Tel'aran'rhiod

Sure thing!  This was actually my second year cosplaying Layla, so happy to share some tips.

Most of the elements to Layla’s costume were pretty easy to put together. Starting with the basics, get a pair of black skinny pants and a black v-neck t-shirt (which I would just fold under to shorten when I was feeling confident to let my stomach show).

For the gloves I just found an old pair of sports gloves that I cut the finger tips off, though really any pair of black fingerless gloves would work.

The main thing for boots is comfort. Thift stores are always a good place to look for deals on black leather boots if you can find your size. This year I did buy some lace-up combat boots since I wanted a particular style that would go with several different costume, but I’ve also worn some pretty basic mid-calf boots that I’ve owned for years. The exact style of her boots seems to change depending on the artist, so there’s some flexibility there.

The key detail for the belt of course is the “X” buckle, so you’ll want to find a belt that will allow you to replace or easily cover up the existing buckle. I ordered my “X” buckle online from Amazon, though you might be able to find better deals for one elsewhere. My belt was just a metal studded piece I found at a clearance store.

Now the most difficult piece to make was definitely the jacket. If you have the talent you could try making it from scratch, otherwise you can just do what I did. Me and my mom found an old black fake leather jacket lying in our garage (also check thrift stores), bought some orange fabric that had a fairly similar sheen to it, and then sewed pieces of the orange fabric on top of the existing black jacket. It was a bit difficult because we didn’t take out the lining and ended up having to hand sew bits of the sleeves, but the end result turned out pretty well.

Oh, and last bit, the “M” tattoo. The first year I dressed as Layla I used a sharpie to draw the M, but I quickly learned that that smudged fairly easily. This year I used a black waterproof eyeliner pen, and that stayed on wonderfully.

Hope this helps! Excited that there are other X-Factor cosplayers out there, and Layla Miller is obviously one of my favorites. Good luck~