Rin's Costume

For those not familiar with the books or the show, Rin is a supporting character from the InuYasha series. The short version of her story is this:

Rin is an 8 year old orphan girl, who mother, father, and brothers were brutality murdered by bandits, some years earlier. She has become a ward of the village, but the villagers treat her as a slave and she is badly abused. One day she finds an injured demon in the forest and stays with him to take care of him, eventually joining him on his travels across Feudal Japan

This lens is two-fold. On the first half of it I will summarize the life of Rin. Afterwards, I will examine what it takes to create a CosPlay costume for her character.

Rin is the 8 year old orphan human girl who was "adopted" by evil Lord Sesshomaru, becoming the only living being for whom he cares about and is willing to protect.

After Naraku, Lord Sesshomaru can be considered the evilest, most cruel, bloodthirsty, and cold hearted demon in the InuYasha series. In fact, early on in the series he was so cruel and nasty that even Naraku feared him. Lord Sesshomaru was the eldest son of the Great Phantom Dog, the most powerful demon ever known. After the death of his father, Sesshomaru became the most feared demon living.

When we first see him, Lord Sesshomaru is introduced as "The Murderous Aristocrat Assassin". His goal was to obtain the Tessaiga (Phantom Sword) and brutally and violently killed everyone that got between him and his goal, no matter who they are. I one flash back scene we see that when the sword belonged to his father, Sesshomaru threatened to kill his father. We never find out if he would have carried out that threat as his fathered was murdered by a band of angry humans that very night, setting Sesshomaru on his bloody path to avenge his father's death and slaughtering every human who crossed his path.

By the time Lord Sesshomaru enters the InuYasha series for the first time, he has become a greatly feared bloodthirsty demon, bitter with hatred and blinded by his lust for ultimate power. To fulfill his undying thirst for power he now turns his anger towards his half-demon-half brother, whom he bears a bitter grudge, after their father left InuYasha the Phantom Sword, Sesshomaru so desperately desired. This has resulted in the ruthless slaughter of hundreds of demons and thousands of innocent humans, including entire armies and villages with a single swipe.

If there's is one thing we learned from Sesshomaru's human-eating mother, it was this: White Dog Demons avoid friendships with humans for a very simple reason: they eat humans and it doesn't do to make friends with your food supply. This was advice that Sesshomaru lived by, killing and eating humans, all humans, every human, until he meet his biggest challenge ever: the smile of a human child.

This story is slightly different in the book, than it was in the show. Alright, who am I kidding? The story in the book and the story in the show are nothing alike! The anime totally trashed the story and gave it a complete rewrite! AWK! The book was so much better! As the book came first and the show was based on the book, the story I retell here, is the one from the book and not the show, so if you've only ever seen the show and not read the book, you will notice a few things are different.

Sesshomaru's quest for the all-powerful demon sword cost him his left arm, the first time he tried to take the sword from InuYasha. The wounded demon, fled to the forest and plotted his revenge while recovering from his wounds. Over the next few months, Sesshomaru takes up the habit of killing humans, demons, and dragons in a rather odd attempt to replace his missing arm, with theirs. Each time these gruesome attempts fail, and each time his hatred for humans and half demons grows stronger, especially his hatred for InuYasha.

Fitted with the arm of a dragon and convinced that he knows the secret to unleashing the sword's deadly "WindScar", Sesshomaru makes one final attempt to take the sword from InuYasha, however he has misjudged both the usefulness of the dragon's arm and the immense power behind the WindScar. The dragon's arm fails and burns to ash, and InuYasha sets the WindScar lashing back at Sesshomaru, shattering his armor and ripping through his chest and mokomoko (the fluffy tail thing, which we see time and time again, that injuring his "tail" is the only way anyone can disable and wound Sesshomaru). In agony, the mortally wounded Sesshomaru flees into the deep forest, where he collapses unconscious beneath a giant tree.

