Bullying is never something to take lightly, and it is important to recognize it when you see it.
Bullying happens everywhere and at every age, the cosplay community is no exception to this. While I may not have personally been a victim of bullying, I have witnessed it many times and even tried to stop it, so I feel it's important to share. People normally depict bullying as something that happens to younger kids, being picked on at the playground, being chosen last for dodgeball, being shoved into lockers. But these are not always the things you need to look for. Sometimes it's the way someone is being spoken to, it could be more manipulative than outright bullying. It's the way people act around each other, putting on a face to seem like they are your friend and are trust worthy, when really...they are using you. I've heard of cosplayer's being picked on because their costume wasn't good enough, or because they are a cosplayer. People get bullied for their size and how they look as the character they chose. They are either too big to be that character or too skinny, or too white or too this or too that. If you've been a victim of bullying or know someone who has, please seek help, speak up, help those around you who are facing the same things.
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While this is a short list, there were just too many cosplayer's to list. So I wanted to share with you the 6 cosplayer's who started me on this journey and inspire me every day to keep going!
1. Behind Infinity I started following Jin when Deviantart was the platform you had to be on, before I even knew what cosplay was. I fell in love with the Death Note photo shoot they did as a group and thought how cool it would be to be able to do something like that. Today I'm inspired every time I see new progress shots of their costumes and props. 2. Yaya Han I discovered Yaya while watching the series Heroes of Cosplay on space channel. I was mesmerized by the detail and care she put into each of her costumes. At this point in time, I was getting into cosplay myself, and I knew that if Yaya was able to make these incredible costumes and she was self taught, that I could do it too. She was my main inspiration for pushing myself and making each and every cosplay better and better. I've also had the honour of meeting her twice, and just talking to her boosted that inspiration even more. 3. Maul Cosplay Best Geralt EVER, 'Nuff said. Ok seriously, I love how genuine Maul Cosplay is in all of his posts and stories, and how he shows you that making a cosplay is a passion project and you have to put real time and dedication into things, but you can still have loads of fun doing it! My cosplay mantra is the cosplay song he posted on social media. 4. Kamui Cosplay I own almost every single one of her books, and patterns as well as watch all her tutorials. Svetlana and Benny are such amazingly talented people and great teachers! I love their positivity, creativity and dedication to their craft and their fans. Plus, Midna and Zelda (their corgis') are adorable. 5. Leon Chiro Leon Chiro, is the best Sephiroth I have ever seen, and that stands true to this day! I followed him on Deviant Art back in the day, and just realized recently as I'm looking through his instagram posts that yes, I've been a fan since I was fresh out of highschool! I love how upbeat and positive he is even during tough times. 6. Alyson Tabbitha I have never seen a cosplayer who is literally a chameleon. She doesn't just put on a costume, she becomes the character. Every time I see Allison's work I am just blown away. My all time favourite costume I saw her make was Edward Scissor Hands, I actually thought it was Photoshop'd. This girl is insanely talented! Disclaimer: I'm sure this is opening a big can of worms, but please note that anything written here is my opinion and is not meant to be offensive.
Over the years I have met many a cosplayer who claims to be a costume designer, and as someone who works in the film industry, I've met many a costume designer who gets super peeved when they hear about cosplayers claiming they are costume designers. Now I've also met costume designers who don't really understand cosplay and use the term interchangeably with "costume" like for a halloween or costume party...but that's another story. There is a HUGE difference between being a cosplayer who designs their own costumes of their favourite characters, to actually being a costume designer. Costume designers go to school for years learning to create patterns from scratch, learn how to tailor clothing to different people's bodies, learn sewing and draping techniques for all different styles and eras. They create costumes that are historically accurate, they create costumes from their own imaginations. While some cosplayers, also have these skills or have gone to school for costume design, many cosplayers have not, and those are the ones I'm talking about. When I started out on my cosplay journey, I learned sewing techniques and how to read a pattern from a very talented costume designer. She used to make cosplays for herself as well, but seeing as the film industry has extremely tight turn around time and long hours, she didn't have the chance to make a lot of costumes for herself any more. She explained to me how designers like herself were rubbed the wrong way by a lot of cosplayers, as they claim that they designed their costumes when they didn't. Most cosplayers take concept art from video games, anime and comic books and "design" their costume by using existing sewing patterns, tutorials, duct tape patterns, or salvaging clothing to transform from thrift stores. THIS IS NOT COSTUME DESIGN. This is turning someone else's design into a costume for yourself. If you were to create an original character, design