I don’t remember exactly when I decided to cosplay Graves, but it was definitely an early want. His design and personality just always felt so cool and interesting to me. I saw the concept of genderbends a few times, and knew I had to do it. I purchased the first piece for this costume, the cape fabric, in 2013 despite not actually starting the costume until 2016. This was actually one of the better decisions I made since there’s no way I could’ve nailed it the way I wanted to had I gone into it any earlier!
It was extremely important to me to get this costume as accurate and true to the character as possible despite being the “wrong gender.” Thankfully, I had several references to choose from. I had the original concept arts done by IronStylus, the updated splash art, and all the New Dawn cinematic art to pull from.