After this bloody battle, Sesshomaru's injuries left him crippled for some time. He remained hidden away in the forest, until he had had time to heal. It was during this time that we meet the young girl, named Rin.

Rin was wandering in the forest, when she fell upon the sleeping, injured demon, lying in a pool of blood, and took it upon herself to take care of him.

Sesshomaru's hatred for humans made him cruel to the girl, but his injuries, left him with little choice but to accept her help.

On their first meeting, Sesshomaru's first response to seeing the girl was to turn into his dog form and attempt to eat her. This was not successful as before he could fully transform, the girl grabbed a bucket of water and threw it in his face. Her boldness and complete lack of fear, so stunned him, that he did not persist in his attack and instead waited to see what this child would do next.

What the girl did next, was to wash the demon's wounds, than leave and return a short while later with berries and mushrooms for him to eat. Sesshomaru scoffed at the girl, throw the food away, and said he did not eat human food.

This same scene repeats itself, again and again, with the girl bringing a different type of food each day. Each day Sesshomaru telling her he does not eat human food. As time goes by his manner becomes less cold towards her, and when she is not with him, we see him commenting to himself about he return.

Though, over the course of days (possibly weeks) Rin offers Sesshomaru and assortment of different foods, however the only time he accepted the food she brought him, was the day she brought him a pair of dead rats. It is interesting to note that from this day forth, we no longer see Sesshomaru killing humans, and are lead to assume he now eats rats instead. It is also interesting that there is never any mention of this in the TV show.

After this, we see that there comes a day, when the girl does not return to the forest to care for the injured demon, and oddly, we see him worry over this . . . slightly.

At the same time we see that the girl, in an attempt to find better food for her pet demon, has been caught stealing fish from the fish farm where she has been stowed away in a tumble down shed. The food she had intended to give to the demon is taken away from her by the villagers and and several of the men gang up on her and beat her.

The bloodied, injured, and now limping girl makes her way back to the forest, where we see for the first time, a change in Sesshomaru. The once cruel, cold hearted demon, sees the bloody-faced girl and now troubles himself to show outward concern and asks her how this had happened. The girl responds with an overabundance of joy at the fact that there could be anyone in this hateful world who would care about her, but all in silence. Sesshomaru is taken back by this sudden and silent outburst of joy. Realizing the girl is mute, Sesshomaru ceases his attempt to get her to speak.

This would be the last time Sesshomaru would see the girl, for when she left to seek food the next morning, she would never return to the forest again.

Shortly after this incident, Lord Sesshomaru's bloody reign of terror took an interesting turn. At first, Sesshomaru did not concern himself over the fact that the girl did not return after that day.

In the mean-time, his toad-demon companion had traveled far and wide in search of his missing master. Jarken had been left behind when Sesshomaru had rushed off in search of InuYasha, and had spent many days in search of his master's trail. Jarken found Sesshomaru still laying by the tree where the girl had left him. Seeing Jarken and Ah-Un, reminded Sesshomaru of his battle and his quest for the sword, and in spite of his injuries and Jarken's insitance that Sesshomaru was not well enough to travel yet, Sesshomaru now set off in pursuit of InuYasha once again.

Sesshomaru and Jarken had barely set foot outside the forest, before Sesshomaru stopped dead in his tracks. There was a still cold silence as he sniffed the air and than said two word: "Wolves" and "Blood", and than set off in a lightening speed dash back into the forest and towards the village on the other side.

By the time he came upon a village, it had already destroyed by a pack of wolf demons. All it's inhabitance had been slaughtered in the raid. Sesshomaru took no interest in the remains of the many dead or their decimated village. His only concern was the small bloody mass of flesh that lay torn apart in the path before him. The little girl who had earlier helped him, now lay dead in the ruble.

For some unknown reason, Lord Sesshomaru was unable to leave the dead girl behind, and took her body with him, using his powers over life and death to bring her back to life.



