeira and had an amazing time showing Yelan at Gamescom 2023. We even filmed a few fun videos at the event with other Genshin Impact cosplayers. Hanging out with other Yelans especially was super fun!

@kamuicosplay Yelan came, slayed and left @gamescom ! It was a pleasure! 💦🙌 Thank you so much @GenshinImpact_En and everyone who took part in this video! Please tag your friends below if you recognize them! ❤️ Download Genshin Impact for free! Link in my bio/linktree! ❤️ Ad | Sponsored | #GenshinImpact #GenshinImpactCosplay #Cosplay #Yelan #YelanCosplay #CosplayTutorial #CosplayProgress #diycrafts #fyp #howitsmade #tiktokcosplay ♬ Queencard – i-dle

If you want to see the entire process, you can watch the full making-of on the Kamui Cosplay YouTube channel. We uploaded a separate video for the full costume, made from scratch step by step. And there is a second video showing how the Aqua Simulacra was done, from the 3D model to the 3D printing and finally the paint job. Hope you’ll enjoy those videos!

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