[Tomari cosplay] Love Live! Superstar!! Wearing This Outfit Again After a Whole Year

Putting on this outfit again after a whole year, my biggest takeaway is—I truly never want to wear it ever again.

The dressing process for this look is far from effortless. The red, blue, and black tri-color plaid fabric is rather stiff, and the cascading white ruffles along the collar, while visually striking, are actually quite scratchy bunched against the neck. The metallic clips and straps across the shoulders slip off constantly, requiring repeated adjustments during the shoot while taking care not to rumple the white lace underneath. As for that clear beaded necklace with a silver heart pendant around my neck, it perpetually tangled with the garment's zipper, making it an absolute chore to untangle.

Styling the wig took considerable time as well. The mint-green twintails had to be woven into thick braids, with plaid bow hair accessories anchored symmetrically on either side of the crown. These hairpieces are notoriously tricky to clamp securely over thick wig fibers, tilting sideways with the slightest head turn, so I had to re-pin them multiple times throughout the shoot. For makeup, matching the character's aesthetic meant wearing purplish-magenta contact lenses, framing the eyes with dense lashes and elongated winged liner, and finishing the lips in a rich, saturated red. Generous highlighters were applied across the face to sculpt distinct dimensional contours under the studio lights.

However, the plush toy in hand injected plenty of fun into the entire session. The plush wears a pink beret-style rounded hat topped with a blue blossom and a silver beaded loop. It also features light blue hair and cat ears, dressed in a blue-and-white plaid frock accented with blue ribbon bows on its legs. To keep it coordinated with my presence, I constantly fine-tuned how I held it before the camera so its face remained visible without obscuring the intricate details of my costume.

In truth, the sheer complexity of this attire far exceeded my expectations; wearing it severely restricted my mobility, and due to the stiffness of the materials, shooting required frequent breathers to reset and readjust. I felt the exact same way wearing it a year ago, and experiencing it all over again now, it remains just as exhausting.

Yet once committed to doing this cosplay, I still wanted to execute every single nuance to the best of my ability. Most of the shoot was spent wrestling with this dress and wig, micro-adjusting the relative positions of each accessory to ensure everything looked pristine and aligned on camera. Even though the entire prep and shooting process had me chanting silently in my head that I would never touch this costume again, reviewing the preserved frames convinced me that the overall styling and aesthetic hit my mental target after all.