Throwback: How to recreate Jobu Tupaki's white goddess look from Everything Everywhere All At Once

This year’s Denver comic con (a.k.a. Fan Expo) is ending today, so what better excuse to do a retrospective on my cosplay of Stephanie Hsu's iconic look?

As a bit of a nerd and former theatre kid who loves dressing up in costumes, Comic Con was always something I was into from afar, but had never taken the plunge to attend. I looked at photos of cosplayers with awe and admiration, daydreaming about the elaborate and accurate pop-culture-referential costumes I would don if I gave myself the opportunity. Why didn’t I? Oh, probably a cocktail of being cost-conscious and self-conscious of revealing my inner nerd. In this way, I was a closet cosplayer not in terms of pulling items from one’s closet (how I typically use the phrase here), but rather in terms of being IN the closet. I was cosplay curious.

Enter Cate.

When my husband and I moved into our townhome two years ago, it came with a free patio set, a seriously outdated kitchen, and an amazing next door neighbor. To our delight, Cate was our ideal neighbor: about our age, had a dog that ours could play with, the kindest human being you’ve ever met, and she lived the bonafide cosplay life I always secretly dreamed of. Almost daily, we’d catch up while our dogs played together and I’d get to learn about whatever incredible cosplay project she was actively sewing or 3-D printing. From historically-accurate ensembles to Star Wars characters to a seriously perfect Brienne of Tarth, Cate was living the dream (my dream, to be exact). She and her friend even won Best in Division for the Masters division at Denver Fan Expo’s cosplay contest last year for their Anna and Elsa duo! (Please go give her a follow on IG @hackinghistorical!)

Being the generous person she is, Cate not only invited me to finally attend Fan Expo with her, but also offered to help me pull together any costume I wanted. It was like being handed a genie in a bottle.

We eventually landed on a bucket list costume of mine: Jobu Tupaki, the villain of Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022).

If you haven’t seen EEAAO, please do. In fact, stop reading this and go watch it now. It topped the list of my favorite movies the moment I saw it for a number of reasons, including but not limited to:

• Equal parts heart-wrenching, nonsensically hilarious, and thought-provoking

• Astounding visuals and special effects accomplished with a relatively shoestring budget

• We stan a well-told story about and by Asian-Americans <3

• If you need awards to validate whether something is worth watching (no shade, I tend to fall in this category), it won 7 Oscars including Best Picture

Jobu Tupaki, played by actual goddess Stephanie Hsu, is the complicated villain of EEAAO’s multiverse and appears in countless costumes throughout the film, each more outlandish and memorable than the last. The big question for me was WHICH of Shirley Kurata’s impeccable costumes to do for comic con??

Eventually, we landed on possibly her most iconic look: Jobu with the good hair.

The approach

Cate and I sat down at her kitchen table with an iPad and looked up images of Goddess Jobu to create our checklist.

While Stephanie Hsu’s costumes in EEAAO are elaborate, as mentioned earlier, the budget for the film was relatively small — $14.3 million to be exact. Production designer Jason Kivarday has said, “Similar movies with similar budgets feature people in a coffee shop hanging out, going to a baseball game. Instead, we made a multiverse fam drama.” The fact that the film was made on a smaller budget is actually great for getting an accurate cosplay because it means not every single wardrobe item was made from scratch — they probably purchased some base pieces pretty affordably which means we can, too.

Easy purchases:

Note: Prices listed are today’s prices; things were slightly less expensive last year because ✨ the economy ✨

* = could be re-worn IRL

• Transparent white neck ruff ($55 on Etsy)

• Full arm-length pleather gloves - ($20 on Amazon - lol at the product photos)

• White bodysuit* (I purchased this $22 short-sleeve one on Amazon since I thought the gloves would cover my arms fully and wanted to stay cool, but I wish I had bought one with longer sleeves because there was a slight gap between my sleeves and gloves)

• Pleated white skirt* ($26 on Amazon)

• White tights* ($8.50 on Amazon - in retrospect, probably not necessary — see below)

• White shoes ($0 - I wore my white Vans since the maxi skirt covered my feet, anyway)

• Pearl hoop earrings* ($8 on Amazon)

• Adhesive makeup pearls ($8 on Amazon)

Things that would need to be custom-made:

• Pearl and crystal jewelry adornments: belt, necklace, and elbow dangles

• THE WIG

The wig

Did I mention on top of Cate’s many other talents, she also MAKES WIGS? My pro tip for recreating Jobu’s goddess wig is to have a next door neighbor who will do it for you (😉). Cate’s going to do a guest post in the near future about the making of my Jobu wig, so I will spare the details here for now!

The jewelry

For my part, the most labor-intensive part of this look by far was making the jewelry pieces.

For the necklace, Cate found this bib pearl necklace on Amazon ($28) and I bought these acrylic dangly crystal ornaments ($11 for 30) to attach to the bottom. The ornaments had a simple wire hoop similar to a keychain that I was able to easily loop onto the fishing line of the necklace.

I resolved to make the belt from scratch. Now, listen: I am not going to say this is a well-made belt or that I’m dying to make it again. Did I have a little PTSD just pulling this thing out and straightening it up for these photos? Yes. But the end result looked pretty dang good in my opinion.

I purchased this string of faux pearls ($13.99 for 11 yards) and used the same crystal ornaments from the necklace. I cut 4 long strings of pearls and thread them through the metal hoops of the ornaments at equal intervals.

I then sewed on some hook and eye fasteners to the ends. It wound up actually being better to just hook them onto the pearl strings because I definitely needed to adjust the length a few times.

The elbow adornments were quickly made by taking some white elastic, sewing it into a circle that fit around my elbows, and hand-sewing a few of these acrylic crystal dangles ($9 for 30) to them. (You could probably just use the same dangles from the necklace and belt, but I’m insane, so I bought the teardrop dangles that are identical to the ones in the film.)

The end result

Disclaimer: I wore this costume twice, first to a comic con-adjacent event at Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station before I finished the jewelry pieces and I wasn’t wearing false eyelashes (big mistake), and then at actual comic con, where I became way too overheated and overstimulated by the noise and crowds, so I quickly was removing pieces of my costume as the day went on. Trust me, the last thing you want to be wearing while remembering you might be on the spectrum is an itchy, tight ruffle around your neck. At some point, I want to hire a photographer to document this full costume in all it’s glory because it’s too cool not to.

Yes, that is my husband in a Hibachi Todd & Raccacoony costume. I'll do a separate post about that someday!

Photo by Nikki A. Rae

Jobu and her posse. The infamous Cate is also pictured (the green one!). Photo: Nikki A. Rae.

Total cost: $209 (not including wig)

All in all, I’m incredibly proud of this costume. It’s by far the most elaborate one I’ve ever done and, I have to say, I think it’s pretty damn accurate to the movie. And I got a ton of compliments on it!

The movie vs. my interpretation

A huge thank you to

Cate

for all her immense help — I couldn’t have done it without her!