Lady Sif’s costume in the comic books is bright red with silver or white touches. It pops much more than the same character’s costume in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Cosplayer Yaya Han was drawn to the bright color and the fact that Sif is a fierce warrior so she made this costume in 2011 for San Diego Comic-Con. She looked at several different interpretations of the character when designing her Lady Sif costume so it combines elements from multiple artists’ takes on the outfit.

Some of her notes on making the costume:

With San Diego’s sweltering heat in mind, I used a mix of materials for the costume. The cape is the hottest piece, made of suede’ – not lined on purpose due to the heat, but serged and topstitched – and jumbo fur. I tried to keep the rest of the outfit as light as possible, but still wanted the pieces to have shape, so I covered wonderflex in leather and metallic 4-way stretch spandex. The corset is steel boned and lined as usual. I drafted patterns for all the pieces and made everything within about 3 – 4 days. It was fun to make arm and leg armor pieces, and I also enjoyed beading the wig and making the leather/wood beaded adornments on the hips. Wanted to add that I liked Sif’s ensemble in the first 2 reference shots, but based my headpiece off of the cover art in the 3rd picture. I liked the larger, more Nordic warrior-esque, headpiece. The sword is wood, painted and wrapped in the same material as my arm/leg armor.

See more of Han’s costume portfolio at her website.