Cosplaying is kind of like going to a ball, you fuss and fuss over your outfit, have poses for photos in your head, and you can't wait to see what everyone else is wearing too, sometimes with a secret feeling of competition. Except cosplaying is a million times more fun than a ball!

I was always a fan of dressing up, and gaming, so when I found out about cosplay I had to give it a go! I chose my latest cosplay, Ultimecia, for the challenge. I thought she looked awesome ever since playing Final Fantasy VIII, and when I saw the Dissidia version of her I started planning the outfit straight away! So a 100 or so hours spent, $400 down the cosplay drain, a few tears and tantrums later and I have my Ultimecia cosplay! I'm very proud of it, and terrified of flashing at the same time. Hopefully I win something in this years competition!

All in all, I cosplay for the fun of it. I've made so many friends in the cosplaying community, some are now my closest. I'm going to keep making costumes and prancing around in them, until I forget how, or get locked up in Arkham Asylum.

Cosplay = costume play.


Pick a character you like
And dress up like them.


Simple, isn’t it?
It’s harder than you would think--
Lots to consider.

Which pattern to use?
Is this fabric the right kind?
Does my wig look dumb?

It’s a strange hobby,
Odd looks, sewing mishaps, but…
… we still adore it.

Haiku are harder to write than you’d expect, actually- but sometimes you need
to see ideas in a different form to take them in, or look at it in a different
light, and what better way to do so than the beautiful art of poetry? Okay, I’ll
stop—but in all seriousness? Everything above is pretty much a summary of
cosplay.


I won’t go into the gritty details, but in short, I personally love cosplay for a few
reasons- because of the wonderful community and networking opportunities you
can gain, the friends you can make, the skills you pick up along the way and
the performing aspect of it, too. It’s nice just to get together with
like-minded people once in a while and just let loose, acting as crazy as you
want- within reason, of course- and to revisit, perhaps, another world or dress
up out of the ordinary.


I also love
cosplay because it adds some zest into the lives of other people that see it
happening, as it’s not every day you see a fairy or Sailor Moon walking across
the crossing opposite you, right? It’s a great hobby that is definitely growing
and up and coming in New Zealand- so if you even have the smallest interest,
check it out!

A quick google search reveals the rather startling fact that the rest of the world doesn’t use the word “Euro-trash” the way I was taught it. To me, it means and always will mean too much red velvet, crucifixes and things with studs on them, especially leather things with studs on them. Where gothic velvet meets punk eyeshadow in an unholy alliance that was inspired by Dracula but with no Victorian sensibilities.
Euro-trash is so much fun. I love Euro-trash hair – it’s completely impractical to have ringlets gently framing your face when you’re tearing around the countryside chasing vampires and werewolves, but damn it looks good on camera. And it looks even better when lying around on leather couches in front of roaring fires in rooms with heads on the wall and complicated windows, waiting for the vampires to come to you. Not that I hold with that kind of thing, mind.
It’s hard not to feel sexy in a good corset too. Good corsets push this bit in and that bit up and with hardly effort at all you can go from to 30-60-60 a 60-30-60. I can see why vampires like them – vampires don’t need to worry about the fact that a good corset also makes breathing a challenge at the best of time. And I have no idea how a competent Euro-trash vampire hunter manages without proper lung expansion.
Practicality is not a strong point of Euro-trash. I can barely walk in four inch heels, but they’re completely mandatory for the Euro-trash look. Boots or strappy, cotton candy things, it doesn’t matter. It’s the four inch heels that are important – six if you can manage it. Bling also helps – diamantes or buckles, but rarely mixed.
Velvet is practically obligatory and for once this is a practical choice as well as an aesthetic one. Either red or black soaks up the blood well, and wont show the stains. It’s warm too, which is especially good, because true Euro-trash is never seen out in the daylight. And I’m told it ages well and until the advent of internet shopping, new clothes were a tad tricky for the undead.
Euro-trash: looks like heaven, designed for those heading for hell.

