Name: Makoto Tachibana/ 橘 真琴
Appearance: Free! – Iwatobi Swim Club
Variation: Splash Free (Ending Theme Song)
Description: Makoto is Haruka’s best friend, and is also a second-year in the same class as Haruka. Unlike Haruka, he is more outgoing and often speaks up for Haruka. He is nice and considerate to others. However, he is weak-hearted and gets scared easily. He developed a fear of the ocean due to a traumatic incident in which an old fisherman, whom Makoto greatly idolized, drowned in a typhoon alongside many others. He is captain of the swim club. His swimming style is backstroke.

Worn at: Colossalcon 2014.

Why I chose this costume:
One of my friends wanted to do a genderbent group Free, in the outfits they wear in the ending theme song. I really wanted to do Makoto because he’s like the big brother in the group and really kind and gentle.

Mechanics of the outfit:
My Haru and I wanted to do a belly dance inspired type of outfit. I really love Indian culture and Indian films, so I wanted to keep something to the idea of that too without straying too far from the original design. The turban/head wrap I did similar to a Square Scarf Turban Tie. It was a long pieces of yellow cotton sateen that I surged the edges on. The top I did similar to a lehenga top. I did blue because in the PV you can see that Makoto does a blue shirt under his green one.

The green shirt is reflected in the hip scarf. The pants are just an off-white chiffon baggy pants with a slit on the side seam. The sash/dupatta was probably the most time consuming part. It’s lined in the underside of red satin. All the fabrics were satin, the striped individually sewn on, and the triangles were painted on. Since there looked like there were lines between the black and white, I satin stitched on those lines.

The jewelry was probably my favorite part. I used Madhuri Dixit as Chandramukhi in Devdas. Although she plays a courtesan in the film, she was also a dancer. I also didn’t want to go too flashy on the jewelry because in the PV, Haru is basically searching for water and no one has any except Rin, so it hints that they weren’t living so lavishly. The jewelry was bought on ebay. I bought bangles, a necklace, earrings, and a slave bracelet. I really wanted to get a tikka too, but I was afraid it’d be too much with the turban. Plus the wig I used had bangs anyways. I really love Indian jewelry so this was a nice excuse to get a little crazy with it. The shoes my friend had gotten for me when she visited India back in high school. The wig was borrowed from Chinasaur.

Personal Feelings:
Even though the outfit didn’t take too long to make, I still had a lot of fun wearing him. I don’t think I’ve really had that feeling for a long time since I feel like I always have a lot of plans for cons or just end up stressing out over stuff. Definitely want to wear him again more~