A First Timer’s Cosplay Experience: Fan Expo Vancouver 2014

Cosplaying is something that I’ve always had an interest in, and I’m beginning to think that I’d like to take that interest even further. I put together a costume for this year’s Fan Expo Vancouver (check out my awesome experience at the Expo here) and was actually quite proud of my work. It was suggested that I share with you my experiences with making my first costume and just the act of cosplaying as well, so here we go!

I had decided (and had this decided for quite awhile before knowing I was going to a convention) that I would dress up as San from the Studio Ghibli film Princess Mononoke. Studio Ghibli films have always held a big ol’ spot in my heart as My Neighbour Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service were two of my favourite movies growing up. I would sometimes catch glimpses of Princess Mononoke when my older brother was watching, but I found it too scary back then and had a hard time getting through the whole thing. Okkoto (the white boar god) really freaked me out! Anyways, when I was older I watched Princess Mononoke myself and thought it was so awesome. I loved how it reflected our world and showed how destructive it really is against our beautiful forests and the animals that live there. The movie made me want to be like San, to live for the animals and to protect them from nasty humans. So, basically, I wanted my first cosplay to be something I related to and also just really liked the look of! I also thought it’d be a pretty simple costume to make (ha).

Making the costume was…interesting. I didn’t really have any sewing skills whatsoever. I mean, I could sew pieces of fabric together but it never looked nice and I lose motivation very quickly if I feel like I’m failing at something, however, I was determined to cosplay at the upcoming Fan Expo, so I went for it anyways.

I didn’t think I could sew up my own dress at this point so I decided to go to the thrift store in hopes to find a navy blue dress that could easily be altered to look like San’s. I did end up finding one, but it ended up being the most uncomfortable article of clothing I had ever put on, therefore it just wouldn’t work. Thankfully I realized I had a long navy dress sitting in a bag of hand-me-down clothes in my closet. The dress being a little on the large side, made tailoring it to fit my body a lot of “fun”. In the end it all worked out and was also super comfortable! The white over shirt/apron that goes over the blue dress was just a plain white t-shirt I found at the thrift store and cut the living daylights out of!

The necklace was difficult but a fun challenge to take on. The white “teeth”(I believe they are) I made with air dry clay, then used some wooden beads I found at Michaels, put them on a long piece of ribbon, and yay I had the necklace! One tooth broke at one point so I had to make another one, I didn’t enjoy that much.

The armbands and headband I just made with buttons I picked out at Fabricland and with the same ribbon I used for the necklace. I decided to just tie the arm bands on in the end cause I didn’t take the time to figure out a better way to keep them on, which was kind of irritating in the end because they kept slipping down my arm, but you live and you learn, right?

My hair was already a fairly dark brown which was nice, but a little longer than I would have liked, I just really didn’t want to cut it again ‘cause I’m trying to grow it out! I also really don’t enjoy wearing wigs, so I didn’t bother with that.

For the face makeup, I used a dark red lipstick, which ended up being a really stupid idea since it doesn’t really dry, it just sits there on your face, just waiting for you to smudge it all over and make you look like a fool. I don’t know why I didn’t think about that before, just please don’t judge me.

The earrings I had at first were some blue dyed wooden hoops that I painted white but the dye was so intense it came through the white paint and made it just a light blue, also the paint was crap and had clumps in it…it just didn’t really work out, soooo I was super excited when I found an earring set at Michaels with the circular shiny shell style stuff I was looking for in the first place.

Then finally my boots. These I felt like were one of the most important components of the costume. My first attempt was ridiculous and was rather embarrassing. I attempted to make boots out of plastic, crappy, fake leather fabric. I don’t even want to get into that they looked so dumb. Anyways, I was super super lucky to find a pair of boots, again at the thrift shop, that were pretty well perfect (and fit perfectly too)! I was so excited and when I got home and altered them, they looked even better. At that point I felt a lot more confident and was eager to walk into Fan Expo in my costume! I was really quite proud of my work.

There is more to Princess Mononoke’s apparel, such as the big white fur cape, the mask, and the ears, but I didn’t like how the white fur fabric I bought looked in the end, and I was having a hard time making the mask. (I was also having a hard time motivating myself to paint and be artful)

In any case, I had so much fun wearing it all day on the 2nd day of Fan Expo. I had a few people ask for pictures, and I had pictures taken with fellow Princess Mononoke cosplayers and lots of wonderful compliments too! It was cool to see other peoples renditions and how they went about making certain parts of the costume. Most people had the white fur cape and the mask, and some even had the dagger or spear. I was really wishing I had made those parts to the costume after that, but I guess it was also more comfortable without them!

I’m now slowly getting into sewing and am eager to increase my skills to make better costumes in the future! I think cosplaying is a really fun hobby, and I can’t wait to do it again!

Fan Expo Vancouver was also my first convention EVER! You can take a look at my recap here!