Heather,
Good evening and welcome to the IOC. There's some great advice here. Let me touch on the two I'm familiar with. I'll quote @kman here:
My wife got a CosplaySky/ TrendsinCosplay kit and it turned out pretty good, but she's already got her eyes set on something else. For $79 (tunic and pants) it wasn't a big investment. However, they're not making anything other than male sizes right now and are not doing customization. You can read my "proceed with caution" post found here if you want some info on that, but basically they're saying that it's too close to Halloween to offer anything other than men's sizing. The bigger issue is that they didn't remove those options from their website, so you'll order it, then go through the hassle of requesting a change and refund.
Regardless, it's not a bad costume, but definitely a starter. I'll put it this way, we spent $79 on the tunic and jodphurs, but $450 on the rest of her kit.
My costume is WampaWear and I couldn't be happier. Roughly speaking it's about $500 as Kalani stated for the tunic and jodhpurs, $60 for a hat (with code disc) and $60 for a belt and buckle. So that's over $600 for their soft parts.
For your other items, good quality leather riding boots will typically run you around $200, rank insignia roughly $30-$60 (depending on rank and maker), code cylinders around $45 for 2 and then you get into optional accessories which can cost a bit as well. I've got over $900 into my uniform, but it's currently approved at the Executor level and I just submitted for Imperator today. Now that I think about it, my IOC costume cost about the same as my stormtrooper, but it's my thing, so I don't mind.
I will say that while the costume looks outstanding, I kind of wish the fabric was a little higher quality or stiffer. Don't get me wrong, it's excellent and at a whole other level than the CosplaySky/ TrendsinCosplay costume, but it rubs on the leather belt and has some napping because of that. The rough spots are hidden by the belt, but I fear that it'll rub bare some day.
Eventually I'll look at some of those top tier costumes, but for now, WampaWear is probably the perfect choice for me.
Also, before I forget, the CosplaySky/ TrendsinCosplay costume runs true to their sizing chart, and the WampaWear runs a little smaller than their chart indicates.
Here's the vendors I chose:
Tunic, Jodphurs, Hat: WampaWear
Belt and Buckle: WampaWear (I also made a second belt using leather from an Amazon retailer and a buckle from PhiloProps, but I've got a collection of leather tools.)
Code Cylinders: PhiloProps (Etsy)
Rank Insignia: BaileyBuildsDesigns (Etsy)
Boots: Hessen Antique
Other
Belt Boxes: PhiloProps
SE-14R: 3D printed/ resin
Holster: Made by me
Bengirl37 got a reaction from buckrogersbarker in IC 50284
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