Hello, all! I'm a relatively new Kimbley cosplayer, and having read the manga version and now being enthralled with Brotherhood, I'm tenfold as excited to make a fully accurate Ishbalan Campaign state alchemist uniform. But, I'm having some trouble determining how to best translate the uniform into fabric. So I decided to come to the people who know FMA best; you guys, the fans!

Having looked over the manga slides and the sparse footage from Brotherhood, I finally realized that the uniform jacket is, unlike it's post-war counterpart, actually a long greatcoat. It took me a while to figure out that, for some reason, the alchemists switched to the seperate jacket and skirt after the war. Here's a pretty good shot of the uniform:

Click to view attachment

It appears that for wartime purposes, the alchemists don't wear their signature shoulder cord, use white gaiters over their boots, and have a Sam Browne gun belt (wikipedia it if you don't recognize the term) over the right shoulder. Now, as far as getting feedback from you lot; considering that we've seen slides in the manga, and shots in Brotherhood, of soldiers in the Ishbalan Campaign wearing the belt with the attached shoulder strap, OR wearing just pants and no strap, is it reasonable to think perhaps the belt isn't attached to the uniform, as we seem to see in post-war uniforms? I'm starting to wonder if the belt itself is simply worn over the hips to keep the jacket in place.

And if that's the case, do you lot think it would look appropriate in cosplay to wear something like, say, a vinyl belt with attachments for the shoulder strap and gear worn on the back? For that matter, how would such a belt function? I have yet to see a shot in Brotherhood that definitively proves if there's a buckle anywhere on the belt, or if it's just slipped over the head or something.

Anyone think they can shed some light here?

Hi MJRKimbley, welcome to our board! I'll eventually move this to our Cosplay thread, but for now we may get better exposure here, so... let's keep it here and see if anyone can help.
Also, if she doesn't show up on this thread, you can shoot a PM to our board's resident cosplay expert, CodenameElizabeth and ask her opinion. She is an amazing cosplayer and pays expert attentions to even minor details of the FMA uniforms, and I bet she can give you some really good advice. Or, others may post here with some good advice, too. ^^
Either way, good luck with your costume!