It's done!
The last piece of the puzzle - a stylized belt buckle - was completed by Russ and was promptly shipped to Andrea for attachment to the belt/baldric.
Then I got it. Along with the rest of the outfit. Andrea performed her magic once more and I cannot believe how beautiful and comfortable the outfit is. Well, yes I can. After all, it is Andrea's work!
As to the details of the outfit:
The shirt - Andrea made a black twill body with the checked chevron lower sleeves and a brown/tan cowl. We were also able to find a dark brown, shimmery type of ribbon that edges the chevrons.
The tunic - an oatmeal-colored tunic with brown/tan striped inserts at the throat that highlight the cowl and serve as a base for the baldric. Again, we used the shimmery brown ribbon as highlights on this piece
The baldric/belt - one of the most incredible pieces of work Andrea has done to date. Dark brown material with the shimmery ribbon highlights, plus all the extra work she had done with attaching the belt buckle from Russ. I had asked him for something that incorporated some Minbari-ish sweeping curves with some Vorlon-ish organic elements. He did a beautiful job!
Here's a funny story - my buddy Tom and I are always talking that in modern society, it is extremely difficult to be decadent. Frivolous, self-indulgent or gauche, maybe, but not decadent. The ancient Romans had that perfected to an artform that we seem to have lost. Perhaps the last whiff of decadence was the Weimar Republic in the early twentieth century. My ring of Barahir was not considered decadent - that was an "investment". However, when he saw the custom sterling silver buckle (now remember, this buckle is about 5" square - it's HUGE!) with the mitsuro sculptured nebula and carved White Stars - and the price I paid for it - his eyes widened and he grinned. "You've done it - you've hit the low end of decadent." Woo-hoo!
The pants - are my leather swordmaster pants from Reg at Ravenswood Leather. I used these in my Aragorn costume. I liked the juxtaposition of lace-up leather pants in a twenty-third century Ranger, and to follow J. Michael Straczynski's homage to Lord of the Rings.
I love Russ' comment - "I have to say it. I really respect a man who can pull off leather pants."
The boots - my Han Solo boots from Caboots. These are wonderfully comfortable and go with so many periods and costumes.
The robe - again, going with canon, this is a long flowing robe with a black yoke and the patterned panels around the sides. It was a real pain to find the triangular fasteners, but we did! It turned out that combining two fasteners together was perfect! There was also a bit of "origami"-type folding work to get the back yoke properly placed.
And so, I have another wonderful outfit thanks to my material and metallic muses - Andrea and Russ!
Addendum:
I happened to go to a small con earlier this month as my Minbari Ranger. I received quite a number of compliments on the outfit. The best thing was, I had this one guy that kept staring at me from across the room. He finally came over and said, "I can't believe how f***ing incredible the badge and the belt look. That is what they should have been if we had had a bigger budget."
It was Dark Hoffman - one of the property masters who actually worked on the Babylon 5 series!!!
Wow! How's that for life imitating (and vastly outdoing) art!!!!
