Ashley Graham - Resident Evil 4 Remake



Cost: $256
Time to Make: 6 hours
Timeline of Construction: March - May 2023


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Information

There was pretty much no question once a remake of Resident Evil 4 was officially announced that I would Cosplay Ashley. Ashley from the original RE4 game is one of my all-time favourite costumes and I've had a blast portraying her over the years. I've met some really dear friends thanks to survival horror Cosplay so it has a special place in my heart. I was super excited to see how they would change and update her design for the new game and in the end; I was a bit... letdown by the update. I'm not a huge fan of the decision to turn her sweater into a blazer (especially not with the jacket now being a rust colour that blends a bit with the turtleneck) but that wasn't going to stop me from Cosplaying her. It did take away my inspiration to want to sew, though. In the end I decided to either thrift or buy parts of the costume.

Ashley's design is pretty much street clothes. There is nothing particularly unique or super costumey about her new design. I hunted on eBay for a bit for a secondhand blazer, but in the end, I started looking at Aliexpress for pre-made Ashley costumes. Once the RE4 remake was released, there was a flood of pre-made costume listings appearing weekly on Aliexpress. I began to look to cherry-pick through the listings for shops that were willing to sell the costume in parts. I found that I didn't really like any of the full costume listings. Despite her outfit being pretty straightforward, very few pre-made costumes were particularly accurate. Most versions had off-the-shelf bandanas and some didn't even include a turtleneck. The bottoms are pretty much always made as skirts, but in the new game, it's actually a skort and only looks like a skirt from the front. I liked the colour and fabric of the blazer I bought, although it was missing a grey/beige stitch detail that covers most of the seams on her jacket. Once I got the blazer, I spent a few hours using my machine and hand stitching in some grey topstitching to make it feel more accurate. The blazer did come with a pin attached as she's wearing a brooch, but the pin wasn't very accurate. Ashley's brooch in the game has a large focal flower and mini flowers underneath with hanging pearls on one side. I ended up buying a pin through Aliexpress that was very blingy. My father helped me cut off part of the pin and I found an old broken pearl bracelet with nice white pearls that I hooked onto my brooch. It's not super accurate, but looked nicer than the pin the jacket came with.

The scarf I bought was from the same costume set as the jacket. The maker actually did attempt to emulate the scarf design from the game as it appears they did match the flower design and printed it on fabric. That also means it's white on the back, which is a bit annoying, as printed fabrics are usually only printed on one side. It's also missing a shading detail as it's meant to have two colours of brown for the background (possibly square designs) and mine only has one. It's a bit unfortunate, but it's nice enough. Annoyingly, the fabric runs really easily and I accidentally put a couple of snags in it. The scarf is also a very weird shape. It has a loop to tie the end, but it's a bit oblong and overly long so I'm not sure the best way to wear it. Since it's only one-sided, it's a bit annoying to keep from turning over. Maybe I'll get some fabric paint and colour the back when I get a chance. I had cut and hand sew a triangular edge on part of the scarf. The edge from the factory only had a slight curve and it's meant to be more triangular. It only took a few minutes to quickly fix it by hand.

The skort turned out pretty well. The hardest thing about buying pre-made and mass produced costumes is hoping the sizing charts are accurate. I ended up getting a size M and it fits pretty well. Just happy one of the listings was offering a skort. They did also print the pattern onto the skirt so the pattern looks pretty accurate. I remember struggling for a while and buying a few different kinds of tartan style fabric that looked sort of like Ashley's green and dark green skirt design back when I Cosplayed the original version of Ashley. I ended up getting a knit fabric remnant on eBay that I used and loved. The material for the skort is again, one-sided and feels a bit thin. Not the nicest fabric, but at least the design looks accurate.

The turtleneck was the first thing I bought and was a bit annoying to pick out. I was impressed that if you look up sleeveless orange turtlenecks on eBay and Aliexpress, you can find quite a few options. I remember being pretty concerned about getting one when I first Cosplayed Ashley over a decade ago. Back then, my now late mother knit both the turtleneck and brown sweater for me. This time, that was not an option, so I turned to the internet. The first turtleneck I ordered had a nice pattern to it. The colour is a bit of a weird yellow-orange. It's not quite the orange colour I was looking for. I also failed to realize the turtleneck collar would be short. You can't turn it down. Once I realized that, I decided to order a second turtleneck since the first one only cost about $16. I didn't like the pattern as much on the 2nd turtleneck, but the collar was longer and looked nicer. Weirdly, they were both sold in a single size, so not much option for customization. At least they both fit ok (although a bit baggy). The 2nd turtleneck was also almost exactly the same colour as the first even though the listing showed it as a bright yellow. I knew from reviews that it would be a darker colour. Kind of wish I could have found one that was more orange, but it seems the mass produced shirts in orange or yellow mostly only come in this weird dull orange shade. In the fall of 2023, new costume listings went up for Ashley that now offered a much more orange turtleneck. The knit style isn't the most accurate for Ashley and the neckline is short, but I really liked the colour so during the Aliexpress 11.11 sale, I bough the top and skirt costume set. It'll be my third turtleneck for the costume, but it should look much nicer under the coat. The original turtlenecks I used really do photograph quite yellow even if they look like a dull orange in person, so the new turtleneck is an improvement.

