Art Exhibit of Cardcaptor Sakura Pt. 1

Picture-heavy post!  Cardcaptor Sakura is my favorite magical girl anime!  I love the art style of CLAMP, and I really enjoy the fact that Sakura's costumes are designed by Tomoyo (and they imply she makes them, but she's in the 4th grade in the original series so maybe she just has somebody else make them??) instead of created by magic.

Of course I had to go to the exhibit when it came to Taipei!  They had a fun "backstory" to the entire exhibit as well~

The Card Room at the end

Due to COVID restrictions, we had made reservations for our time slot online, and we are released into the exhibit according to reservations.  This also means that there were not many people inside at any one time, which made taking photos so much easier! 

The first room was a bit on the history and themes of Cardcaptor Sakura.  It's the "introduction" before the full exhibit.

Each aspect was made into a giant book!  It was very cute!

I'm not sure if the English is legible here, but this is the quotes from when Sakura says "It's definitely no problem.  I won't hate you just because I can no longer meet you."

"I don't want to become your 'master'; I want to become your 'friend'" (talking to the cards)

And it's about her respect for others, which is really cute and sweet.
"If the person I like the most can find happiness, then that is the happiest outcome there can be."

I will never get over CLAMP's clothing designs!!!!!

After this introductory room, we queued up for a small video which was the "backstory" of the entire exhibit!  Photo/video/recording was forbidden, but it was just a small show of Kerochan greeting us, and then Sakura's voice summoning the cards and releasing the magic on the exhibition.  So each following room had a card theme!  The space was quite small, especially compared to the photos of the Japan setup that I saw online (but those might just be good angles haha!) but I thought the theme was cute!

The first room after this is Flower and every visitor can choose a flower sticker and add it to the exhibition decorations!

My face looks pretty dead here, but this is the flower I chose

I put mine on the floor because it was very empty.  The walls originally already had decorations, but you can add the sticker there too!

There were also paintings of each type of flower on the wall, with some small introduction to it.

Doro had brought these sakura face masks for us, which is so cute and fitting!!!!!

The next room is Siege which basically just surrounds you in something.  So in this case, we were surrounded by Tomoyo's workroom!!!!  As a fashion major and enthusiast, you can guess that I loved this room the most!

Do you recognize the costumes?  Well, I suppose the opening scene dress is very recognizable~

The wings are not actually a part of this dress.  It is an acrylic(?) model just held on a stand behind the main dress.

The dress is made of panels, so there are two princess seams on the front and three on the back, allowing the bodice to be fitted while the skirt is very voluminous (with pleats style as well) as is typical of CLAMP designs (my favorite!)

The ribbon on the hat is made very stiff, likely with buckram (of course, cannot touch anything, so just guessing by looking) which keeps this fluffy and flowing looking shape!  So pretty.  I love giant ribbons that are worn at the back of the head, but peeks out from the front view!  I have been looking for a hair ribbon of that size >:D

The clothing were all made with so much attention to detail.  It's as if it would be wearable in real life activities.

This second costume is from Clear Card when the main characters are entering junior high.

The introduction cards are written from Tomoyo's point of view.  

This dress is also done in panels, but without the pleats feature of the previous one, so it's got a very smooth silhouette.  The shrug is also done in panels (raglan sleeves) which gives that very smooth, rounded shoulder look, but also means that it will bunch up if you raise your arms since this fabric is thick and luxurious!

The glitter print is so clean and gorgeous!!

The little hat has such clean points on it!  I don't know anything about millinery, but I really think this is cute and well-made!

Look at all the layers of pannier underneath the skirt!!!  Could you image this at full-human size?  It's practically a wedding gown!

The third costume (they weren't actually in any order) is from when Sakura and Syaoran completed the Sakura cards thing.   It's a much more casual-looking dress, but it seems comfortable!

I really like the layers in the skirt portion of the dress.  The pleats in the light, flowing fabric look so nice and would move very well!  The mega star on the front is also just so eye-catching~

Mega star with tassle on the hat!  My best guess is that this is a wool felt hat that was wet-moulded on a form, but I cannot be certain because... I don't know anything about hats ^^;  The pseudo-braids are these shiny black beads that look so nice.

This next costume is a different aesthetic, but it is really "strong" in my opinion.

I have no idea how this cape would fare at full size since the material is so thick and heavy, but at half-scale it looks very elegant.

I seems this is also a paneled dress with no waist seam, but with a sharper A-line than the graduation dress from earlier.  The material looked very suitable for winter.  I did not take pictures of the shorts, so maybe I will do that next time!  (Yes, there is a part two of this exhibit and I am attending on June 9 if it is not canceled!) 

I did not spend as much time looking at this costume, so I don't remember how the prints were done on it :o

But look at how unique this hat is!!!!!  The asymmetrical charms are super gorgeous!  Do you think it would make you tilt your head if you wore this in real life?  Balancing the charm weight would probably be important for this costume!  Honestly that sun charm would likely be painful if you swung your head around and it hit somebody or yourself （⊙ｏ⊙）

Last costume for the Siege room was a Taiwan-architecture-inspired dress!

Pink and green is one of my favorite color combinations, so I naturally fell in love with this design!!!  Look at the gradation in the skirt color as well!  I love that the mint lining peeks out a little where the pleats are creating volume.

The 3D embroidery for the accents really adds a lot of visual interest to the trim, which is inspired by tiles.  Pink x Mint x Yellow look so good!  The shape of the yellow portion also reminds me a lot of 春仔花 which is a 3D art of wrapping paper shapes (similar to the shape of the yellow petals) in embroidery thread.  It's for making things like hair accessories rather than on clothing, but I learned about that in university and tried it before and it's MAD difficult!!  Embroidery in general is difficult to me though 

The scallop-edge ruffles are cute in this mini version, but likely wouldn't hold up as an actual dress for function.  I think a scalloped lace on regular ruffles would give the same effect and be really cute though!  That was just something Doro and I were discussing while looking at this dress.  Overall, I really love this design!  The way the pattern fits into the ends of the waist ribbon (it is mildly adjusted by size, though I'm not sure you can tell from the angle I took this photo) is really satisfying 💖

That's all for Part One of the event report!  This is a very photo-heavy post so I will update with the rest of the photos in a few days.

Bonus: I made the Clear Card opening dress for Violet (aka @taiwan_teddy on instagram!)  So here is a picture of her with it.  The dress did not turn out as well as I'd hoped and I hadn't had the chance to make her a new wig yet, so this one is actually from her previous cosplay of the original Cardcaptor Sakura opening costume!  I just removed the red hair tie bobbles  and flattened the pigtails down ^^; 

I do intend to have her new wig finished by next month though!

It took many attempts to get some "scenery" photos.  You can see the wavy design of the Siege card on the walls!  We are surrounded, and I am good with that.

Do you have a favorite Cardcaptor Sakura costume?  The Cardcaptor wiki has a list of clothes and costumes if you want to post any images of your favorites!