From that day forth, and as a shock to all those who knew of his hatred for humans, Rin became Lord Sesshomaru's constant companion. For the entire rest of the series, there is no time that you see Lord Sesshomaru without his beloved Rin. When you don't see Rin in the picture, it's because Sesshomaru has sensed danger nearby and hidden her, while he goes to kill whatever the threat was.

As the story goes on, we see a change in Sesshomaru, as he goes from the fierce demon who kills everything in sight to get a sacred sword, to becoming the fierce demon who kills everything in sight to protect a human child, who is progressively becoming the most important thing in his life.

When we first see Rin, she is a ragged orphan, approximately 8 years old, who has been living in a tumble down shanty hut on the outskirts of a Japanese fish farm in about the year 1558. The villagers hate and despise her and she is often beaten by them as she has to steal food from their farms because there is no one in the village kind hearted enough to take her in and feed her. She wears a ragged kimono which she apparently has worn since the death of her family several years earlier, thus is is badly worn and much to small for her.

The Rin we see here, is a timid frightened girl who has not spoken a word since the death of her parents and siblings. She trusts no one and runs skittishly away when approached. She was most likely running away from the mean hearted villagers, the day she came across the wounded demon in the forest. Remembering the brutality in which her own family had been murdered, she is quick to come to the aid of this strange man, who appears to have been badly beaten. Though it never says, we are given the impression that 2 or 3 weeks pass before the demon recovers his wounds and leaves the forest.

Upon leaving the forest and later finding the girl who helped him, now herself murdered, this demon revives her and takes her with him.

After Rin joins Lord Sesshomaru on his travels we do not see either one of them in the series (either book or show) again for quite some time. When we do see them again, we see a dramatic change has taken place in Rin. Clearly Sesshomaru has been taking good care of her, as she is no longer the scraggly haggard looking girl she was when we first saw her.

The Rin we now see is a very happy, very talkative, and very active girl with bright shining eyes and a laughing smile. She is now quick to run up to every stranger and great them with her bubbling happiness. We also see that Sesshomaru has given her a pet dragon; Ah-Un, his once fierce stead, is now her devoted playmate. Besides the disappearance of her ill health, fears, and muteness, she also now wears much more regal attire, befitting one who now lives in the presence of a demon prince.

In every volume and TV episode after this, if the story has Lord Sesshomaru in it, it also has Rin in it. heir adventures together are many and last for another 430 chapters, before their time together comes to am abrupt end:

Unfortunately, Lord Sesshomaru can only raise the dead once, if they die again he can not bring them back again, and now having already brought her back once, he fiercely protects Rin from anything he perceives as a threat to her.

Now skipping ahead, by about 50 volumes (yes, long running series!) to chapters 466 - 471:

The battle against Naraku has threatens the lives of everyone, and all demons try in vain to defeat him. But only the power of the twin swords can defeat Naraku, the Tensiega and the Tessaiga. As the InuYasha series draws to it's end, we see it's many characters dropping like flies, in a very Harry Potter 7 fashion, as Lord Sesshomaru and InuYasha join forces against their common enemy, Naraku.

Rin blindly devoted to her Lord Sesshomaru, follows him right into the heart of the battle. Sesshomaru, blinded by the belief that he is all-powerful and in possession of god-like powers, has let his guard down on Rin's safety, believing nothing could get past him to harm her.

Unfortunately for both of them, his desire for the Tessaiga is too strong, and to get it, he tries making his own Tensiega stronger, by going to hell, but this costs him the life of his little girl Rin.

Upon finding Rin dead, Lord Sesshomaru tries desperately to bring her back once again, but discovers that he is unable to, and is now aware for the first time, just how frail the life of a human is. The tearful Sesshomaru is devastated. Cursing it, he tosses the Tensiega aside, saying it was not worth it's price for he had to lose the only thing he loved to get it.