Eventually in the game, Ashley loses her jacket and scarf and underneath she wears an eagle necklace (seems like a fun nod to her codename in the game, which is "baby eagle"). I wanted to see if I could find a pre-made pendant that was close since the design is pretty basic. I ordered a couple of different eagle pendants. The first one was huge and heavy so didn't really work for me. The 2nd one is a better size, but isn't super accurate. The eagle for her necklace in the game is holding a loop or gem, but the best I could do was to get one holding a rose. It looks nice at least. I might buy a custom necklace down the line as some crafters are selling more accurate versions of her necklace, but for now my necklace works. I'm having trouble getting a short enough rope cord for it, so for now I have a black chain that looks nice enough from a distance.

The wig was a real challenge. Ashley's new hairstyle is still a bob, but it's very textured and choppy. I found a cheap bob on Aliexpress that I liked the colour and length of. I was a bit disappointed that when it arrived it was shedding a lot, was thin in the back, but had overly long hair and it had 4 noticeable platinum blonde streaks. It seems highlights are really popular in natural coloured wigs these days. I wasn't sure it was going to work so I decided to look for another wig. For the 2nd wig, I decided to buy one that was pre-styled for Ashley. I found a costume listing on Aliexpress that was selling the wig separately. It had some layering and looked like it would be quite full. When the wig showed up, it had no layering, was very long and was a very yellow-blonde colour versus a more sandy blonde from the promo pictures. I ended up opening a case on Aliexpress and arguing that the photos were misleading and Aliexpress actually sided with me. The seller gave me nearly a full refund. I'm on the hunt for a 3rd wig, but since I wanted to wear the costume to Anime North, a week before AN, my friend Pan came over and helped me trim the first wig I bought. She cut the back, around the front and at the bangs. I used a brown and yellow permanent market that I muted with some rubbing alcohol to try to blend in the bright platinum blonde streaks. It doesn't totally cover them, but they're not quite so bright so they don't look as much like skunk streaks with the rest of the wig. I do hope to get and style another wig to make it more accurate, but I'm pretty happy that, with Pan's help, we could salvage the first wig and actually make it look quite nice.

The boots and tights were the easiest parts. I tried using black tights I already had, but the skort is actually quite short and the control top on the pantyhose shows through under the skort so I had to buy new tights that are sheer-to-waist. The curse of sheer tights is that they're extremely easy to rip and tear. I immediately got a rip in the upper thigh part of my tights when I first put them on before wearing the costume to Anime North 2023. Thankfully it was covered, but I got another tear later in the day thanks to a buckle on my boots. Basically, I'll probably need a new pair of tights every time I wear Ashley. I initally re-wore the boots from my old Edonia Sherry costume from Resident Evil 6 for Ashley. The boots were about a decade old and the material and even the heels were starting to crumble due to age, but they looked really nice and suited the character pretty well. They were quite uncomfortable for walking long distances, though, so in June I brought riding boots from Ardene that are super comfortable. They're not as stylish and the top of the boots are overly wide, but they're great for walking long distances.

I sure had a lot to say about a costume that was all pre-made costume and clothing pieces. I really did have an active role in putting it together. Between adding some details for accuracy as well and cherry-picking costume parts, it was quite a bit of work. I had a great time wearing the costume to Anime North 2023. RE4 Cosplay is pretty special to me. I honestly cannot wait to wear this costume more often over the next few years. Even though it's a totally new design and a new game, portraying Ashley again is like seeing an old friend and I hope through new RE Cosplay, that I can make some new friends in real life. I can't wait to find more Leons and Adas to get photos with!

I've already had some great experiences wearing Ashley. On October 22nd, 2023, I did shoots of Ashley at a Halloween event at the Scugog Shores Museum in Port Perry with my friend Stillvisions. It's a neat small museum made up of old-timey buildings. The place definitely had vibes of the village part of RE4. They had the place decorated for Halloween with props and animatronics, so it was really cool to check out. We also stopped at Guildwood Park where they have several neat pillars and statues that really look like the castle part of the game. Despite it being cold, it was a fun day for shooting and we got some great pictures in the fall foliage.

In early 2024, I started working on an updated version of the costume that I can wear without the jacket like when Ashley loses her jacket and scarf later in the game. I wasn't very happy with the colour of my turtlneck as it felt too yellow, but I couldn't find a somewhat accurate pre-made turtleneck from online retailers. I ended up ordering 2 turtlenecks from a seller on Aliexpress. The look of the turtleneck was pretty close to the game and the colour was more of a deep orange/brown. Still not the perfect shade of orange, but much better than the yellow turtlenecks. The turtleneck style had a short collar. I cut the hem layer off the bottom of one of the turtlenecks and used the stretchy material as an addition to lengthen the collar of the uncut turtleneck after sewing it on the inside of the collar. That way the collar can now fold over, which looks more accurate. I also purchased brown and black bracelets that somewhat match Ashley's and a gold bangle. Finally, I did purchase a new wig from Miccostumes that's a bit thicker and a more accurate dirty blonde colour, but it requires quite a bit of trimming to tame it, so I'll see if I get a chance to cut it before I wear Ashley again. I can't wait to wear the costume with the new additions.

Events/Conventions this costume was worn to
Anime North 2023 (Sunday) & to a private shoot at Scugog Shores Museum and at Guildwood Park on October 22nd, 2023

Photo Credits
Stillvisions


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