Cosplay club members take pride in nerd label

Otago Daily Times

a day ago

Dunedin Cosplay creators (from left) Cameron Lindsay, Jessica Leslie and William Allan display a handmade Rocket Raccoon at a cosplay workshop at Wood Solutions Joinery on Saturday. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON
You have to be a special kind of nerd to dedicate hours, months and even years to bringing your favourite popular culture characters to life.
Dunedin cosplay creators Jessica Leslie, William Allan and Cameron Lindsay are proud to be those nerds.
Ms Leslie said the trio were dedicated members of the Southern Cosplay Cabal — a group dedicated to breaking the taboo around being nerdy cosplay creators.
They were creating an environment where crafty people could socialise with each other and make products that made them stand out in a crowd for a bit, she said.
The group meets on the first Saturday of every month at Wood Solutions Joinery and members work on different pieces together.
Mr Allan said he had taken a lot of inspiration for his cosplay from his mother, who used to make craft stools.
He had spent about five months making a Rocket Raccoon from a doll he found.
He had used dyed pillow stuffing to make the raccoon's fur and was trying to make it without any instructions, looking at images on Google for inspiration.
The trio spent a lot of time at Spotlight and Mitre 10 on their weekends looking for things that fitted their costumes just right.
While Ms Leslie and Mr Allan had several projects on the go at any given time, Mr Lindsay preferred to focus on just one project at a time.
Mr Lindsay said most cosplay creators had phases of making different types of costumes.
He started off making armour, but more recently he had been working on 12th century Japanese traditional clothing.
The biggest costume he had made was armour from the tabletop miniature wargame Warhammer.
The suit was taller than him and it took him two years to build.
Cosplay costume designs could feature many different themes, including steampunk, anime and science fiction characters from popular culture like Chewbacca from Star Wars, he said.
"You could make the argument that fashion design is cosplay as well."
However, cosplay costumes were not just worn, they were shown off in front of an audience.
Dunedin had a small but strong cosplay community.
New members were welcome to come along to a cabal meeting and have a go at making a costume.
Resources to make costumes were provided by Ms Leslie.
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