Yes Sesshomaru does very much love Rin, and yes we do get to see him admit that he loves her... but he does not do so until after she dies. (She was murdered by his mother.)

Sesshomaru has sought out his mother, believing she can some how help him become a more powerful demon. At first she is delighted to see her son, but her joy quickly turns to horror when she realizes that he has brought with him a human. Her first response to Rin's presence is that she is a snack that Sesshomaru has brought along to eat. Sesshomaru, once a human eating demon himself, is stunned at the mere suggestion of this, but passes off the notion of eating Rin to change the subject back to unlocking the secret power of his father's sword.

Sesshomaru's mother, btw is never in the tv show, she is only in the book, and she never given a name, she is the gate keeper to hell and she's pure evil.

Sesshy-Mom however, is not interested in the sword, for she remembers all to well, her husband's having left her to marry a human bride (InuYasha's mother) and is enraged to find her own son, now following that same path.

Sesshy-mom hates Rin, because she says that dog demons eat humans. Ignoring Sesshomaru's questions of the sword, Sesshy-mom tells Sesshomaru he should have eaten Rin. Sesshomaru refuses to kill Rin, and for some reason does not see the impending danger he has put Rin in, and does nothing when Sesshy-Mom sends the Hell Hound to kill Rin.

Sesshomaru, did not expect this kind of reaction from his mother and so was completely caught off guard by the entire incident.

The Hell Hound takes Rin to Hell. Sesshy-Mom laughs because there is no way for Sesshomaru to reach Rin, and now she has won.

Enraged at his mother, Sesshomaru uses his sword to rip open the gates of hell and goes himself into the depths of hell to bring Rin back.

Unfortunately, when he finds her, Rin is already dead, which at first doesn't bother him, until he tries to revive her and ffind to his horror that he can not.

Sesshomaru is devastated after his mother sends a Hell Hound to kill Rin. At first he thinks he can bring her back to life cause he did before. He has brought others back to life. He has just now brought every single soul in hell back to life in his attempt to bring Rin back, and yet he still can not bring Rin back to life again.

In his fury and frustration he takes up his sword and slaughters everything in the underworld out of sheer spite, than he throws the sword away and breaks down in tears over the loss of his beloved Rin. Sesshomaru leaves in despair proclaiming the that the sword is worth nothing to him, because he lost the only thing he loved. All the years, the fights, the battles, the quest . . . all of it was for the sword, the thing he desired most, but it had cost him the one thing he loved most of all to gain the sword, and now without his beloved Rin, he had lost all desire to own the sword.

On the next page we see Sesshomaru throw the sword, cursing it, saying that it was worthless, that nothing mattered to him now that Rin was gone. The picture shows him cradling Rin, with his face down, he is obviously crying in this picture. It's the only time we ever see Sesshomaru cry.

The devastated Sesshomaru returns from hell, still clutching Rin's lifeless body, and now falls into a deep depressed silence, responding to nothing and no one. He does not hear Jarkens pleas. He care not see Kohaku's concern. Nor does he see his mother's anguished guilt. Without Rin, Sesshomaru has lost all will to live.

Sesshy-mom had watched this whole thing from her throne over hell, and is shocked to see Sesshomaru break down like this. When she had Rin murdered, Sesshy-mom did not take into account just how much Sesshomaru loved Rin. Sesshy-mom saw Rin as just another human of no concern. Now, after Rin's death and seeing her son struggle in vain to revive the human girl, Sesshy-mom felt guilty and could not bear to see her son so heartbroken.

Sesshy-mom at first chided Sesshomaru, realizing that before now, he had not been aware of the fact that he could only revive the dead once. The evil hell-queen scolled him for thinking he was a god, and continued to chide him for careing what happened to a human. Her words only served to deepen the loss and she quickly regretted them.

Seeing that her son would no longer respond, Sesshy-mom turned to Jarken to ask if Sesshomaru had already raised the girl from the dead. Jarken told her of the wolves.

