This year has seen a big change in our girls, or rather mostly Sophie. Previously, she was very adverse to new movies, and not particularly keen on live action. Not sure if it was making it through the Wicked movies, being at High School, or just being older in general, but for the first time, she was interested in live action superhero movies.
Both girls have been aware of superheroes for several years now. Exhibit A is Sophie's Squirrel Girl costume from Book Week 2022. Mostly though, they read the comics, not really watch the shows. Last trip to the library saw us borrow at least 20 Marvel comics of a variety of superheroes. The girls both ploughed through them in no time. It was new that they wanted to watch the movies though.
So, Steve and I were excited to share them, especially the first Avengers arc (up to End Game), which was very cohesive and had lots of great characters. We were pretty daunted by just how much content there was, even just in that first set, but over the course of a couple of months, we made it all the way to the end.
Sophie and Rachel have been hooked. They particularly loved the strong female characters, even from movies that were still trying to figure out how best to represent these ladies. After Book Week, where Sophie, kind of forgot, kind of opted to not wear anything (first year of high school and all), I think she was a little bit regretting the missed opportunity, and she and Rachel began scheming. Next year, they will both be at school together, and they could wear costumes together - complimentary costumes - costumes for sisters even!
Then they realised that they could start early, and get a Halloween run in this year with these costumes. Steve also mentioned that Supanova was going to be on in November and they were even more excited for cosplay opportunity. Thus they approached me with the request for a Natasha Romanoff Black Widow costume (Sophie) and her sister Yelena Belova (Rachel).
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| Inspo images courtesy of the internet |
I was equal parts delighted and filled with dread by the request. These were complicated costumes and I wasn't sure the Australian heat would be forgiving for them. A full jumpsuit and vest in August is one thing, but in November? Also, I wanted to be sure they would get more than one use out of them, if I was going to invest the time and money.
They eventually got me convinced and I had about three weeks to pull these together. Sophie's had the most compromise, since I refused to order a body suit for her off any website-of-ill-repute. No way was I going to watch her sweat and die in a plastic covering made by slave labour. But, she did have a pretty form fitting hoodie which, with some black exercise tights, would make do. There was stuff in the stash that I could use and I went to Spotlight for fabrics for Rachel's vest and jumpsuit, as well as all the straps, buckles, webbing and elastic that we could need for the assorted accessories.
Are you excited? I feel like this post is already long enough (and wordy enough) without going any further, so come back another day to find out how it all worked out!
