Carbon Costume

Tashi Duncan is the main character in the new film Challengers, and is played by Zendaya. Challengers is a drama/ romance film that centers around Tashi who after a career-ending injury, becomes a tennis coach and mentor for her husband Art Donaldson. They encounter a former lover of Tashi’s, Patrick Zweig as they prepare for their upcoming match.

To dress like Tashi as a tennis champion, wear a white preppy tennis dress and carry a tennis racket. In her iconic coaching look from the trailer, she wears a blue shirt dress that ties at the waist with rounded black sunglasses. In one dressy outfit she wears a blue glittery sleeveless mini dress. You can also wear this grey t-shirt that reads “I TOLD YA” that is just like the one from the film.

A new TV series has been going viral online for its spot-on live action adaptation of the video game franchise Fallout that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. This series depicts the aftermath of The Great War of 2077, where survivors take refuge in fallout shelters or Vaults, which are actually all created as different experiments on the people who live in them. It follows a woman named Lucy who leaves Vault 33 to find her father in the dangerous wasteland of what is left of Los Angeles. She runs into a Ghoul bounty hunter, originally named Cooper Howard. He was a film actor before the war. In this guide I’ll be covering Cooper Howard’s cowboy costume in Episode 1.

Although this costume looks complicated to make, this guide is doable for an artist of any level. Starting with the iconic blue and gold western shirt, use a blue western dress shirt or just western-style shirt as the base to build off of. For the gold/ cream section on the top portion of the shirt and the sleeve cuffs, cut either a jacquard patterned or brushed twill fabric to the shape of the top of the shirt and either glue it down (the edges will be covered by the fringe trim but iron and fold edges for a cleaner look) or sew the fabric on top. If you’re skilled in sewing and want to take it even further, seam rip the top section from the collar and sleeves and use the removed blue piece as a pattern for the gold fabric, adding seam allowance to sew back in place. You can also add cream piping/ bias tape along the collar and front button panels.

Next, along the edge of the gold fabric you added, either sew or glue on gold fringe trim, following the edge across the front, over the shoulder, and to the back.

Now for the details on the gold fabric: if you choose a printed jacquard fabric, you can keep as is. It gives the same effect of having variety to the surface. However if you have more time to add detail, choose the solid brushed twill fabric and paint and/or embroider a similar pattern of line drawings of scorpions similar to the photos. Doing a combination of both flat painted and 3-D embroidered icons gives it the same variety as the one from the series. You can also paint or embroider (or both) the icons on the collar.

For the rest of the costume, wear brown pants like these western-style Wrangler pants. Bootcut works better to cover cowboy boots like the ones linked below. On top of those, wear a brown cowboy holster belt. More accessories to complete the look include a cream cattleman’s crease style cowboy hat, a sheriff’s badge and a gold neck scarf. To be even more screen-accurate for the scarf, take a solid cream or white bandana, and tie-dye it yellow.

If you have a kiddo that can match with you, you can also follow my guide for Janey Howard’s costume. Even further, I’ve also created one for Janey’s mother, and Cooper’s wife Barb Howard.

Patrick is one of the main characters in the new film Challengers, and is played by Josh O’Connor. Challengers is a drama/ romance film that centers around Tashi who after a career-ending injury, becomes a tennis coach and mentor for her husband Art Donaldson. They encounter a former lover of Tashi’s, Patrick Zweig as they prepare for their upcoming match.

To dress like Patrick as he dresses when playing tennis, wear a sporty red or black tank top and carry a matching red and black tennis racket. Other looks of his include black shorts, a green and white striped button-down shirt, and light blue polo shirt.

A new TV series has been going viral online for its spot-on live action adaptation of the video game franchise Fallout that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. This series depicts the aftermath of The Great War of 2077, where survivors take refuge in fallout shelters or Vaults, which are actually all created as different experiments on the people who live in them. It follows a woman named Lucy who leaves Vault 33 to find her father in the dangerous wasteland of what is left of Los Angeles. She runs into a Ghoul bounty hunter, originally named Cooper Howard. He was a film actor before the war. In this guide I’ll be covering her costume from Episode 1, which takes on a transformation itself: going from a clean wedding dress to a bloodied and battle-ready one.

To dress like Lucy in her wedding costume in episode one, wear a 50s style retro white wedding dress as the base. For the one linked here, remove the sleeves for a more screen-accurate look. Adding a white petticoat will also give the skirt that fuller look. With this, pair a white clip-in veil, white retro heels, and a sunflower bouquet.

For the version in the later half of the episode where she gets to fighting, use red fabric paint for the blood stain on her dress. Black acrylic or fabric paint can be added at different layers towards the center for a more realistic look. To mimic the belt across her chest, you can wear a bullet belt/ sash. She also wears a contraption on her wrist that we continue to see throughout the series that in the game is called a Pipboy 3000, and like the one linked below, artists sell various versions of the prop they create online. Either wear a wig or style your hair like Lucy’s and add some red splatters on your face and arms to take the look even further.

Sheriff Jake is one of the main characters from the Pedro Almodovar short film Strange Way of Life, and is played by Ethan Hawke. This western film is in a way Almodovar’s own take on Brokeback Mountain, which he was originally meant to direct but wasn’t fully allowed to create it in his own way. This short is his answer to that. The film follows Silva who after twenty five years, rides across the desert to visit Sheriff Jake, but Jake believes he is there for an ulterior motive.

Jake wears a navy blazer, black cowboy hat, blue shirt, black western bow tie, sheriff badge, black pants, and black cowboy boots.

Silva is one of the main characters from the Pedro Almodovar short film Strange Way of Life, and is played by Pedro Pascal. This western film is in a way Almodovar’s own take on Brokeback Mountain, which he was originally meant to direct but wasn’t fully allowed to create it in his own way. This short is his answer to that. The film follows Silva who after twenty five years, rides across the desert to visit Sheriff Jake, but Jake believes he is there for an ulterior motive.

Silva wears a green jacket, red and orange flannel shirt, navy neck scarf, deep brown pants, and distressed dark cowboy boots. In some scenes he also wears a deep brown cowboy hat.

A new TV series has been going viral online for its spot-on live action adaptation of the video game franchise Fallout that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. This series depicts the aftermath of The Great War of 2077, where survivors take refuge in fallout shelters or Vaults, which are actually all created as different experiments on the people who live in them. It follows a woman named Lucy who leaves Vault 33 to find her father in the dangerous wasteland of what is left of Los Angeles.

To dress like Lucy, wear a yellow and blue jumpsuit made after the one in the show, a white tank top underneath, a brown utility belt, harness, and lace-up brown boots.

Duncan Wedderburn is one of the main characters from the film Poor Things, and is played by Mark Ruffalo. Poor Things is a truly unique film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and follows Bella Baxter, a woman who is reanimated and goes again through stages of childhood to adulthood throughout the film. She goes on an adventure to see the world with lawyer Duncan Wedderburn.

To dress like Duncan, wear a three-piece gray suit with a white shirt, black bow tie, black leather gloves, a straw boater hat with black wig on, and a black cane with a gold handle.