Irisa Nyira – Defiance Build

Irisa Nyira, also known as Irisa Nolan, is a female Irathient, the adoptive-daughter of Joshua Nolan, a deputy Lawkeeper of Defiance and the host of the Kelavar.

Season one of Defiance aired last year (2013) and soon became a hit. From the beginning of the show I loved all the characters and knew I wanted to cosplay as someone from it. My favourite characters from the show were Irisa Nyira and Stahma Tarr. Originally I had planned to cosplay as Stahma with friends as Datak and Alak but after much consideration my friend who was going to cosplay as Datak decided it would be easier for her to be Stahma so I changed to Irisa. Turns out I’m a lot happier with this choice as as season one went on I fell in love with her character more and more.

I actually started with the basics for Irisa which was making her necklace and buying contact lenses and boots. I did buy trousers for her as well but haven’t got the picture on here.

Following that it was time to work on finding a wig. I found one in a colour I really liked but sadly even though it was heat resistant I could only find that specifc colour in a side parted wig so I bought a new wig cap and started the slow process of removing the wefts from one wig cap and transferring them to another so I could add the side parting into the middle.

I couldn’t find the exact colour fabric for her top but I could find the same fabric just in a somewhat brighter colour so after ordering it from the USA and having it delivered to a friend over there I pick it up in September and got to work.

After buying some gorgeous red leatherette I got to work on the shoulder rig which involved what felt like a million different ways to attach it together including buckles, eyelets of different sizes, two type of thonging and elastic.

This is all the progress I have so far on this costume but am hoping to have it completed in the next week as I’m meant to be wearing it for Winter London Film and Comic Con next weekend. Will hopefully have some more updates once it’s all finished.