This cosplay of Qi Rong from the Heaven Official’s Blessing anime was actually worn in fall of 2024 for the first (and probably last) art show at the local mall I vended at, when the English voice actor attended. Since then I never posted about the costume formally because it was rushed in between prepping for my table and I missed some details that I intended to fix. However, in the whole year after the event, I never got around to finishing the last few bits and plus I didn’t even finish season one of the Heaven Official’s Blessing donghua. I’m going to do it this year though! For real this time!
(Qi Rong is the guy in the top left corner.)
So here is the first version of the costume from the event recap in September 2024. I’m not wearing a wig here, just braided my hair, did wear circle lenses and painted my fingernails green, think I wore regular black shoes. It was super hot and stuffy wearing those layers and a mask inside that mall, so obviously if I rewore the costume in the comfort of my own house, I would look slightly less bedraggled, I hope. But overall, it was recognizable by many fans and the voice actor, and accurate from afar. Good bones, as you might say.
Here are the layers of the costume and how I made them. First of all I apparently wore an undershirt which likely contributed to my overheating. The true inner layer is the black long-sleeved robe with the teal collar, of which I cropped to waist length since it’s hard to tell if the black layer is a full length robe or just a top. I constructed it out of black cotton based on historically accurate cross front robe pattern from hanfu sites, except I added a popped color lined with teal quilting cotton and then added satin ribbon trim.
Next layer is the emerald green layer with gold ribbons. I made this a sleeveless vest since the artwork really only shows the black layer and outer robe layer visible. I lined the cotton vest with green satin and decorated with gold satin ribbon and gold rick rack trim to imitate the wavy gold trim on the art. I suspect the wavy trim is supposed to be a cord of some sort, but when I tried to sew a cord onto the vest it looked bad and lumpy so I took it off. I think what I would do is layer a thicker rickrack under the trim I already used and then add purple accents with paint to make it look less cheap. What bothers me most is that Qi Rong wears his clothes crookedly to add to his messy bad-boy image, but the vest naturally wants to drift to the aligned position as you can see in the first photo. I think I’d have to cut it crooked and pin it in place onto my other layers and/or maybe take out the green lining, but I was too lazy to do any of that at the time.
Finally, the outer green robe layer. I made this out of a jacquard-like cotton/rayon blend from Taobao, lined with light yellow cotton gauze also from Taobao even though the lining is an ambiguous grey color. The fabric is soft and flowy but does wrinkle a bit. I trimmed the robe with white fake fur collar, goldenrod cotton trim that needs to be painted the various colors, and also shiny gauzy green ribbon. The jewels all over his robe are actually fabric covered buttons using this shimmery green/gold fabric from my fan-design Qi Rong costume that I added glass beads to (sourced from a Chinese jewelry maker on Etsy). I sculpted the white skulls from polymer clay since all of the skull beads I had were too small, then I just hot glued them on the gold cord. Finally, I made the gold shoulder medallions from funfoam layers painted gold (need to repaint) and sewed onto the robe.
The wide belt and gauntlets are made out of gold snakeskin pleather from the previous Qi Rong cosplay, trimmed with green satin ribbon, plus a random gold bracelet I already had. I made the teal belt out of macrame cord dyed with acrylic paint and I slid on gold painted plastic straws to make up the gold accents. I made the tassel out of painted teal yarn, sculpted another skull pendant and two bone beads out of poly clay. The gold pendant piece I made out of a broken hoop earring and more gold-toned beads/findings.
The pants are just black hakama-like pants I bought earlier from Etsy for hanfu-inspired outfits. I didn’t change their color, and also I didn’t want to use up a huge amount of fabric to sew more accurate pants, plus these looked fine and had pockets.
What is missing from this costume are the shoes, although I did wear fabric cotton bandages around my ankles. I finally got around to painting a pair of black ballet flats from my donation box with green leather paint last year. I just need to paint the bottom gold and make the green/gold ankle cuffs. And the final skull hair-tie, but as my hair is shorter than his (even shorter now that I have a bob), I didn’t even bother to try to make it lol.
To Do List
- re-align the vest
- fix gold trim on vest and paint purple bits
- paint golden robe trim various colors
- repaint the shoulder medallions
- make shoe ankle cuffs
- paint the shoe soles gold? i think they’re already tan though so maybe not
- sculpt skull hair tie (and get a super long black wig?)
- hem everything, lol, nothing was hemmed
As mentioned, I bought new specifically for this cosplay the robe fabrics, the vest fabrics, the teal and gold accent cottons from Taobao and Joann’s/Michael’s. I bought teal ribbon and macrame rope and maybe the yarn new for Qi Rong from Michaels/Joann’s. Everything else was sourced from my fabric and craft stash, so I didn’t spend too much money, just a decent chunk of time. I hope to finish this cosplay and do a proper photoshoot while it’s still cool (or at least not hot), but I unfortunately have a lot of studying to do before March, so I will probably update with a new post during my PTO in late March. I’m excited, my plan is to build a cool background set with lanterns and such by that time. As far as I know, no one else has made a Qi Rong cosplay at least locally, and if so, not a detailed donghua version, though I don’t blame them for sticking to the more popular characters, Qi Rong is a horrible little gremlin and thus exactly the type of character I cosplay lol. Stay tuned for the final photos!