The Royal Court: Body Image and Cosplay

Hello Lovelies.

 

This has been a very difficult post to write.

When I started cosplaying in 2010 I had the identical body measurements of Jill Valentine from Resident Evil and I cosplayed her first four costumes (three if you don’t consider RE: Apocalypse and RE3 to be different costumes). Regardless of that fact, some people (men and women) took issue that a curvy woman with actual boobs and hips was cosplaying as their favourite character. From that point, I became aware of the body expectations that society imposed onto women.

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I used to cosplay Jill Valentine quite a lot

It goes without saying that our culture has given women a fairly high bar to reach in terms of beauty standards, and this has entered into cosplay as well. Not only does your costume have to look immaculate as if it came out of the subject matter directly, but you yourself, have to be immaculate, even to a fault. It’s not enough to have scaled your costume to the nth degree, utilised every reference photo you can, if you don’t fit what society perceives the way that character to look, then you’ve ‘failed’. If the culture see’s that character as thin, or as busty, (even if they’re not designed

The post popular photo I’ve ever posted

that way) if you stray outside that paradigm, you will be shamed for it.

I have been shamed in the past. I have been told I am too fat to be Jill Valentine and Slave Leia. The second costume I ever wore was Princess Leia’s iconic bikini. I felt alright wearing it, but I wastoo nervous to ever wear it in public, at that time I had never seen a woman with curves like mine wear that cosplay, and that scared me. I genuinely believed I was too curvy for that costume. It also showed off a lot more of my body that I had ever really shown off before, as I hadn’t even worn an actual bikini before that point. I wore it the one time, and never wore it again. The few photos that my fiancé took have since done the rounds and it is ironically for all the notoriety attached, it remains one of my most requested costumes to reprise.

I have been cosplaying for six years, my fiancé has been doing this for nearly ten. In that time we have both seen cosplayers, both men and women avoid certain costumes, or certain poses, and in some cases, have actually left the hobby, because of body image, both internal and external. I’ve seen gorgeous women targeted for being ‘too fat for a particular costume’, andequally gorgeous women refrain from posting pictures because of concerns to their appearance. In fact what prompted me to write this post was just that.

bljfieradlySix weeks ago, one of the gorgeous Harley Quinn cosplayers I follow on Instagram @jokers_angel posted photos from a recent photoshoot in the iconic Harley leotard. The captain on one caught my attention was that she was afraid to post additional photos because of her ‘tummy and stomach rolls’. This hit me quite hard, as like her (and every other female cosplayer who jumped onto her post to show their support) I have issues with my stomach.

My own insecurities stem from the fact that it’s not as toned as I’d like it to be, and after six abdominal surgeries over twenty seven years, I have a lot of scar tissue and a mangled belly button. I actively try and hide my navel and lower abdomen these days, the bikinis I wear now are all high waisted and it takes a lot for me to share any photo that involves my belly. It also doesn’t help that I’ve received a lot of attention from the belly fetish community, which actually only serves to make it worse.

Over the course of the day, this stuck with me that this beautiful woman had almost refrained from sharing an amazing photo just because of basic anatomy. That societal standards of beauty and cosplay perfection had somehow made it impossible for actual living humans to portray the characters they love. The following day, I put my own insecurities aside for a moment, and posted on Instagram a side-by-side photo of jokers_angel in her amazing Harley Quinn cosplay, opposite my Nurse Chapel “Legs for Days” photo (which was one of my most popular posts at the time). Both of us are sitting down, and both of us are showing ‘tummy rolls’ because our abdomens are being cut in half by the act of sitting down. I had intended on showing solidarity in the obvious, I had not intended on what happened next.bljji-uj1md

I started receiving comments from other female cosplayers. Other gorgeous women thanking me for posting the image, for addressing a concern that I had no idea was affecting so many.  @itsthenerdylife, a page I’m a Page Model for, picked up the photo and re-shared it, further spreading the message.

Fast forward to this morning. I had essentially forgotten about this article, I had placed it in the ‘to do when not busy’ basket, and never went back to it. And then I got a message. A cosplayer @Colombocosplay had seen the post on @itsthenerdylife, and it had given her the self-confidence to become a swimsuit promoter and to shoot herself in two revealing swimsuits and was going to post them untouched to further promote the notion of self-love. I actually cried like a baby, in fact I’m tearing up right now as I write this.

I have always been supportive of other cosplayers, both my fiancé and I have taken a number of newbie cosplayers under our wings over the years, but this was the first time that I actually felt like I had done something. In all reality, there are no rules on who can and cannot cosplay a character. It doesn’t matter if you match the source material exactly, or you don’t, the only person you ever have to impress is yourself.

<3 PrincessJazz
Curvy Cosplayer

The Royal Court: Evolution of Jacinta Tryne

Hello Lovelies.

There is only one other character that I have dedicated more appearances to than my iconic Trek dress, and that is Jill Valentine, but she is the subject for an another post. I have been getting a few queries about how I made my miniskirt and why I’ve made so many.

