Cosplay in the Family!

 

Cosplay. Who doesn't love cosplay? I've been doing cosplay, sometimes without knowing what it was called, for about 17 years now.

For those of you who are a bit out of the loop, Cosplay is short for costume play. I've had people say "So you basically pretend its Halloween every day." Well, kinda, but not really.

There are dozens of different kinds on cosplay, but what I love most, is no matter what kind of cosplay you choose to do, what genre, what size you are, no one makes fun of you. It takes alot of guts to let your geek out in that way, even at a convention surrounded by other geeks. Everyone gets it. No one makes fun.


Mom and her steampunk witch

My entire family does cosplay. Well, most of them anyway. We all have our favorite genres too. My mom adores Steampunk. Corsets, gears, trains, and one of her favorite movies is Back to the Future Part III. She has also dressed up as a Japanese school girl, and can be seen running around town in a Pikachu inspired kigarumi. A kigarumi is basically a giant onesie, usually based on an animal or animal like character. She also really enjoys the work of YaYa Han.



Mom in her kigarumi, and my daughter in her minion shirt



First attempt at a fake beard

Dad has been a crew member from Star Trek, and been Gandalf the White. For his Gandalf costume, I learned how to use crepe hair and spirit gum to give him a realistic looking fake beard. He has a new Steampunk costume to match my mom, and we are thinking of a Gandalf the Grey and a Severus Snape costume for him.



My sister and her Neko Maid



My sister as a fox

My sister loves the neko maid costumes. Neko is Japanese short for cat. You can often see her running around with cat ears on, or in her fox Kigarumi.



My daughter is nearly two, but we are definitely raising her in the ways of geek. Her first cosplay was super simple, just a super girl bib that came with a cape. Since then she's been a neko, a costume she still plays in, Tinkerbelle, a minion and a moogle. We'll continue to take her to conventions and let her dress up as long as she wants. Now if I've been a good geeky mom, she'll want to cosplay for the rest of her life.

My daughter's moogle costume. Definitely her favorite.

Ryan is looking forwards to dressing up as the green arrow. The only person who doesn't dress up is my brother Jeremy, but only because he's been in the army and serving our country for the last four years.




My first cosplay, I was in fifth grade. I wanted to be Neo Queen Serenity for Halloween. I begged my mom to make the costume. Somehow she did it. She made me a white tube top dress, with sequins at the top. I had to wear a long sleeved leotard under it due to the school's dress code. My mom put my hair in buns and attached gold ribbons to them to make me look more like the character. No one knew what I was dressed as, the dress kept needing to be pulled up, but I didn't care. For six hours, I was Neo Queen Serenity, and I was awesome! This has stayed with me for the rest of my life. I love dressing up, and have no intentions to stop. I even wore a Japanese kimono to my high school graduation.


First attempt at Sally in 2010

Second attempt in 2011

 

Lilly Evas=ns cosplay. Gen Con 2015

In this house, very rarely do we buy a costume. Normally we make them. The exceptions are kigarumi's. Even then we could make them. The biggest obstacle is finding time. I've made my daughter's kigarumi, and last year I made my red steampunk outfit out of a pair of curtains from Goodwill. CURTAINS!!!! I was so friggin proud of myself, and its my favorite cosplay to date.

Pattern modification for my daughter's kigarumi.

Steampunk costume made from curtains

Back of steampunk costume

I've been commissioned by a friend to make a certain cosplay. We've mapped out what we are going to do to put this together, and come up with a strategy. It will involve marrying two patterns. We knew exactly what patterns we would need and waited until there was a sale at JoAnns. Today was that day, and what would have cost us $40 ended up being $2 plus tax. I'm one of those people who will use patterns several times and when the original tissue paper starts to wear a bit, I'll copy them onto an old bed sheet or if I can afford any, muslin. You can get alot of wear out of them.

Now I'm just waiting for my friend to come down so we can go fabric shopping. I'll definitely keep you updated on this one.

So where does one cosplay? Where ever you friggin want. I normally keep it to conventions, craft fairs and Halloween, but I'm trying to work more steampunk into my every day wardrobe. But if you fancy cosplay, and you want to wear it every day, and you can't see any consiqunces? Go for it. I've seen a meme that said something along the lines of "I was told to dress for the job I want, not the job I have. Now I'm sitting in a disciplinary meeting wearing a Batman costume". If this really happened, to that person I say you're awesome. Don't ever stop wanting to be Batman.

Thanks so much,

Britanni