Asking Jarken again, what it was that mattered most to Sesshomaru, the sword or the life of the human girl, Jarken responded that Sesshomaru loved Rin. Sesshy-mom took Rin from Sesshomaru, brought Rin back to life and gave her back to him, as she did so telling Sesshomaru that he had become just like his father.

Without a word, Sesshomaru took Rin and left his mother's palace, but Sesshy-mom stopped Jarken to ask: "Is Sesshomaru happy now?" than comments to herself, that from now on, Sesshomaru will see value in human life.

You really should read the book, it is so much better than the show, covers much more detail; plus the tv show ended about 1/4 way through the book, they didn't even get to the half-way point, so there is a lot more that happens that never made it into the show.

The book was written by Rumiko Takahashi in 1997, it has 52 volumes in the series, with the final volume due out this August 2008.

While Lord Sesshomaru's is probably one of the most advanced costumes you could make, Rin's by contrast is fairly simple. As you may know by now, I however, am not content to make anything simple and find a million and one ways to make even the simplest thing complicated without even trying. For what should be a simple costume to make, I have done as ever and set out plans for a much more elaborate (and historically accurate) creation rather than one strictly adhering to the simplicity of the comic book artwork. So, while it may take me quite some time to get this finished, there is no reason why you need follow my rout, and thus I find myself creating yet another lens.

Before you begin, you should set out a plan of what it is you want to do. Decide ahead of time, which items you will make by hand and which items you will buy ready made and which items you will have made on commission. Like most CosPlay costumes, there are many factors to deal with including:

Creating a pattern from scratch.
Learning to sew and wear a kimono.
Sewing slippery silk.
Dyeing and painting said silk. (optional)
Embroidering imperial crests. (optional)
You should have at least a minor understanding of Edo Japanese fashions and their construction.
Finding or making a custom wig or styling your own hair.
Of course you should have some basic sewing skills.

Keep in mind that the more accurate you plan to make the costume, the more details you will need to focus on, and if you plan to as I am doing and go a step past the comic books and cartoons, and strive for historical accuracy as well, than you will be opening up a whole new list of details you will need to add. The more details you add to this costume, than the more advanced your sewing skills will need to be.

This is, however, a very good project for a beginner. Overall this is not a difficult costume to make, and if you stick with the way it is seen on the TV show, there is not a lot to it.

While I would not recommend Lord Sesshomaru, if this is your first time making a costume, I would however recommend making Rin's costume as a first time project. As long as you know what steps you need to take to complete your costume, you should be fine.

InuYasha, Volume 27

A major stumbling block here, is that no pattern exists for this costume and if you want to create it from scratch, you must have enough knowledge of fashion design to be able to make the pattern yourself, determine how much of which fabrics is needed, and than assemble them, all without the help of any instructions from anyone.

Japanese Fashions

Unlike many CosPlay costumes, it is possible, to use a pre-made pattern for Rin's costume. You will need only one pattern: a kimono. Most pattern companies (Simplicity, McCall's, Butterick, FolkWear, etc. )carry a kimono pattern in their Halloween costume collection. I would recommend Simplicity or FolkWear, as the best I have seen in regards to historical accuracy. (I have both of these patterns myself.)

Why have I made this lens?

Well, because I am making a Rin costume, and I know a commonly asked question CosPlayers have, is: Where can I find instruction to make a Rin costume? The answer they get is: nowhere. Nowhere on the Internet is there a site that goes into any detail with helping CosPlayers to recreate a Rin costume. There is a need for such a site and therefore I am going to make an attempt at filling in the need.

Why am I the right person to tell you how to do this?

