This Steampunk Flash costume was designed and built by Dustin Fletcher of Penny Dreadful and Cathy Jones of God Save The Queen Fashions.

Fletcher and Jones each write about their parts of the costume after the jump.

Photo by Nathan Rupert.

My name is Dustin Fletcher and I work for a Production Design company called Penny Dreadful Productions. Now, I am a die-hard Flash fanatic, and when Cathy Jones from God Save the Queen Fashions came to PDP for a specific commission, the project got handed to me. PDP does a lot in the steampunk and con community even though our main focus of work is with Film and TV. I actually had been planning a Steampunk Flash costume for the past year or so and decided that I would do for the client what I was going to do for me. It was a pleasure to bring my idea to life for him. The concept is what if Barry had been the flash in the late 1800s and he didn’t get his speed from a lightning bolt to chemicals in his lab. The costume has a small tesla coil on the back harness which arcs lightning into the winged flanges on his ears and calves which are steel and copper. He is able to harness the speed of the arc through this invention and it gives him his speed. It was a blast to make and I am so happy how it turned out. For more examples mine and the rest of Penny Dreadful Productions work please check us out at www.getdreadful.com.

Photo by LynxPics

My name is Catherine Jones and I am the owner of GSTQ Fashions, a costuming company based out of Atlanta. My primary work is making costumes that get worn to anime/comic conventions by die-hard cosplay fans. A few months before SDCC, I was approached by one of my previous customers, Phillip, to make a Flash costume. But, he wanted it to have a steampunk influence.

I knew absolutely nothing about The Flash, and I had never made a steampunk outfit before. Thankfully, Dustin was quite the Flash expert AND he makes steampunk props. You don’t really question someone’s love for a character when they lift up their shirt to show you a Flash tattoo during your first meeting. At that moment, I knew Dustin was a perfect partner for this project.

After doing a bit of research on Victorian clothing tyles, I pitched a general idea for the look of the costume to my customer – vest, button up shirt, pants, neckwear, boot spats, hat, steampunk gadgets. Phillip trusted my judgement, and gave me the go-ahead. I love it when clients give me creative freedom like this, so I really spent a lot of time planning out fabric textures, keeping with a Victorian aesthetic, and making something that would be comfortable and flattering.

The vest has a gold faux silk and red wool exterior, with red corduroy accents on the pockets, armholes, bound button holes, and antique-look buttons. The lapel is made out of a striped fabric, and has contrasting buttons sewn on to the corners for a little extra flare. The neck wrap fabric matches the lapel. The vest is fully lined for comfort and the back of it has an adjustable belt. The pants are made out of red corduroy, with a fly front, slim fit, and buttons for a set of suspenders. The pants, like the vest, also have an adjustable belt in the back. The gloves, shirt, base boots, and suspenders were purchased (leatherglovesonline, Old Navy, PleaserUSA, and Salvation Army) and distressed, dyed, painted, and adjusted, respectively.

The boot spats are made out of deerskin leather. They have four adjustable buckles on the outside edge, and are lined in red cotton. The helmet and short vest are made out of veg tanned leather. The helmet, after being sewn together by hand, was wet molded to give it a nice, round shape. Both pieces were dyed a rich, cranberry color and treated to a gloss finish afterward. You will also find saddle tan accent pieces on the helmet and vest, to add a little visual interest and color.

As I worked on the fabric/leather pieces, Dustin worked on all the gadgets. Besides doing a bang-up job on those, Dustin also offered to distress the boot spats for me. This was a scary moment for me, because here I’m giving my work to someone else to get beat up! But, once I saw the finished product, I was super thrilled.

This has been one of my favorite projects to work on, and I’m so excited with how well everything turned out. To view more of my work, you can check out my website: www.godsavethequeenfashions.com/ or my Facebook: www.facebook.com/gstqfashions.

Photo by Jim3535

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