Before I knew of the word 'Cosplay' I was visiting Armageddon yearly - at least partially for sheepishly stalking the Cosplayers with a Kodak disposable camera. They took terrible pictures, those from the darkened stage would fail utterly. I don't think I have any of them left at all. Despite haivng developing the courage to occassionally ask somebody for a photo after a few years, a newly aquired Kodak digital camera provided equally awful photos. Damn you Kodak. In 2007 I decided to make something for the Video Games Live Concert. It was half done, but I enjoyed myself, and I met a couple of people I still know today. Wanting to do something more memorable and make an impact, I completed the costume and made some props. I enjoyed myself at the 2007 Armageddon very much and met A LOT of people I still know today.

My cosplay 'philosophy' is a combination of two things. Firstly, 'do something I like'. This is probably obvious, and true of everyone. The second however is 'do something different'. The costume pictured was from 2008: Nephrite from Sailor Moon. You might see a Sailor Moon cosplayer, but Nephrite? Not so often. Nephrite was one of the 'Shinnetou', the four generals of the evil Queen Beryl. I took a liking to the character perhaps solely due to the fact he wasn't a complete moron unlike his comrades. His predecessor, Jadeite...yeah, his master plan was to chase the Sailor Scouts up and down the tarmac with MIND CONTROLLED AEROPLANES. Needless to say it didn't work out, and he was subsequently iced. Literally. Well, trapped in a crystal. Shut up. Let me make my puns. Though it was brief, Nephrite also experienced something arguably never repeated again in Sailor Moon - real character development.

The costume itself was made based off an American Civil War uniform pattern, but like most cosplays 'evolved' (mutated?) far beyond what the pattern ever had in mind. Particularly horrible was the fact that the costume was trimmed in gold - amazingly laborious to complete. It wasn't helped by the fact that due to animation errors and the author's own artistic license, the trimming would migrate around the uniform, appearing in one place in one image, and missing in the next. But cosplay is hard labour. It's meant to be. In terms of stress, cosplay is the physical equivelent to writing an essay. Where do the pieces go? "Goddamnit, I have to delete it"/"I have to unstich". Rinse and repeat. But like any analogy, it's complete rubbish. An essay doesn't suprise you with stabbing and pokings in hard to reach places. At least none of the ones I've written. More importantly nor does it make so many friends; cosplaying, at least here in New Zealand, is very social.

As part of the last generation to go through childhood with no such thing as a computer or global connection I had no idea that what I loved most of all was actually a worldwide phenomena. I had only The Costume Maker's Art to go by, though that was inspiring I was still alone amongst my friends and peers.
Until the world wide web became easily accessable here in NZ my love of the art and of the technical challenges of costume had to be hidden or redirected into theatrical support. Heck not even Halloween was an excuse to dress up like I wanted to.

That time was not wasted however. I read extensively in the 391, 646 and 792 sections of the library, learning about other areas over time as well. I was supposed to be in 812, 580s, 530s, 540s, 572 and 590 mainly ;) Thanks to that worldwide connection you can easily figure out what that means!

Theatre is my first love and costuming is one aspect of character revelation and creation. Wear 10kilos of gown, corset, hooped skirts, high ruffs and high heels to change how you interact with the world. As does a figure revealing suit with armour tacked on top. Or sloppy jersey and track pants.

I stumbled into cosplay quite by accident. I heard my sister talk about some crazy group of people gathering to start a ‘cosplay club’ in Christchurch, of course I had to tag along too!
From there it all went downwards. I meet the craziest, nicest, weirdest people, made friendships that will last the age and fell for this thing that brings us together called ‘cosplay’

I love cosplay even though at times it can be tricky when you only have one reference picture of the character. It may be hard finding the perfect wig and then styling it, finding the right CHEAP material and finding a pattern which doesn’t have to be altered too much but the whole process is well worth it. From start to finish there may be stress involved but its well worth it when you see the finished product.
Cosplay brings all different kinds of people together, somehow even though we all have our different quirks, we can still come together and enjoy the epicness of cosplay. Awing over other peoples cosplays (for me this involves looking at every detail on the outfit), the laughs and fun times we have together.

One of my favourite things about of cosplaying is people knowing who you are. Even more so when your all alone walking around town and a random person jumps out from no-where and yell at the top of their lungs ‘IT’S ASK KETCHUM FROM PALLET TOWN!’
There’s nothing better than being recognized by some random stranger you’ve never meet. ^_^