Carbon Costume

Cloud Strife is the main playable character in Final Fantasy VII and its remake.  Cloud wields broadswords at his primary weapons, including the massive Buster Sword.  Cloud’s appearance is similar between the two versions of the game, though more solidly black and streamlined in the 2020 remake.  To recreate his look, you’ll need a sleeveless turtleneck, wide leg pants, and combat boots, not to mention his signature blond, spiky hair and larger-than-life sword.

In 10 Cloverfield Lane, Michelle (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is one of three people living in an underground bunker after the surface becomes uninhabitable.  Early in the film, Michelle’s vehicle is driven off the road by a pickup truck, after which Howard finds her and brings her below ground.  Michelle and Emmett become close and eventually decide to escape from Howard and his bunker when they uncover information about his past.  Michelle’s clothing consists primarily of jeans and a white tank top.  She also uses crutches for a portion of the film a result of injuries sustained during her car accident and has chipped red nail polish.

Remilia Scarlet is the owner of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and is the primary antagonist of the sixth version of the Touhou Project game.  The elder sister of Flandre Scarlet, Remilia has kept her sister imprisoned in the basement of her mansion for nearly 500 years.  Remilia is a fearsome evil-doer with vast magical abilities.  Her only weakness may be that her long lifetime has left her bored by most things, and she will allow herself to be manipulated if it means something more exciting than the alternative.

In Satoshi Kon’s science fiction anime film Paprika, Doctor Kōsaku Tokita (voiced by Tōru Furuya in the original Japanese and Yuri Lowenthal in the English dub) is a genius inventor.  He is the creator of the “DC Mini” device, which in the film allows users to enter other people’s dreams.  He works closely with Doctor Atsuko Chiba, a psychiatrist and researcher who uses the device for her work.  Doctor Tokita is shown to be have a childish personality and his wardrobe favors an orange polo shirt paired with green slacks.

John Freeman is a character created as part of a fanfiction story written for the Half-Life video game franchise.  John is the brother of Gordon Freeman, the scientist players become when they play the game.  The poorly written fic was given new life when it was adapted into a five-minute YouTube video.  John’s character design is based on Citizen 07 from the original game, and he wears and fingerless gloves and a dark grey beanie paired with a grey vest and jeans.

Wesley Dodds is the real name of DC superhero Sandman.  Originally introduced in 1939, Dodds uses a gun that administers a powerful sleeping gas to subdue criminals.  He then sprinkles them with sand and leaves them for the police.  In his original (and most iconic) iteration, Dodds wore a green business suit, brown fedora, and purple cape.  Sandman’s look has been updated on several occasions, including a version with a more menacing-looking gas mask and a yellow suit from the mid-eighties until the early 2010s.  No matter which version of Dodds you choose to recreate, you’ll need a brown fedora and a futuristic-looking gun with a wide, round barrel to help you put crime to sleep.

Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson is the rebellious teenage protagonist at the heart of Greta Gerwig’s semi-autobiographical film Lady Bird.  Lady Bird dreams of a big life in a big city on the East Coast, but her family struggles financially, which often causes tension as Lady Bird’s mother thinks she is not grateful enough for what she has.  Lady Bird’s clothing is a mix of simple pieces and vintage thrift store finds, giving her a cool ’90s vibe even as a high school student in the early 2000s.

Marco Diaz (voiced by Adam McArthur) is a main character on the Disney Channel TV show Star vs. the Forces of Evil. As Star Butterfly’s best friend on Earth, Marco plays an important role in the series.  In the episode “Running with Scissors,” Marco appears as a 30-year-old version of himself in another dimension, rather than his usual 14-year-old appearance.  As an adult, Marco is very muscular and sports a few ear piercings as well as a tattoo of intergalactic scissors on his left bicep.  He still wears his trusty read sweatshirt, although it is now tattered and resembles more of a cape.  To make yourself look like Adult Marco, you’ll want to be liberal with the tattering and tearing of your cape and pants, as well as willing to bear a bit of skin since he wears his motorcycle jacket open with the sleeves rolled up.  If you’re not particularly attached the jacket, cutting the sleeves will make it much easier to achieve Marco’s look from the cartoon.