all the sewing and armor patterns yourself (not based on existing patterns) and then create from scratch, THAT is costume design. One year at a convention, I had a cosplayer hand me her business card and tell me she was a professional cosplayer/costume designer. I looked at her costume and went...um NO. That costume you are wearing is something that someone else designed, for someone else, on a well known TV show and all you did was replicate it. You're not a costume designer. Be very careful when you are walking around a convention in costume and telling people you are a costume designer, it may be taken the completely wrong way, and especially if you are in a town known for its film industry. Please just be aware that while you may be super talented at sewing, or making armour suits, props and the like, unless it is an original character, you didn't design it. You are replicating someone else's design to show your love for that fandom. Be proud that you are a cosplayer, but don't claim you are a costume designer unless you actually are and it is your living. Here is how I started out in Cosplay... Soi Fong This was the first costume I had ever made. I was still in Highschool and wanted something cool to wear to the local anime convention. At the time I was really into Bleach and wanted to dress up as one of the characters. Now my favourite characters in the anime were all guys and I didn't really have any female characters that I thought were super cool. I chose Soi Fong because she was one of the few Captains in the Soul Society with some kick ass moves and an awesome Zanpakuto (sword). So I thought, why not? I knew nothing about sewing costumes, using sewing patterns, foam work...literally I knew nothing. So I got my Mom's help with picking out some fabric, folding it over my head and marking where I should cut a hole for my head, and pinned where the sleeves should go. Even the pants, I just cut out rectangles and thought...that looks right. Sewed them together, added a drawstring and voila! Pants! For a first time costume I was pretty pleased with myself. It all fit, it was comfortable and it looked the character, overall a win. I even made her zanpakuto in it's final form which was painted craft foam and sat nicely on my hand. I tried to style a wig, but it turned out pretty horrible so I opted not to wear it...ever. If I could go back and do this all again, I would use a proper pattern and finish my edges nicely. Link This was the costume I wanted to make my whole life! Legend of Zelda has always been my favourite game series and I so badly wanted to dress up as Link. Again at this point I knew nothing about using sewing patterns, so I bought my fabric, pinned the edges around my arms and side, and cut out a head hole. I added small fabric details and such which were all hand sewn on, because I drove my sewing machine like a Ferrari...way to fast...and it would eat fabric. I bought the pants, shirt and boots to match as best as possible, bought a cheap wig and sewed some brown fabric to brown 99 cent gloves. The first sword I had I made with my dad out of wood, and painted it myself. The one in the picture I bought at a convention along with the sword. This was my favourite costume and got me into cosplay. There are so many things I would do differently if I ever re-do this one, like using sewing patterns, making each piece rather than buying and definitely get a better wig. Hexidecimal Growing up ReBoot was the cartoon that brought the whole family together. We would sit together in the living room, have dinner and turn it on. It inspired me to get into video games and 3D animation which later in life would lead to my career in Visual Effects. Hexidecimal was always by far my favourite character. I loved how crazy and maniacal she was, but at the same time super sweet, misunderstood and wanting to do the right thing (even if she didn't know how). I found this amazing mask at a Halloween store that looked similar to her and thought, well now I have to officially make her outfit :) I bought everything from dollar stores, halloween stores and thrift stores and pieced it all together. The only thing I made here was the red cowel to cover my head and neck. This one is definitely on my do it again list, and this time it will be 100% from scratch including the mask Zelda This was the first real challenge I ever faced in cosplay. This costume had so many firsts. The first time I used sewing patterns, the first time I painted fabric, made foam armor, made my own sewing pattern, used appliques. I had zero real sewing experience and so I picked out a sewing pattern for the dress and started cutting out the pieces, adding in extra seam allowance, and piecing them together the way I thought they should go rather than they way they were meant to go. I ended up getting help from the costume designer on the show I was working on at the time. She taught me how to read sewing patterns and had me go home every night and work on the dress until I got each bit correct. It was a lot of fun and I'm super grateful for it today! I was really happy how this costume turned out and how easy it was to wear around a convention. If I were to make this one again I would use worbla rather than foam for the armour, use actual fabric paint on the talberd, and make a new vest with a proper sewing pattern. Aerith When I started working on Aerith I finally had a bit of sewing instruction under my belt. I was able to follow the sewing patterns I picked out and even alter the jacket a bit to add a collar, pockets and belts on the sleeves. The wig was the hardest part for me, as it was the first time I had to style a wig. I knew I needed heat and lots of hairspray, but I had no idea that there was such a thing as too much heat. This led to me melting the front of the wig.
