Cosplay: Is it fashion to you?

By, Geneieve

Cosplay; the practice of dressing up as a character from a film, book, or video game, especially one from the Japanese genres of manga or anime.

People put in a lot of effort into Cosplaying their favourite character. People also put in a lot of effort into dressing up as their favourite models. Some people unfortunately find Cosplay an insult to fashion with the ‘impractical’ choices of character play for regular clothing..

How different are they? Is a fashion trend or just something that is considered a hobby/interest. DuhFridayClub sat down with Shaina Peh, a year 2 Republic Polytechnic student who is part of the Cosplay community to listen to what she thinks!   

DuhFridayClub: What is Cosplay to you?

Shaina: It is more of a hobby of interest. it is something that is fun although it takes a lot of money but it is fun and interesting.

DuhFridayClub: Is the way you dress inspired by Cosplay “fashion”?

Shaina: No, never! If the way you dress as Cosplay people are going to stare at you and it doesn’t blend with everyone else it is not considered fashion to me.

But I prefer Japan’s fashion style than western and majority of the clothes I bought online and usually it comes from Japan or Korea.

I like Japanese fashion because it looks really cute and at the same time, slightly eccentric.

DuhFridayClub: Do you have any DIY costumes? Would you rather buy the costumes OR design and create you own?

Shaina: I would rather create it on my own because if sometimes the set comes, the measurements are off and it just doesn't fit right. It’s just not that great. A huge marjority of my friends will be sew the costumes themselves. If rushing for time, they will buy it from Taobao.

     

These is one of the times where Shaina Cosplayed as one of the characters in an anime, Panty and Stocking.

DuhFridayClub: Do you think Cosplay is more of a fashion thing or a performing arts thing?

Shaina: It’s definitely an art of its own. I don't think its a fashion statement and people wont wear it because “oh i wanna look good in this” but they wear it because like “oh i want to make my character come to life”. I want to show people my character and this side of the character, so it’s definitely an art thing.

DuhFridayClub: Would you spend your weekend going to a Cosplay festival ?

Shaina: Yes because it is fun, you get to see the characters that you like a lot in manga or anime come to life and it’s also fun because you see people sometimes do horribly and you just find it entertaining.

Shaina's favourite character, Yui , from K-On!

DuhFridayClub: How does it feel to dress up in the character that you really like?

Shaina: It was really, really different. I was Cosplaying “Stockings” from one of the anime Panty and Stockings. I wasn’t very familiar with that cartoon, but i did know to a certain extent what the character was like, so it was pretty okay. But it’s really weird cause when you dress up, you feel so dressed up as a doll, you feel like you should act like the character and stay in character but  on the other hand you’re just feeling really awkward and everyone is just giving you weird looks and whispering comments. And you dont know if you should let it slide or do something about it.

DuhFridayClub: Do you feel confident in your attire?

Shaina: I think if it is my character that I know more about, then I would probably be confident cause I know their personality but for those that I don't know so well, you just don't know how to get into character and it doesn't sink in so well, so it’s kinda weird.