[Remielle cosplay] The dark night young lady in the retro mansion from Zenless Zone Zero

This Remielle cosplay was a total indulgence in retro Gothic style for me. Ever since I got my hands on this outfit, I've been pondering how to fully capture that mysterious yet slightly arrogant young lady's aura and atmosphere. The wig was chosen as a pinkish-gray shade with trimmed layers, paired with pointy ear props, which instantly established the character's contours. In terms of makeup, to match the red pupils, I deliberately deepened the eye contours and drew a slightly upturned eyeliner to make the gaze look more aggressive and mysterious.

The details of the clothing are truly abundant; dark blue velvet texture spliced with translucent black gauze, with silver metal buckles and cross decorations embellishing the neckline and chest. The sleeves are wide ruffled mesh, providing a great sense of drape with every gesture. To echo the overall styling, I wore a black-and-red ribbon hair ornament, and for the lower body, I paired it with black translucent stockings decorated with bows, which not only flattered the leg lines but also increased the layering of the overall outfit. The black glossy strapped high heels on my feet, though very high, truly managed to support the aura of this vintage dress.

The scene setup for this shoot was done with great care—deep red velvet curtains, wooden bookshelves, a vintage phonograph, and black-and-white checkered flooring, all closely resembling a medieval retro study. To fit this environment, I tried many approaches in action design. When sitting on the leather sofa, I intentionally broke the dullness of the frame through the twists of body curves and leg-lifting movements, showcasing the character's languid yet in-control posture. Sitting at the table in the second picture, holding a chess piece from the international chess set with one hand and slightly tilting the head, was meant to express her ease and command in front of the chessboard. Although maintaining such difficult poses on the sofa while wearing high heels was somewhat strenuous, seeing the light and shadow striking the satin fabric and stockings in the camera lens, that rich texture truly makes all the hard work feel worthwhile.

Post-processing and retouching were also figured out step by step by myself. The mention of red pupils in this post actually means I put a lot of effort into the color grading of the red eyes. Previously, it was always easy to make the red look overly bright or fake, like glowing; this time I tried darkening the surrounding ambient colors, extracting the highlights of the eye area and the color layers of the pupil separately using masks to adjust. Combined with an overall warm-yellow retro-leaning tone, it not only preserved the transparency of the eyes but also made the character blend even better with the vintage background.

This entire project—from preparing the costumes and matching props to location shooting and post-processing—truly required a lot of thought. Every time I cosplay, it is a reshaping process from 2D to 3D, where I must not only consider how the fabric reacts under real light but also control expressiveness during motion. Seeing the finished photos reach the expected effect, this sense of achievement is irreplaceable. I hope to continue meeting everyone with more textured cosplay works in the future.