Since the debut of this costume I have had to style two more wigs for it. Both didn't turn out the way I wanted them to either being super heavy or not fitting right. I love how comfortable this costume is and how easy it is to look after. If I were to make it again I would order a pre-styled wig and make the bracelets from foam. I recently watched a special on Entertainment Tonight Canada talking about Cosplay and how a lot of cosplays you see online and in person are super sexy, showing lots of skin, or barely wearing anything. I thought this would be a good topic to cover.
It's true that the images you see of sexy cosplays get a lot of likes on instagram, facebook, twitter etc. but does that mean that it's the only way to get noticed in the cosplay community? Absolutely not. There are lots of well known cosplayers that cover up. You can get likes and followers for having good craftsmanship too. It's all about how you market yourself and who your target audience is, but that's a whole other discussion. Since there are other ways of getting seen in the cosplay community rather than being sexy, does that mean you should avoid doing a sexy cosplay? Again, nope. This is all up to you and what you are comfortable with. Some people find that doing a sexy cosplay makes them feel good, empowered. Cosplay is about the fandom, what you enjoy and what you want to express to the community. With doing sexy cosplay comes a lot of new territory as well, not all of that is positive or welcomed. You need to understand that people will make comments about your outfit, your body, comments like "that's not a cosplay", and you have to be comfortable dealing with that. For myself personally, I have never done a sexy cosplay, and most likely won't. It's not that I don't want to, but it's not something I am super comfortable with. I prefer to choose costumes that will challenge my crafting skills and impress people with how much detail and work is put into the costume. Now, some cosplayers also take their sexy costumes to a whole other level by doing boudoir shoots, or swim suit renditions of characters. You can see some of these posted to social media, and some cosplayers will also make stuff like this exclusive content for their Patreon tiers. This is definitely not necessary in order to gain followers, it's a choice that specific cosplayer's have made that is right for them. The long and short of it is, Sexy cosplay is an option, it's not necessary to be seen in the community or for popularity. It's all about doing what is right for you. - UPDATEThere are SO many great resources on line for learning to cosplay, getting started and even up-ing your game! Here is a bunch of the ones I like to use:
Tutorials and Learning: 1. Bluprint My Bluprint has a ton of amazing videos on all different areas of crafting. It is a subscription service for $10 a month, but you get access to hundreds of professionally taught videos! The website also offers the option to purchase videos at full cost rather than signing up for a subscription. The full price videos cost usually about $50-60 each. 2. Cosplay Tutorial Cosplay Tutorial is an online wiki of all different tutorials collected from around the web on many different topics pertaining just to Cosplay. You can even find tutorials on specific characters here. It's a great place to start getting ideas! 3. YouTube Of course YouTube! This is a wealth of information. So many video tutorials on sewing and crafting skills, cosplay specific tutorials as well as, many Cosplayer's have their own youtube channels and share information on their costumes and perspectives. 4. https://www.deviantart.com/ There are lots of great photos on here for reference as well as concept art and some tutorials. 5.https://www.worbla.com/ The Worbla website has lots of great tutorials on how to use their products. Both the company and cosplayers post videos and blogs all about the different techniques to use Worbla. 6. https://www.kamuicosplay.com/ Kamui Cosplay is an amazing cosplayer and she sells these fabulous books and templates to help you get started in all areas of cosplay! Buy her books!! Sewing: 7. https://www.simplicity.com/ Most of the patterns and costume patterns I buy are from Simplicity. They have such a great variety and are super easy to put together. For some reason, Simplicity patterns are extremely difficult to find in stores in Vancouver, so I generally order online or through a second party online store. Simplicity is home to other pattern brands as well such as Burda and NewLook. When ordering from these folks look for the sales! They will usually do a 10-15% off your purchase online. Some patterns are available as digital download, but the majority are still available only as paper patterns. 