I had the honor of participating in the Pokémon Special Discord’s annual gala event onc

I had the honor of participating in the Pokémon Special Discord’s annual gala event once again, and this time I got to design an outfit for one of my absolute favorite characters, Hau! The theme this year was “signature Pokémon”, so I chose to design an outfit based around his fully evolved starter, Primarina!

A full explanation of the design choices I made is under the cut!

His shirt is the color of Primarina’s hair, and the bubble design is a nod to Primarina’s signature move, Sparkling Aria. It could also be said to represent his bubbly personality. Meanwhile, his shirt collar is the same shape and color as Primarina’s collar. His hair is pulled back into a wavy ponytail that somewhat resembles Primarina’s hair, using the same kind of hair tie that Primarina uses. His pants are modeled after Primarina’s tail, and his bracelets are modeled after the tiara on Primarina’s head. The highlight of the ensemble is the scarf wrapped around his hair, which is shaped like the fin on Primarina’s head. It’s held in place by pink star-shaped hair clips that match the sea star on Primarina’s head, but they also tie into the design theme that all the artists from the Alola region incorporated into their designs: pink tropical accessories.

One of Primarina’s Pokédex entries reads, “For Primarina, every battle’s a stage. Its singing and the dancing of its balloons will mesmerize the audience.” This entry, along with the way Primarina transforms when using its signature move and Z-Move, inspired Hau’s transformation in the second image. By removing the hair clips, his hair and scarf come cascading down, with the scarf color matching Primarina’s hair to invoke the image of Primarina’s hair coming undone. Standing on his tiptoes makes his pants and socks look like a Primarina standing on its tail. And of course, Primarina releases a flurry of bubble balloons from backstage to complete the look!

Lastly, here are some concept sketches: picking and refining the design, testing out colors, and a demonstration of how the transformation works!

[These also include some sketches for a Charizard-inspired outfit for Leon that unfortunately I didn’t have time to bring to fruition.]