Kaito Kid costume.

 Well, the end of the week for illusions has with this week's costume, the illustrate gentleman thief, Kaito Kid. There was certainly more to do with this costume, though I did try to search for all the pieces at various thift shops. In the end I did have to make a few parts from scratch. Those parts were the jacket, the cape, monocle and of course, the top hat. None of the parts were easy to make, but the top hat took the most effort to figure out. I couldn't even find clues on construction of top hat via the internet. So, it took some trial and error before I had a hat that fit and was just the right look. But thanks to that, I was able to create the tutorial on the trick hat. The other piece that took a bit of time to construct was the monocle. I constructed it, by taking a large key ring as the base, then changed out the chain for a longer one. At the other end of the chain, I crafted the lucky charm by craving and painting a piece of plexiglass. Then I cut out a nose bridge out of craft foam, hot glued it to the key ring and wrapped the nose bridge and key ring with tape. Part way with the taping, I attached a thick nylon thread that would wrap around my head and hold the monocle in place. The thread would be hidden under the wig, allowing no one to really know how the monocle stayed in place.  Since it's first construction, I have only made minor changes to the costume. I've remade the jacket, adjusting its length to a bit longer, made the cape detachable and shorten the length of the chain on the monocle.  In the second year of portraying Kaito Kid, I've seen more fans of Detective Conan come up to me and express their thanks for being one of the few cosplayers to portray any character from the series. The thanks are nice to receive, but I just love portraying this mischievous character.