If you are getting ready to attend your first Renaissance Fair with friends, and you are all planning on going in costume, then you are probably looking for ideas. There are queens, ladies, tavern wenches, and princesses. However, you might want something different. Well, one really cool idea is a warrior queen outfit. Remember, the costumes people wear at Renaissance Fair's don't have to be 100 percent time-period accurate to the Renaissance. Many men and ladies cosplay in Viking attire or even fantasy wear (elves, for instance). The warrior queen is a great look, and you can get visual ideas from paintings of Boudica, to Kiera Knightley's look in King Arthur. If you don't want to go as risqué as Kiera's character, then a really cool look would be a corset revamped to look warrior-queen tough. Here's how to do it.

Black, Purple, Or Brown Colored Corset

If you want to look like a warrior queen, you will need a dark color. A white,or pastel corset is too "pretty" for a warrior. You want something that looks fierce.

Swap Out The Dainty Silver or Brass Grommets With Large Black or Brown Rubber Grommets

Regular corsets that are sold for cosplay wear at Renaissance Fairs tend to have dainty silver or brass grommets. This is because the "characters" would have delicate corsets. Queens, ladies of the court, and even tavern workers would want a corset that looked pretty. However, a warrior queen is tough, and often she would have a corset that was built for battle. The material might be animal skin or tough fabric -- not lace. It would have a more battlefield look, which is what the large grommets from a company like Accurate  Products Inc. will approximate.

Also, the rubber will feel better against your skin. If you are dressed as a Lady of the Court or Tavern woman, then you will be wearing the corset over a long white dress. However, if you are dressing as a warrior queen, you might want the corset over a sports bra/tank top, or some other configuration. This means more contact with your skin. The rubber grommets will not pinch, cut ,or scrape. This means no irritation at the end of the day.

Face Paint

There are lots of ways you can accessorize (fake fur stoles, buckles, imitation swords, or knives, etc.…) but one really fun way to totally make you look fierce is to use face paint. You should use blues like the Brigantes warrior queen in Centurion, and Kiera's character from King Arthur. This war paint (woad) was popular in Pre-Roman tribes in England, hence the name Picts.