Yu-Gi-Oh! was one of my favorite shows growing up and so naturally I wanted to cosplay a character from it.
I was originally going to do Mai's outfit from the 'Duelist Kingdom' arc but decided on her outfit from the 'Waking the Dragons' arc, for a couple reasons: I still had my duel disk that I got many years ago (I had both the light and dark versions but decided to keep the dark one because everyone else was getting the light one), I liked how her character changed over the course of the series (though, at this point, I hadn't seen past the 'Battle City' arc), and I didn't need a wig.
I couldn't find a purple sleeveless jacket and matching shorts that liked or that fit, so I bought a plain jean jacket and jean shorts from the mart de wal and dyed them myself. Being different brands, I knew the resulting shades of purple weren't going to match up perfectly but I didn't care too much. (It was cheap and I can always redo it again at some point.)
First, I cut off the sleeves of the jacket- not taking out the stitching like for some outfits to preserve the surrounding material. I then scuffed up the cut edges of the cut material. Mai was going through a tough time so I imagine she would've looked a little rough around the edges...
I filled a Home Depot bucket with hot water, stirred in some Himalayan salt (I didn't have sea salt), and dropped in both the jacket and shorts together. I poured in 8 oz Rit Dye Liquid (eggplant) and stirred occasionally for about an hour.
I drained the water and squeezed out as much as I could from the two pieces and then put them in the washer and dryer by themselves. Basically, I followed the instructions on the RitDye bottle. The two colors did come out slightly different but that's because they were different brands. The shorts were closer to the color I was looking for but I was still happy with the result.
The boots I used were ones that I had bought for another outfit (that may happen at some point), but they worked well for this one, too.
The gloves and choker necklace I got from amazon. The jewel I put on the choker was one I got from Michael's. She wears a pink belt for her shorts and a second black belt to carry her deck box I'm guessing? I already had a black belt and the pink one I found on amazon.
The cropped shirt/corset she wears was something I already had as well just not cropped.
I mentioned before how I had only seen the through the 'Battle City' arc. I went back and rewatched from the beginning all the way through 'Waking the Dragons' to the end so I could finally finish this story from my childhood! And understand Mai a bit more. As I finally witnessed the conclusion to this story, someone started cutting onions.
