This time, I completed a studio shoot themed around Touhou Project's unconscious youkai girl, Komeiji Koishi. Heartfelt thanks to photographer Alice for the professional guidance, and to the stylist @ChaihuBaobao for the perfect support in makeup, styling, and details.
The color selection and tailoring of this costume are highly recognizable. The upper body features a ginger-yellow slightly fluffy top, patchworked at the neckline and shoulders with deep green and black lace ruffles; these two colors inherently possess a strong sense of contrast, but look exceptionally harmonious neutralized by black. The lower body is dominated by a green and black interwoven layered cake skirt, with fine golden bead chains stitched onto the edge of each skirt layer as an embellishment, giving the originally low-profile base color a bright highlight.
The mint green wig carries a bit of a natural messy feel, and combined with the frizzy edge treatment, it fits perfectly with the character's temperament of floating outside common sense. The black lace on the hat and the yellow bowtie on the side are also crowning touches.
What required the most mastery this time was actually that set of extremely wide black lace ruffled sleeves. During the shoot, as long as I raised my hands or swung my arms, the sleeves would drape or float like jellyfish tentacles, instantly increasing the frame's tension and volume. But this also meant that shooting required a decent amount of physical strength to control the positions of the sleeves, preventing them from blocking too much of the torso or becoming a blob of black shadow.
That massive cluster of blue 3D flowers on the chest, the blue spherical decorations, and the tangled purple rope line props are the brightest colors in the entire look. It not only breaks the dullness of the yellow and green clothes, but also adds a strong sense of layering and narrative to the costume.
In terms of actions, to interpret the 'unconscious' trait, I intentionally avoided making too many expressions that look directly into the camera, instead trying to showcase that ethereal and blurred vibe through shifting gazes and slight profile faces. For example, in the second picture, the pose of single-hand chin-resting with a slightly tilted head naturally displays the leg lines and chunky boots; the motion of pulling the wide sleeve hem in the fourth picture also captures that casual yet agile moment of the character.
The leg styling also holds clever ideas—black lace thigh-high stockings paired with black chunky buckle boots featuring metal rivets form a strong contrast charm between the tough texture of the lower body and the soft ruffles of the upper body. The ankles specially retain blue plush heart charms and purple rope line wrapping, filling even tiny local details with playfulness.
Under the pure, high-key lighting of the white background studio, every single fold and color of the costume is displayed with extreme clarity. Although I almost tripped a few times due to over-exerting force, overall it was a highly healing shoot experience. Shedding this complex gear indeed felt much lighter, but looking at the crisp, exquisite final photos, I feel all the hard work adjusting my center of gravity and movements was completely worth it; every shoot is a re-interpretation of another side of the character through portrait photography roleplay.