Last summer, a handful of my friends and I attended the Canterbury Renaissance Faire down in Oregon, where we became acquainted with a small business called Rose and Thorn Armory. We chatted, we tried on their sweet armor, we hung out together later at the bar – basically, they’re good people, they make great armor, and we became friends. I’ve been meaning to do a little spotlight on them for awhile now for this blog, but they recently sent me a few pieces of their armor for a photo shoot, so now seemed like a good time for it.

The armor they make is awesome not just because it’s actually totally battle-ready, but can also be just as easily used for costumes (which, as you probably know, I am all about). For this photo shoot I didn’t dress it up too much, since I wanted to be able to show off the armor itself (it’s just as stunning worn simply on its own as it is turned into a full-fledged warrior princess costume, trust me). I roped Joe into the shoot as well, to show off the male variety.

I hope you enjoy! And if you like what you see, please go check out their kickstarter! You will not be disappointed.

If you like any of the items we’re wearing above, I’ve got the female warrior princess top and a matching gorget in a combination of purple and black. Joe’s got on a red and black shoulder pauldron and some simple black short arm bracers. You can throw these over a renaissance fair outfit for some added durability and badass-dom, or you can great an entirely new costume out of them! I never even know you could buy armor this legit before I found this company, so I thought it would be fun to share with all of you.

I’ll be back soon with information about everything I’m doing at VidCon – have a great day!