The Making of Elessar

This is one of those costumes that we had always wanted to do a pug version for but it took us years to finally to build up the confidence to take on the challenge. Having completed our Eomer, Theoden and Renly inspired costumes (all 3 had similar challenges), we had a clear idea on how to go about creating the crown, spaulders, vambraces and cuirass. We hope our pug version can capture the regal, elegant/masculinity that is shown in the Return of the King.

Crown: We started with the crown because that is the most important/recognizable piece for this costume. The details on the crown are repeated throughout the other garments therefore it was important to figure out sizing, materials, shape, color etc. of the details so that it could be done in a consistent manner for the other pieces.

Vambraces: After the crown, we worked on the vambraces. Vambraces are our favorite garments to do. Every costume has it’s own personal style. The challenge is usually the amount of details crammed into a very small area…and then we have to do two exactly the same but mirror images. The Elessar vambraces were not as challenging to figure out as some of the others we have done, but they are probably one of the most elegant ones we have made so far.

Spaulders: The spaulders took the most amount of time to produce but they were our favorite garments to make for this costume.

Tunic and chainmail: These were fairly quick to do since we could use patterns from previous costumes. We do need to re-do the “metal trim” on the chainmail neckline so that it goes all the way around the neckline.

Cuirass: We have never made anything like this before. Therefore this was the most intimidating piece for this costume. However we have been studying and thinking about this piece for a very long time that we had a very good idea what materials to use and roughly how long it would take to produce. We did have to do a few design adjustments to accommodate a pug body.

Cape: The final piece for this costume is the cape. We tried to find a trim that would closely resemble the original design but ended up having to reproduce the design by hand.

We did a fitting/test shot with Bono wearing the Ellesar costume. There are a few minor adjustments needed but this costume is pretty much ready for studio and location shoots. We have a number of Pugs of Middle Earth costumes to shoot…they will appear in the portfolio section when complete.