8. https://mccallpattern.mccall.com/ McCalls has a ton of great patterns to get you started right as well as their own cosplay line up found here: https://cosplay.mccall.com/. McCalls is home to other sewing brands such as Butterick, Kwiksew and Vogue. When buying patterns from these guys definitely keep an eye out for sales!! They will bring their pattern prices down to $3.99USD for their main brands and $5.99-9.99USD for Vogue. McCalls also offers a digital pattern option for their patterns which is super quick and convenient and easy to use. 9. https://sewingpatterns.com/ This is a great website to buy sewing patterns for cheaper. If you buy directly from the parent company you could be paying upwards of $13USD per pattern, but if you buy from this website you can get patterns for about $5USD. I do caution, don't buy digital patterns if you can avoid it. Digital patterns from this site might be super cheap and convenient, but the service they have for reading the files: printsew.com has had multiple server issues and download issues as well as no responses from customer service to address the issues. So stick with paper pattern orders from these folks. - UPDATE: while buying physical patterns from this website is fine, I do not recommend buying digital patterns as they are affiliated with printsew.com which continuously has problems and NO customer service. Crafting supplies: 10. https://www.cosplaysupplies.com/ This online shop has a ton of great crafting supplies from craft foams to worbla, paint to crystals, they have just about anything you are looking for. They ship super quick too and are fairly priced! 11. https://www.redmooncosplaysolutions.com/ Another online shop that carries all kinds of worbla and craft foam among other crafting supplies. They are a smaller company located in Canada. 12. https://ardawigscanada.ca/ & https://arda-wigs.com/ Arda Wigs is the leading cosplay wig supplier. But not only can you buy the perfect wig from them, you can get craft foam and foam clay, styling supplies and accessories. They also have a ton of tutorials on how to style their wigs! 13. Amazon When in doubt, go to Amazon. Amazon carries everything! And of course, if you have Prime shipping it gets to you in no time flat! I thought it best to share this post with you since Fan Expo Vancouver is right around the corner. This has always been an issue in the cosplay community, and there is more and more awareness being brought to it each and every year. As the title says: COSPLAY IS NOT CONSENT So what does that mean? It means, just because someone is scantily clad dressed as their favourite character, or wearing sexy clothes doesn't give other people permission or the right to go and oogle them, harass them, touch, contact or haggle them in any way. They are showing their respect to a character they admire, and are dressing up in a style that is comfortable to them, but it doesn't mean it is an open invitation to other people to be rude or inappropriate towards them in anyway. It means, If someone is dressed up in a costume that may not look as polished or finessed as someone else's that you can go harass them, or bully them It means, If someone is dressed up in ANY form of costume, YOU HAVE TO ASK FOR PERMISSION! Permission for photos, permission to touch their costume, permission to stop them and have a conversation. Cosplayers don't bite, we want to have our hard work admired, we want to share the excitement of fandom with you, we don't want to have people harassing us and following us around and being inappropriate. So please remember, when you are headed to the Con this weekend, or any other Con, Please be respectful of Cosplayer's. They are fan's too, and are there to enjoy the con. If you are a Cosplayer, go with a buddy or a Cosplay tender, someone who is willing to be a buffer for you and help you out. Original art by Amy Reeder. Photo from cosplayisnotconsent.org
Can I be a cosplayer and a Mermaid? If I'm a mermaid does that make me a cosplayer? I hear these topics a lot! Especially when I'm hanging out on Tail Talk Tuesday with Courtney Mermaid on Youtube. So let's discuss these one at a time.
Can I be a cosplayer and a Mermaid? The answer is YES! You'll find that people are going to do things that make them feel good, but also they are going to do things the way they find most comfortable. Whether you want to work on your "Mersona" and build your community as a Mermaid and cosplay on the side, or you want to build up your Cosplayer identity and mermaid on the side, or if you want to equally build both communities or your cosplay is a mermaid, the power is in your hands! If I'm a mermaid does that make me a cosplayer? The answer is no. Again this is totally up to you. If you feel that your mersona is a cosplay that's totally cool. Other people mermaid for the exercise, for the joy of wearing a tail, some feel a strong calling that they belong in the water and this allows them to bridge the gap. I personally see myself as more of a cosplayer, with a mersona on the side. I've been doing both activities equally as long, and enjoy them both immensely, but for different reasons. A very loving, passionate and convincing friend first introduced me to mermaiding, but my love for costumes is what threw me into it full fledge. I love the freedom of being in the water, I love feeling like I'm something more than just a person who likes swimming where as with cosplay I feel I get to express myself fully through my costumes, and escape reality for a while by embodying a different character. But that's what feels comfortable for me. Always do what works for you and what makes you happiest :) For more information on my mermaid adventures you can check out mermaidkim.weebly.com For more information on mermaiding in Vancouver, and to visit Courtney Mermaid's page check out vancouvermermaid.com |
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