started: Fall 2021 | con debut: Sakura-Con 2022 | last worn: GeekFest 2025
Genshin Impact has been a major *theme* for me for several years, now. I started playing during the pandemic (TANGENT: in trying to determine exactly how long ago, I have found I was a somewhat earlier adopter than it seemed to me at the time. My account tells me I received Tartaglia, my first 5* character, in April of 2021 (my god), or version 1.4. The game had been released for 6 months at that point but it felt like everyone I knew had joined the same fandom overnight and I did not stop hearing about this piece of media for what felt like years before I finally gave up on not knowing what was happening. At the time of this writing I am repeating the cycle with that Netflix K-Pop Demons movie that I will be the last person I know to see.)
When I joined it was by the explicit effort of two of my dear friends to sell me on the game via the presence of Zhongli (and to a lesser extent, Xingqui). He is certainly approaching very closely my ideal of masculine beauty and at a high rank of character-compellingness. His humor is understated yet fun, his ancient sorrow bears some catharsis for the melancholy of aging, his dragon-form is somehow both elegant and adorable. His voice actor is a favorite of mine, imparting a satisfying balance of warmth and imperiousness to the character.
The specific storyline was sufficiently involving but not my favorite piece of story for this game -- for that I had to wait for Sumeru and a few of the event patches. It has been observed elsewhere that Genshin excels at creating a world that is fun and beautiful to spend time in, and in creating characters that one is happy to spend time with. It's possible this approach to character design is pretty commonplace among games of its type but it was new to me, basically a non-gamer, to meet a character so thoroughly imbued with personality; a Genshin character is distinguished not simply by their visual design and voice acting and narrative function but by their combat capabilities, the sound their steps make, the way the world responds to them and their abilities. (Another tangent: Therein perhaps is contained some wisdom about the subtle affordances of moving through the same world in bodies and minds very different from each other -- to switch to Kazuha among the mountains of Liyue felt like liberation, and now feels like necessity.)
Obviously, though, his outfit bears most of the responsibility for my attachment. Genshin is famous for covering its characters with arguably too many accessories and pieces; in this context Zhongli's otherwise visually complex ensemble stands out for its simplicity and elegance. Satisfying motion design makes Zhongli's outfit a joy to behold as a digital art object, shimmering scales on liquid coat-tails, gold lining flashing beneath the brown of rich earth. His coat, specifically, is spectacular. Or his coat-vest combination? It's admittedly not entirely clear what layers I'm looking at, but so much the better for an interesting challenge.
Noteworthy, too, that 1) Genshin got very popular very quickly, and 2) prefabricated Genshin cosplays appeared on the scene very quickly and at reasonably accessible price points for non-pro cosplayers. ERGO, 1) seemingly approximately every human being on the planet in 2021 owns a Genshin cosplay and 2) >90% of any given character cosplay will look pretty similar. I was not, however, satisfied based on my own cosplay ideals, so there was a gap to be filled.
I had no idea where to even start so I called in a more talented sewist friend, Nix, who was open for cosplay commissions. We discussed ideas for making the coat realistic, how to make the layering effect physically possible to achieve, and what fabrics made sense for construction. I sent him a few sketches...
and he combined my ideas into one concept.
I suggested some fabric choices to give Nix a better idea of how I'd like the final piece to feel, and he had excellent insights about what would and would not work based on my list. Let it be said that I learned so much from simply discussing the project that this was essential to my own later efforts at pattern-making.
As we waited for fabrics and other materials to ship, Nix drafted a paper pattern then a mock for me to try on. Nix and I live on opposite sides of an ocean, so we had to be relatively thoughtful about opportunities for fit modification. He shipped me a mock, guided me in marking it up and taking fit photos, and made adjustments accordingly.
(One consolation prize for having to work transoceanically was the opportunity to source fabrics and materials anywhere that could deliver to Europe OR the US. Nix found an absolutely beautiful vintage fabric remnant for the blue on the back, and I had the patch custom made semi-locally and shipped it with the mock. The fandom jokes that Tartaglia is Mr. Worldwide but that's me, actually.)
The shipping timeline and pattern/mock construction took up the bulk of the time to completion; Nix was remarkably fast with final construction. The coat came together over a couple months after I sent back the mock, which included some last minute fabric substitutions due to quality issues, as well as a few minor construction adjustments determined as progress photos were sent and discussed.
Nix finished and sent me the coat in March 2022.
Photos barely do justice to the beauty of this object, which also wears and moves beautifully.
Everything except the coat was relatively easy to source, though I did go through several Vision props in an effort to find one at the right size and not too heavy to hang from the watch chain at the back of the coat.
I bought a pre-dyed and cut wig intended for Zhongli cosplay; as with other early wig-styling efforts, I have redone the styling for more recent con appearances.
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