2020 Cosplay Year in Review

Wooloo | Rohan | Cosmog

I had grand dreams of being ultra productive in 2020. I managed to crank out three new costumes for Katsucon in February (which is more than usual from me) so I was expecting to have many more completed costumes by the end of the year. Then the pandemic happened, I started working from home, and I figured, what a great time to get ahead on projects! I was going to produce the most costumes I ever. Well, it didn't work out that way. The only 3 costumes I finished were those 3 from Katsucon. I've been sporadically working on projects but never finishing them, and that's fine. Maybe I needed a break from the hustle. I think many cosplayers have felt the pressure to keep up and continue to push out new things on a regular basis. Every year when Katsu would roll around I would anticipate a friend of two burning out from the stress. Know that your health and mental well-being is a priority and if this year has shown us anything, it's that the costumes and conventions can wait. So instead I focused on creating content with costumes that I had in my closet. I finally put all my self-shooting equipment to use. I got to filming short videos and actually enjoying making Tiktoks (le gasp!). Long story short, do what makes you happy, even if that's relaxing on the couch and reliving your high school weeb days.

Photo: Paul Hillier

What I learned

1. I will keep cosplaying even though a pandemic
2. I never realized how much deadlines played into my motivation. The only costumes I finished were for Katsucon
3. Hand knitting is fun, easy, and fast
4. My makeup skills improved. Thank you beauty gurus! Get a good fluffy shadow brush for diffusing your eyeshadow
5. Don't be afraid of extra long false lashes, they look phenomenal for dramatic characters.
6. After reluctantly joining it last year, I realized how great Tiktok is. It's currently my favourite place on the internet
7. Getting a great pose sometimes means taking the risk of looking like an idiot.
8. Posing can be a workout for muscles you never knew you had
9. If you are in costume and creating video content, record in character B-roll to use for future videos. It's a good investment of your time.
10. I really like to hoard fabric. I bought so much new fabric for upcoming projects during quarantine but didn't really progress on those projects 
11. Strategically use the finished edges of finicky fraying fabric instead of having to hem or serge it yourself. Work smarter, not harder ladies.
12. I much prefer schedule social media content (Ig/Facebook) way in advance rather than dealing with the indecisiveness of figuring out what to post on the day of. It also grants you a little more perspective. Some costumes/photos I thought I posted recently, when in fact, it was over a year since I last shared something about it. 
13. I love a nice curated and colour coded Instagram grid but it is so much work!
14. Self shooting takes some practice but isn't as intimidating once you get the swing of things.
15. Self shooting can also be exhausting since you are taking care of all the roles yourself, from makeup, to modelling, to photography. Then you have to edit everything afterwards.

Photo by lichonphotography.com from our shoot on Vancouver Island in January

Most Expensive - Rohan

I had to drop quite a bit of money on leather and leather crafting supplies to make the belts and the headband. I also had to order the pen heads twice since I stored the first batch somewhere and forgot them once it was time to make the costume.

Least Expensive - Wooloo

I bought chuncky yarn at a great discount to makes this cute costume. Ordering a new pair of fangs (since my last pair were old and yellowing) was almost as expensive as the yarn. All of the black under-layers are from my wardrobe.

Favourite Cosplay - Rohan

I love many things: I love Jojo, and I love being comfortable. So Rohan is my favourite costume of the year. It's rare I get to be conformable in costume and look this good. Having a character that is meant to have fun and interesting poses definitely helped me go out of my comfort zone in photoshoots. I just have to remember to channel that Jojo energy with my other costumes.

Photo by lichonphotography.com from our shoot in Victoria in January

Forward to 2021

I don't know if I'll get miraculously more productive in 2021 but I hope to put a dent in my outstanding projects as usual. I don't foresee going to any conventions until maybe the end of the year, and even that is a stretch depending of how vaccinations go.

​I just know I miss my friends, and I want to travel the world once things are safer. I also want to go on more wilderness photoshoot adventures. Hopefully in warmer weather, since I'm always freezing on my wilderness shoots.

I hope you are all staying safe and hopefully I'll see you online and maybe at a convention next year or the following year, who knows.

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