Tell me about the outfit you are wearing – who are you cosplaying and how did you decide to pick this particular character ?
I’m cosplaying as Navi from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Yes, I know, Navi is floating ball of light, but that gave me complete freedom to design an outfit for her based on how I thought a human Navi would look like. I had a lot of fun with that. My boyfriend already had a Link costume and I was kind of on the borderline thinking of cosplaying as Princess Zelda, but it just didn’t really seem to fit me. He joked about me cosplaying as Navi and I decided I would, haha!
Tell me about the process of making your outfit – was it easier or tougher than you imagine it to be ?
Well, I hadn’t done much sewing on my own before this one. In fact, I think the only thing I had sewn before this was a corset shirt, boning and all. So it looks like a simple costume but it was a lot of work since I was kind of learning as I went along.
I really wanted a sort of spunky look for Navi but I still wanted her to be a bit elegant, in a way. I think I did that pretty well. The dress was actually made with two patterns put together. The top part was taken from a shirt pattern, and the bottom from a costume for a fairy (ironically). It took AGES to find the right pattern for the outer corset, but I managed to find one. That was the second corset I had ever made and this one was pretty difficult. I forget how many pieces I had to sew together, exactly, but it was a lot of small pieces and I used a very thin fabric that ended up tearing at the end of the con day I was extremely pleased with all the colors. The wig and the dress all came out in the perfect blue that I wanted and yeah. I love this costume. It was just hard to breathe in.
The wings sucked, I think. Ended up rushing them and the method that I thought was going to work super well ended up not working super well. I hope that if I get the chance to redo this, I can find a better way to make those wings. What I did was, using a method I’d found online, molded hanged to a shape, put white tights over it, painted it with a glue and water mix until it dried, then spray painted them blue. I had originally gotten blue stockings to cover them but they were squishing my wire wing frame>.<
For now, this costume is retired but one day, I'll bring it back to life!
Any interesting stories from people’s reaction to your outfit at the con ? ^^
Oh goodness, yes, haha! I was Navi, and surprisingly, a lot of people figured it out even when I was walking around by myself. People would yell “HEY! LISTEN!” at me from across streets, down the block, from the floor above me…It was crazy. I even had a person come up and ask me to annoy him, which was pretty funny actually (apparently, I wasn’t being annoying enough haha). A couple of fangirls came up behind my boyfriend and I and screamed ‘HEY! LISTEN” at him and ran away giggling. That was a bit weird, haha.
How did you get started cosplaying and what got you interested ?
Some old friends of mine waaaaaay back in my sophomore year of high school got me into anime (I got a bit of a late start, haha), and they were going to Fanime that year and tried to get me to go but it was short notice so I didn’t. But the next year, we planned a skit and everything, and I ended up having three cosplays at my very first con and I’ve enjoyed it ever since.
Honestly, I’ve always loved dressing up (since I was a kid, and always loved Disney, I’ve dressed up as every Disney Princess for Halloween…even Pocahontas and Mulan). I took choir in high school and it was so much fun trying to figure out what to wear for the show. So now, when I put video games/anime/movies/whatever and dressing up together and they have this crazy love child of cosplay…it’s a dream come true.
What are the con did you first attended and what’s your favorite con that you’ve attended so far and why ?
My first con was Fanime in San Jose. It’s the closest one and was on a three-day-weekend so, since I was in high-school at the time, it worked out well. Also, it happened to be the one my friends were going to. I still go to it every year and this year I got to go to Anime Expo for the first time (my cons are limited due to my starving college student status, haha). I don’t know if I can pick a favorite since I’ve been to so few. I guess I’d say Fanime is my favorite since it’s so familiar. For example, if someone needed to tell me where a gathering was, I would know. At Expo, I was totally confused. It was way bigger than Fanime. A bit overwhelming and hard on my feet, haha.
What does cosplay mean to you ?
For me, it’s a way to be someone else. Not necessarily the person I’m cosplaying as, but when you’re around a whole bunch of people that love the same things you do, I just feel different. I feel way more outgoing and everyone you meet is so nice and it’s so fun talking to people about different games and what not at a con. And I really like seeing my finished products. I also have a lot of fun talking to people on the cosplay.com forums about certain costumes, getting help from people and giving some back in return. You’re just part of this big community. It’s awesome.
And of course, what’s to stop you from going into a mall with a blue wig and elf ears on and scaring young children?
But I think I’m digressing haha. I think of cosplay also as a creative release. Even if I’m not designing my own costume (which I do, occasionally), I have to design a way to MAKE the costume. I can just spend time brainstorming ways to make a certain jewelry piece, or figuring out how to make a shirt fit a certain way, or how to make a specific prop.
Of course, I have LOADS of fun just walking around in my costumes. One day, I’ll work up the nerve to be in character all the time while wearing it, haha. Being a cosplayer makes you unique. How often do you run into someone at McDonald’s who makes costumes just for fun as their hobby? It’s fun when that topic comes up with someone new in one of my classes or something. People are always really interested.
If you had unlimited funds/technology/time, what is your dream cosplay ?
This changes a lot, when I come across new games (I tend to cosplay more from video games than anime). I have a few right now that I’ve been thinking of. I’ve been thinking of Leliana from the game Dragon Age Origins (even though I’m already going to cosplay Morrigan) which would require making a full set of leather armor. Then when I’m Morrigan, I could make my friend wear it and it would be epic Some of the others are ones I’m already planning on making but if I had unlimited funds and what not, they’d be made already haha. Like, I have a character from each Ar Tonelico game (Misha, Luca, Finnel) that I want to cosplay as and their costumes and hair are kinda crazy. I’d LOVE to cosplay my Aion character xD There’s two versions of Miku from Vocaloid that I would probably only be able to do with unlimited-ness, and one is her Dark Woods Circus Version…she has goat legs. I have no idea how I’d do that…haha. The other is Black Rock Shooter and that is because she has this crazy gun cannon thing on her arm….yeah. And that’s it, I guess.