I sewed my first cloth doll at age six. At age 12 I sewed my first ball gown. At age 14 I enrolled in a two-year college course in pattern making and fashion design. At age 16 I sewed my first dress made from my own pattern designed by me. Today, 13 years later 90% of my clothing consists of historical re-enactment costumes designed and sewed by me, made from my own patterns. And starting in spring of 2008, I will take on my most ambitious project ever: to create from scratch, the most accurate Lord Sesshomaru costume ever created, afterwards I will go on to create an elaborate Noh rendition of Rin's costume.

To complete this goal, I have done what I have done in the past with my other projects and am consulting with history books. I am currently reading three dictionary-sized books on the history of Japanese fashions.

Make Your Own Japanese Clothes:
Patterns and Ideas for Modern Wear

Rin is a character born in Feudal Japan in approximately 1550 A.D., with the time of InuYasha books and show being set (according to author Rumiko Takahashi) during about 1558 and so from this period I find myself doing the most research. My personal goal here, for my own costume, is not just to create a CosPlay costume, but to recreate the actual costume this girl would have worn had she been real, so I'm taking the high road an going a much more advanced rout than the average CosPlayer would take. What that means is this will be a project in which 90% of the costume will be completely 100% hand embroidered, using the ancient Noh techniques. I estimate that this project will take a year or more to complete. Well, a year or more to embroider, that is. Once I have all the pieces embroidered, it should take me less than a week to sew it up and assemble it. As with my other projects, I'm not in any hurry to get this finished, so long as I do get it finished. Slow and steady wins the race.

~~Wendy C. Allen (April 17, 2008)

Before starting, there is one thing to consider that will make a whole world of difference, Rin is a child of the Momoyama Era when bling was king, and nobles preferred to wear bright gaudy shades of red, yellow, and orange, all decked out in heavy embroidery and lots of gold thread. Rin went from a poor orphaned peasant in rags to a nobleman's princess in a blinged out Noh kosode overnight.

Rin's costume is a fairly simple one to make and consists of only a few pieces. For links to sites on making kimonos and finding supplies and patterns, please scroll back up to the section on making Sesshomaru's kimono, about 3/4 to the top of this page.

Rin and her Changing Wardrobe:

Rin has been seen wearing three different kimonos, or rather, she is seen wearing two different kimonos and the color of one is different in the manga than it is on the tv show.

When we first see Rin, she is a ragged orphan who has been living in a tumble down shanty hut on the outskirts of a fish farm. The villagers hate and despise her and she is often beaten by them as she has to steal food from their farms because there is no one in the village kind hearted enough to take her in and feed her. She wears a ragged kimono which she apparently has worn since the death of her family several years earlier, thus is is badly worn and much to small for her. The Rin we see here, is a timid frightened girl who has not spoken a word since the death of her parents and siblings. She trusts no one and runs skittishly away when approached. She was most likely running away from the mean hearted villagers, the day she came across the wounded demon in the forest. Remembering the brutality in which her own family was murdered, she is quick to come to the aid of this strange man who appears to have been badly beaten. Though it never says, we are given the impression that 2 or 3 weeks pass before the demon recovers his wounds and leaves the forest. Upon leaving the forest and later finding the girl who helped him, now herself murdered, he revives her and takes her with him.

After Rin joins Sesshomaru on his travels we do not see either one of them in the series (either book or show) again for quite some time. When we do see them again, we see a dramatic change has taken place in Rin. Clearly Sesshomaru has been taking good care of her, as she is no longer the scraggly haggard looking girl she was when we first saw her.

The Rin we now see is a very happy, very talkative, and very active girl with bright shining eyes and a laughing smile. She is now quick to run up to every stranger and great them with her bubbling happiness. We also see that Sesshomaru has given her a pet dragon; his once fierce stead, is now her devoted playmate. Besides the disappearance of her ill health, fears, and muteness, she also now wears much more regal attire, befitting one who now lives in the presence of a demon prince.

