Vanessa VanCleef from World of Warcraft was the second costume I made for the official World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. After my Alexstrazsa cosplay, it was my second year playing a Raid Boss with an overpowered deck at all European events. Playing as Vanessa VanCleef herself and crushing my poor challengers with the whole Defias Brotherhood was extremely fun!
I finished the costume in 2012 and it was the first time I’ve worked with real leather. To get everything right, I invested quite some money in leather working equipment. The material was rather new for me and I mostly used it for the bracers, shin guards and the belt. Spoiler: I actually wasn’t a fan of it and never worked with real leather since then! Vanessa VanCleef inspired me also to try out embroidery. Her tabard is actually super detailed! At the end, I spend days to recreate the design using the zig zag stitch on my sewing machine!
Overall I think the costume suit me pretty well though and I was really proud of the result! Portraying Vanessa VanCleef at the WoW TCG Events all over Europe was also incredible fun. I always dreamed of being hired to create costumes and dress up and this job was already the first step!
