Fifth Element Diva Plavalaguna Costume

I have always loved the movie The Fifth Element, especially the costumes. So after doing a costume of Leeloo a few years back, I decided to go for a more challenging costume: The Diva Plavalaguna.

This costume is 100% handmade and I am very proud of it. The headpiece was made using fosshape (a wonderful felt-like material that hardens when you heat it). It also is porous so my head didn't get too hot. The head tentacles were made by stuffing tubes of fabric with polyfill. The dress was created using a dress sewing pattern and some improvised techniques for the detailing. The back spine was made with gardening knee pads and the neck piece from leather with detailing in leather pieces pasted on. Unfortunately the wiggle in the base of the dress (made by feeding wire through the skirt's trim) got mooshed while on the Comic Con floor but it did once have the wave in it like she had in the movie. To "remove" my eyebrows, I simply wiped on several layers of washable glue stick and then painted over them with my face paint.

COOL NOTE: When I was wearing this at Comic Con, an older woman came up to me to compliment me on the costume saying her friend had created the makeup for the Fifth Element. She took a picture with me to show her friend. I didn't realize at the time that it was Marina Sirtis from Star Trek: TNG! Now there's high praise from an uber geek celebrity!