The kimono worn by Rin, before she joins Sesshomaru, is a dirty dark pink color, presumably it was originally red, but badly faded over the years. It is decorated with a black flower like pattern, scattered all over it. The pattern is a small woven repeat, which indicates it is likely to be a rough type of homespun cloth, commonly worn by common folk, farmers, and laborers. The fabric itself has a worn, frayed appearance and looks as though it will soon fall apart.

It does not fit her well, being to small. The hemline is very short, reaching to above her knees, and the sleeves are 3/4 length. The shortness of the hem and sleeves both being due to the fact that this is the only thing she has had to wear since becoming an orphan, and she outgrew it some time ago.

After joining up with Sesshomaru, Rin wears a much more elaborate kimono, which he apparently gave her at some point. Though it is clearly the same kimono in both the book and the tv show, it is a different color in each.

The Anime Version:

This is Rin's Momoyama Era bling is king, Noh kosode of yellow and orange all decked out in green embroidery and if you want to be historically accurate, this kimono should be over-embroidered with lots and lots of gold thread. Remember, Rin went from a poor orphaned peasant in rags to a nobleman's princess in a blinged out Noh kosode overnight, and she is this nobleman's most prized possession. Don't make your costume of Rin out of anything less than the best Chinese silk brocade. (And yes, Chinese silk brocade was historically correct for the Momoyama Era.)

Rin's kimono, is ankle length and very straight-fitted, with non-swinging sleeves. It is made of yellow and orange patchwork, with a green double circle crest embroidered at each corner. Such parti-colored kimonos were worn by nobility, and often made of very fine silk or brocade, and is likely to have a floral or dragon pattern woven into the fabric, using threads the same color as the fabric.

The Manga Version:

Rin's kimono, in the manga, is the same as in the anime, except that it is made of cream and brick-red patchwork, with an olive-green double circle crest embroidered at each corner. Such parti-colored kimonos were worn by nobility, and often made of very fine silk or brocade, and is likely to have a floral or dragon pattern woven into the fabric, using threads the same color as the fabric.

With all three kimonos Rin's obi is always green.

With her old kimono her obi is a dark green and looks to be very soiled and dirty.

In both the manga and the anime, Rin's obi after joining Sesshomaru, is bright apple green, matching the crests on her kimono, and ties at the back with a butterfly bow and drape.

Other than her kimono and obi, there are no other parts to her costume.

Nagajuban:

Nagajuban or simply juban are kimono-shaped robes worn by both men and women beneath the main outer garment. Since silk kimonos are delicate and difficult to clean, the Nagajuban helps to keep the outer kimono clean by preventing contact with the wearer's skin. The sleeves of the Nagajuban are 3/4 length and do not have the long drapes as a Kimono does. Only the collar edge of the nagajuban shows from beneath the outer kimono.

There is no indication that Rin wears a Nagajuban under her kimono. If she does, than it is one, which has hem, sleeves, and collar, considerably shorter than normal, shorter enough so that not part of it is ever viewed peering out of the edges of her kimono. Normally a Nagajuban would be made of a contrasting fabric, in Rin's case, most likely it would be a sunny yellow.

Shoes:

Rin is never seen wearing shoes, and goes barefoot at all times.

For the costumer/cosplayer who does not want to go barefoot, you should wear tabi socks and sandles of some sort, geta being the most likely type Rin would have worn.

Though she originally word the kosode of a peasant girl, after joining up and traveling with Lord Sesshomaru, Rin's robes are clearly changed to those one would expect to see being worn by a woman of high rank: a noble woman, a princess, or an empress. Keeping in mind that this was the late 1500's - early 1600's, the Momoyama Era, a time when anyone who could afford to wear gaudy expensive cloths, did, and did so a lot. The more money one had, the brighter, more expensive, and more heavily embroidered ones kosode became. Sesshomaru revels in this area, himself being a man to dress in extremes, he decked out his beloved Rin in all the gaudiness exspected of a princess. Both the color and the patterns of Rin's kimono tell us this, and all we have to do is look at museum collections of antique kimonos worm by real noble women of feudal Japan to see the resemblance.

