Life of a Cosplayer – Part 3

January 1, 2014 - ThaMofo - No Comments

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It’s been a while since the first two parts of ‘Life of a Cosplayer’ appeared on the site, thus we figured it was time for a follow-up. We have the chance to present you with the third part of the series thanks to the lovely An-Sofie, which was so kind to talk to us during the F.A.C.T.S. convention.

To start off with the cliché questions. When and why did you start with cosplay?

My cosplay ‘career’ started nearly three years ago and more by coincidence to be honest. This means I wasn’t really aiming for something that would be done over and over again. I did my best to make a nice costume in short time, because of my love for sci-fi and comics and it turned out to be a great success. Ever since then I strive to become better and better in what I do.

Nowadays cosplay is more often related to anime series, instead of sci-fi. How come you stick to the original sci-fi style?

That’s quite simple, I just base my costumes on things that interest me. I share a great love for comics and sci-fi, so I’d rather make a costume of something I know and love. I don’t want to cosplay a character I don’t know , simply because the costume is nice. I prefer characters you can relate to in a way. If the character isn’t all that familiar to me, I will research it thoroughly first.

What are you hoping to accomplish with your cosplay?

There are actually two things I wish to achieve with my cosplay career.

First of all, I wish to keep doing it just for fun, whilst trying my best to keep improving in what I do. By doing this I hope to be able to do activities with my friends and meet new people in the process.

Secondly it’s my dream to be able to create costumes for other people and learn how to use other materials to create even better cosplay suits. I currently already do my best to create outfits for friends but I’m hoping to expand that to other people as well.

Of course most of all I hope to keep improving in what I do and with the costumes I make. It’s an even bigger honor when my friends ask me to help them or design something for them.

Costume making, is it something for everyone?

If you don’t try it out yourself, you sadly won’t know if it’s your thing or not. All I can say is, it’s a lot of trial and error.

Personally I love going over the details of a costume to make it as realistic as possible. I constantly try to improve my skills and learn new techniques and use new materials when doing so. I try to raise the bar for my future projects and thus give myself a hefty challenge each time.

So you’re hoping to start some kind of a business?

Yes and no, it would be great to turn my ‘crafting’ in to a bigger project, but it would also be fun to be able to create costumes together with people I know. This is once again an attribution to the ‘fun factor’ of cosplay.

How do your friends and family react to your hobby?

Well, my family is very supportive of what I do, and my friends are also quite positive about it. Sometimes I get a few mixed responses, but nothing really negative.

When do you think it’s time to stop with cosplaying?

Never! No, really, in the future it would be great to keep doing it. When I have children it would also be fun to do stuff together. I think you will have to see, what the future brings in order to decide when the time is right to stop.

Is there anyone you look up to?

Well not really. I hope to inspire people with what I do. Give a nudge to those who are afraid to try cosplay themselves.

Do you get a lot of positive response from the crowd?

Of course, most of the response I get is positive. People are always happy to see some of their favorite characters come to life and try to share the joy with me.

Are there any negative responses then?

Sadly there are, sometimes people get very clingy or even worse, they tend to forget that there is an actual human being underneath the costume and not just an object.

Also it’s nice to have our pictures taken, with or without our ‘fans’, but sometimes people just flash a camera in your face without even asking. It’s so much more fun if people just ask, we’d be glad to pose instead of providing them with random candid photos.

Is there anything you wish to say to someone who wants to try out cosplay?