Emperor Palpatine Costume

This is the iconic Star Wars Emperor Palpatine. I've spent the past four months piecing this together by hand. The "force lightning" rig is a custom laser cut acrylic slide rail with electro-luminescent wire controlled by a hand built circuit board and thumb switch. This allowed me to deploy and hide the lightning for dramatic reveals. The cloak and robes are my own pattern and made from a heavy natural linen, with a polyester liner on the inside of the cloak. Finally, the makeup is a combination latex appliance and paint applied directly on my face for maximum expressiveness. The latex was cast from a hand sculpted life cast of my own face. Many of the processes I used in the making of this costume were entirely new to me and I couldn't have done it without the resources at Adafruit and the help of my friends and family. Happy Halloween.