USER POST: Doll Restyle/Custom: “Duel Queen” Clawdeen (Part 1 of 2)

So imagine this. The year is 2022. You are a costume design student who’s recently become a fan of Monster High, and you’re nervously yet excitedly hoping to make your first foray into the doll collecting and customizing world. You hop on the bus to your local flea market, and return a few hours later with your prize: New Scaremester Clawdeen! She’s clad in a mystery Barbie dress and in desperate need of some TLC, but she’s yours, and that’s what matters.

But then it hits you. What are you actually going to do with her? Your childhood Barbies are all long gone. Your room is full of anime collectibles. The only figurine you have that’s remotely close to Clawdeen in size is ArtFX J Pharaoh Atem from Yugioh, who you bought without fully comprehending the phrase “1/7 scale”. What’s a ghoul to do?

…Well, dress Clawdeen up to display alongside Atem, of course! After all, if GX made vampires canon and then never brought it up again, who’s to say a werewolf can’t duel?

Like any design project, I started off with research. I put together collages of designs from Yugioh, as well as Clawdeen’s looks, and added some notes from observation. These would be my guide for designing Duel Queen Clawdeen.

So with these constraints in mind, I next set about making concept art. I was lucky in that Clawdeen, despite missing her clothes, did have her shoes and most of her original accessories, so I decided to incorporate those into the design. I also wanted to use a black, purple, gold, and lime green color scheme, to match her hair and her character. (Purple/black/gold is also the standard color scheme for Yami Yugi, so it would look great next to Atem.) I sketched out a design concept.

You may note that her hair here is depicted as curly, while New Scaremester Clawdeen has straight hair; I’m personally not a fan of straight hair on Clawdeen (sorry!), so I curled it as best I could. It was really hard to do with the short length of her hair…

The next step was deciding on colors and prints. I had a variety of options I could choose from, so I put together some possibilities, and sent them to my friends to get opinions.

In the end, the general consensus was that the best look was a purple skirt, and a lime green shirt with zebra/tiger print. (Only later would I realize how similar this looks to actual New Scaremester Clawdeen, lol).

Stay tuned for part 2, where I’ll discuss the construction of the physical outfit, and reveal the final look!