The giant folding fan is much heavier in hand than imagined. For this set of photos, we specially chose a real-scene Jiangnan garden with wooden corridors, rockeries, and flowing water. This overall styling of Xiao Qiao's Lilac Lover cosplay mainly features a purple and white color-blocking coordination, decorated with lightweight white tulle and golden tassels, standing out exceptionally bright in the lush green garden. Through this photo release, I want to share the actual details behind the styling preparation and the shoot with everyone.
Let's first talk about the fabric selection and tailoring of the costume. The tube top section uses a purple fabric with a certain stiffness, embroidered with auspicious cloud patterns in golden thread, which beautifully supports the silhouette and avoids looking soft or collapsed. The golden braided knot and dangling tassels on the chest are the visual focus, catching an excellent luster under natural light. The sleeves adopt a detached puff sleeve design, with the purple cuffs outlined by a white border, connecting to highly translucent white tulle lantern sleeves below. This material looks exceptionally lightweight in the wind and perfectly fits the traditional style setting.
The preparation of the wig and accessories also took a lot of effort this time. The black straight-bang short hair refines the face shape very well, and the buns on both sides are wrapped quite tightly so they don't easily get messy when walking or running around the garden. The purple floral hair ornaments on both sides of the head are hand-glued, with the petals shaped and paired with yellow stamens to create a sharp color contrast, playing a great role in brightening the overall soft makeup. Coordinated with blue colored contacts and highly translucent base makeup, it visually pulls the distance closer to the character, leaning the overall temperament of the shoot toward being agile and delicate.
During the shoot, we leveraged the natural compositional frames of the Jiangnan garden. For example, wooden benches, railings, or curved stone steps are all great foregrounds and backgrounds. We shot two sets in the corridor by the pond, where the hanging willow branches and jade-green pond water in the background formed a blurred greenery, beautifully framing the silhouette of the character's clothing. Especially standing next to the rockery, we utilized the diffuse reflection of natural light casting on the white tulle and purple clothing, which preserved the soft light and shadow on the face while letting the character's outline stand out from the green environment.
The giant folding fan prop is definitely a highlight, but it was also the most physically demanding part of this shoot. The ribs of the folding fan mimic a wooden texture, and the fan surface features a light purple gradient transition, inscribed with poetic verses in black calligraphy and paired with purple floral patterns, carrying a strong traditional style charm. The edges of the fan are also adorned with three-dimensional small purple flowers, adding plenty of depth to the flat fan. Holding it in hand, I had to ensure it maintained a stable posture in the frame while adjusting the opening width; sometimes, for the sake of composition, I had to hold this heavy giant for several minutes without moving, which put high demands on the shoulders and wrists.
For this type of theme with specific props and traditional style outfits, tacit cooperation with the photographer is highly important. We experimented with many camera positions, including half-body close-ups, full-body shots sitting on the steps, and natural snapshots leaning against corridor pillars. Sometimes, there's no need to deliberately make complex movements; utilizing the gaze and angles to convey a cold or quiet emotion is far more persuasive than forcing poses. The selection of the scene should avoid cluttered modern elements as much as possible, allowing the frame to present a complete traditional style space.
Behind every set of photos, there are actually many processes of trial and error, from the direction of the wig strands to the tightness of the waist accessories—controlling the details directly decides the quality of the final prints. Although the off-shoulder design of this outfit, combined with mosquito bites in the garden, brought some physical hardships, seeing those moments when light and shadow perfectly linger on the fan surface and the hem of the clothing makes me feel that all the early preparation was well worth it. This is the unique joy of cosplay—turning flat settings into three-dimensional, living frames is a highly immersive process itself as part of this traditional style cosplay and Lilac Lover cosplay project featuring cosplay photography.