I, Spy (part 1)

The other day I briefly mentioned having made a Victorian shirt for a cosplay. Time to talk about that a little more, methinks.

I am a very big fan of the webcomic Girl Genius, which is described as a "gaslamp fantasy", but if I tell you it's steampunk you will get a much better idea. The comic, which has been going on for over twenty years now, follows the adventures of Agatha Heterodyne, the eponymous heroine, who is a mad scientist (actually, not that mad... well, only occasionally!), otherwise known as a "spark". There are several other sparks in the story, though none as powerful as Agatha, unless you count Queen Albia of England, who used to be a regular spark but now she's... well, anyway, you'd have to read it. The artwork is wonderful, there is some lovely characterisation even of quite minor roles, and it is also extremely funny.

And my favourite supporting character is a certain Mr Ardsley Wooster, who is Queen Albia's best spy. Mr Wooster is not a spark himself, though it has been his fate to have to deal with quite a number of them (fortunately, he'd rather be terrified than bored). He is, however, phenomenally intelligent, and - unlike almost all the sparks he has to deal with - also extremely practical. (Almost. The love of his life is Miss Trelawney Thorpe, the finest spark in England and therefore often referred to as "Spark of the Realm", and she shows not the least sign of insanity; one can see why they're attracted to each other!) So, when I went to a con in London several years ago (I forget exactly what it was, but let's call it Massive Geekcon, which describes it perfectly), then of course I had to cosplay Mr Wooster.

The shirt deserves its own post; today I'm mostly going to talk about the waistcoat. You may be wondering... red? For a spy? Well, yes. He wore this waistcoat for about a year's worth of episodes non-stop (comic time is a lot slower than real time, but there was also the fact that the characters were on a train and then ended up marooned in a secret fortress monastery, so he didn't have all his clothes with him). For one thing, he is a steampunk spy, and steampunk does allow for brighter colours; but, for another thing, he did somehow manage to blend into the background when he wanted to, even wearing red.

I can't remember the exact pattern I used. I think it was a Burda. The one thing I can remember is the effort it took to hack it to get that collar right. Even then, it's a little bit toned down from the version in the comic (Mr Wooster did have pretty big contrast lapels); the reason is I have rather narrow shoulders, and if I'd done the lapels in strict proportion they would have stuck out beyond my shoulders and looked weird. So I had to compromise. The buttons are real brass, and it took me a lot of searching online to find those at a price that wasn't completely eye-watering, but I did in the end. You can, of course, get substitutes, but I was keen to get the look as right as possible.

One thing you can't see from the photo is the pockets. Well, yes, you can see two of them, but do you really think a spy is going to do without secret pockets? The waistcoat, sadly, went the way of everything else; but from memory I had five internal pockets, including a huge one inside the back. It would take an A4 notebook, and the best bit was that it wasn't obvious if there was one in there, because of course I go in at the waist and Mr Wooster does not; so there was a handy void which could be filled, at least partially, by pocket contents.

This is an American webcomic. Mr Wooster is, as previously mentioned, English. So, naturally, Mr Wooster drinks a lot of tea, because American people think English people all really love tea and drink it whenever possible. There is a little problem here, because I, in fact, don't. My parents, it is true, felt that I really ought to love tea, so they forced me to drink it when I was a child (it was well known at the time that, while adults had genuine dislikes that should be respected, a child who said they didn't like something was "fussy" or "faddy"; thankfully that piece of fiction seems to have mostly disappeared). All that did was to make me hate it even more. So this particular incarnation of Mr Wooster had a nice Victorian teacup and saucer (yes, a real one!) and could be seen at various points around the con apparently drinking tea with enthusiasm. It was, in fact, rooibos. I do actually like rooibos.

Tomorrow I shall talk about the shirt. And, if I have the space, the code wheel!