Nov 5, 2013

Cosplay at Comikaze

I love dressing in costume, which is why Halloween is my favorite holiday, but this year, while I attended several fun Halloween events, none called for a costume. Yet, here I was with two costumes from two of my favorite Sci-Fi franchises. What was a gal to do? Then I remembered Comikaze.


I've never been much of a con goer - Ack! Crowds! - but I could not resist the call of all those vendors, nevermind the panels, and so I braved the crowds for Comikaze last year with a Groupon discount for one day and loved every minute of it. I had to go again.

Spoils of Comikaze vendors part 1: Boston Metaphysical Society 1 & 2, Star Trek Tricorder, Star Wars Chewbacca tank, Rocket Raccoon T-shirt, & more.
part 2: Batman bikini & shorts, Tromeo & Juliet, & A Clockwork Orange soundtrack.
We planned to go only one day this year so I had to choose between my costumes: A T-shirt dress styled after a Starfleet uniform (from ThinkGeek) paired with my phaser and communicator or, if I was feeling brave, my newly acquired Slave Leia costume (from Halloweentown).

I wasn't feeling too brave, so I pulled on my black leggings, retro boots, and Star Trek dress, then strapped on my official accessories with an old GM belt and various tool-belt pouches. It was sort of semi-cosplay. Not totally gung-ho, perhaps even slightly half-assed looking, but I was comfortable so that's all that mattered.

Beam me up, Scotty.

I had a lot of fun that day, but only one person complimented me on my costume and no one asked for a photo - not that I was dressing up for that reason, I just wanted to have some fun playing pretend, but I couldn't help but notice all the other cosplayers constantly getting stopped for photos.

While we were aimlessly wondering around we bumped into our friend Ming (of Comic Book Men fame) and I confessed I might be returning the next day in a Slave Leia costume...only if I was feeling brave, to which he replied, "You can totally rock Slave Leia!" and my confidence zoomed. That was it. I was gonna do it. I haven't been doing weights, yoga, and Dance Central like crazy for nothing, after all. The end goal was always to feel comfortable enough in my own skin to wear that wacky metal bikini.*

The costume took hours to put together. I searched the internet for tips on what shoes to wear (most suggested wearing gray Uggs or sandals if you can't get tailored boots to match the movie's), how to do my hair (many suggested using wigs but I have a lot of hair so I went for it, still really could have used extensions - oh well, next time!), and what my makeup should look like. Then once I had it all put together, I checked myself out in the mirror and thought, "What if no one asks for a photo?" and shook it off as no big deal, but then I thought, "Shit, what if someone does?" Panic. So I practiced poses in the mirror until I found one I liked. Just in case.

Suck in the gut. Now don't breathe.
In the end a ton of people came up to me to the point where I kind of lost track of them all and it was so much fun. At first I was a little nervous and shy, but that quickly dissipated because everyone was so cool and friendly and polite. It was just an awesome experience. I'm already trying to think of what to wear next year to Comikaze. This time I want to go all 3 days and dress up in 3 different costumes. I might do Slave Leia again, but get a bigger chain this time maybe, different shoes, a big braid extension, and her weapon if I can find one, but then what else? Maybe Tank Girl? Maybe a nicer Star Trek uniform? The Lollipop Chainsaw girl? That one might be fun, but I'd need to find that specific chainsaw to make it work. Padmé? Death? Kaylee? Who else? American McGee's Alice???

Here are some of the Slave Leia photos:





(*Mine's actually more like plastic but metal sounded way cooler so, y'know, poetic license and whatnot.)

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