Parti colored patchwork kimonos in shades of yellow, orange, bronze, and gold, were a favorite mode of dress for wealthy women of the time. The ones shown here on this lens, do more than resemble Rin's kimono, in fact the one shown at the right, appears to be the exact same robe! It is very likely that this robe, part of a museum collection, was the actual inspiration for the one worn by Rin.

In InuYasha 558, we see Rin (wearing Kagura's kimono no less!) happily helping Kaede. Giving that Rin now seems to enjoy living among humans, we can assume that she has somehow lost her fear of humans. We can also assume that she is no longer 100% dependent on Sesshomaru's protection, and no loner feels the need to run to him for help. In fact her reaction to his presence suggests a tone of indifference. She does not seem to care that he came to visit her, it seems to be just another thing that happens. She is neither pleased to see him, nor displeased. This is out of character for Rin, who normally is overflowing with bubbling joy at even the slightest glance from Sesshomaru. Rin's outlook towards Sesshomaru has changed, and rather dramaticly.

And why is Rin wearing Kagura's kimono? How did she get it? If it's not Kagura's kimono, than why is she wearing a duplicate of Kagura's kimono? Kagura being the woman Sesshomaru loved and probably would have taken as his mate had she not died, we must question the change in Rin's wardrobe and the motive behind it. We know that Sesshomaru gave Rin her golden Noh robes, and we know that he gave you yet another kimono in 558, so we can safely assume that he also gave her this duplicate one that is like the one Kagura wore as well.

Since in the manga we have no color to go on, we can only guess as to the color of Rin's third kimono. Being that it looks like Kagura's last kimono, we can assume that this kimono is a pale ivory-pink with dark magenta stripes and white butterflies.

While most of my costuming focus these past few months has been on my insanely elaborate Lord Sesshomaru costume, it is not the only costume I am currently working on. I am also making Rin's costume as well. Like Sesshomaru, I'm planning on making Rin's entire wardrobe. Sesshomaru and Rin are the only two characters I am planning to do this with, the other costumes I'm planning (Naraku, Hakodosi, Kogura, etc... notice I'm doing villains? :) ) I'll only be making the one outfit each character is known for... I'm making too many characters to do a complete wardrobe for each of them, other wise I might.

Well, of Rin's outfits, I like her gold & orange one the best... of course, if you know my personally, than you'll know that orange is an obsession with me, what with 40% of my wardrobe "hunter's orange", my bedroom walls painted orange, my orange armchair, my metallic orange car, and my orange metal flaked ATV... yeah, I think I like orange pretty much, thank you. So, of all the costumes I'll ever make, regardless of the character, I think Rin's orange Noh kosode is likely to be the one that I'll wear more than any other, just because I love the color so much!

July 16, 2008:

The first sign that my costume is underway came about today with a trip to JoAnn's and the purchase of 4 yards of silk brocade in old gold, embroidered with dragons and phoenixes. Now I need to find 4 yards of orange brocade to match. Once I do that my next step will be to cut them into strips and sew them together. Cut them into strips again, and sew them together again, thus creating a sheet of checked fabric.

August 9, 2008:

I just finished making a Fluffy-Sama plushie for this costume! I needed a purse I could carry with the costume and well, you just can't have Rin without Sesshy, and since Sesshy turns into Fluffy (a cute fluffy white dog), I decided to make a purse shaped like Fluffy so Rin could be carrying Sessh around with her.

I went all fan-fic on it though, cause we only ever see Sesshy turn into Fluffy when he's really, really pissed off and ready to eat you, and than he's 40 feet tall! Yeah, accuracy issues here. Well, since Sango's cat Kirara can turn into a big demon cat when angry but turns into a cute little kitten when happy, I figured why can't Sessh do that too? So I made Fluffy as a cute pup instead of a fierce hell hound. :)

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