When I became involved with the USS Tydirium and Starfleet International back in 2010, I had only been doing cosplaying for two years and at that point had only done Resident Evil cosplays. Even though the rest of the crew opted for the Post DS9 Black uniform, I decided on the more classic Original Series dress

The Seamstress in me demanded that if I was going to have the iconic Starfleet uniform, that I was going to have to make it, and while the rest of the crew got their uniforms from an online vendor, I went searching for the pattern for mine. After extensive searching, I managed to track down an original issue TOS uniform pattern, made in the 60’s. It used a lot of concepts that are no longer used today in sewing so I had to relearn a lot of lost arts.

Version 1

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Look how young and unprepared I was

For my first version, I didn’t put any thought into accuracy, as I was still studying, and wasn’t able to attend a lot of events, and the event I was going to was a simple Toy Fair, I simply wanted to make the costume.

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You can see how short it is in this photo
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Version one on the left, Version three on the right. You can see just how inaccurate the first one was

I simply bought a cotton shirt fabric in a blue that I thought would match the blue from the show. And when you compare it to my version three uniform you can see just how way off I was. I also made this costume in my dorm room at university and I had to essentially learn how to translate the pattern, it took me about a week to make it. You can see the white invisible zipper that I applied incorrectly to the uniform as well. At first, I was concerned with how short it was going to be, and even had bloomers to go with it, and spent a lot of the time sitting down at the event. I also only wore basic shapewear with my normal everyday bra.

 

I didn’t have a name for this persona, I simply decided that I was going to be a Trill in the TOS uniform, and that was it. I styled my hair in a pinup design that I felt would match the uniform, (and I wasn’t prepared to put my hair into the beehive style favoured by Yeoman Rand) and applied my eyebrow pencil spots down the sides of my face and neck.

One thing you will notice in this version of the uniform is I’m not wearing stockings, this was primarily an oversight on my half, because of how short the costume was, I couldn’t wear normal pantyhose or anything as the seam sat under the hem of the dress. I actually contemplated continuing the Trill markings down my legs, but it took me over an hour just to apply the markings to my face, and I’d need a better option for it, made that decision for me.

Sadly, though, it was the only time I wore the uniform. Due to my workload and my Chapters avoidance of major cons during, this time, I didn’t have any opportunity to wear it again.

Fast forward four years

Oz Comic Con offers a fan club space to the USS Tydirium, and I plan on dedicating a day to promoting the group and pull out my Original Series Uniform. And this happened. My bust had eaten the costume, where once it comfortably sat on my thigh, now it hovered uncomfortably above my crotch. Not that I could zip it up anyway at this point. I also discover thanks to the photos that because of the fabric type, that it doesn’t even look the same colour in photos.

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Its amazing what four years does to a woman

This is when I decide that I’m going to store-buy my uniform, my fiance Doc is ordering a replacement uniform and I decide to do the same, and my previous blog post pointed out what happened there. Also at this time, the Tydirum started to encourage us to come up with persona’s for our impressions as a gimmick to tie the costuming side together. I had been participating in online RPG’s and Jacinta Tryne was my go-to Trill Character that I always used. In fact, I didn’t decide on the name, Doc, who was the subchapter president for our region submitted it when our CO started making ID Cards for us to wear.

 

And Jacinta Tryne was born.

Version 2

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Photo Credit: Rivencraft Photography

 

After I discovered that my original costume had been destroyed by my bust, and I had a week before a major con (as mentioned in my last blog post) I sort out to remake it. However, in the four years since that first costume, my skills as a seamstress had improved and I had established a level of accuracy that I was proud of, so version 2 was going to be as accurate as I could make it. I researched the type of fabric used on the show, a four-way stretch double knit cotton, and went out to find it in the right shade of blue to remake the Science department uniform.

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I still do my spots by hand

And I couldn’t find it.

 

What I could find, however, was a light blue similar to the colour worn by Nurse Chapel in season two. So I modify the pattern I have to account that the collar for Nurse Chapel is completely different from the standard Science Dress and make it. By this time, I am more confident as a seamstress and put this costume together in a day. I even make it longer by 5 cm’s to accommodate the wearing of stockings. Like version one, I only wore basic shapewear, but a different bra, as my bust had increased I had a brand new bra for this costume.

I had originally planned on styling my hair the same way I did the first time, but I ran out of time and opted instead for Jacinta’s now trademark bun. When I first put the spots on, it took over an hour, by this point I’ve switched to a liquid eyeliner and it took me half an hour. Again I decided against the Trill spots down my legs, as I was wearing stockings and felt that they wouldn’t show through properly. When you look at the photos from that event that do show off my legs, you’ll notice that it wouldn’t have really mattered anyway.

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Case in point, one of my most popular photos on my Instagram page

 

Version 3

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Meet the new Jacinta Tryne

 

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Meet Crewman Embri

A year after the premiere of my Nurse Chapel version of Jacinta, Doc launches the Animus Subchapter of the Tydirium and the Ty is once again invited to have a fan club table at Oz Comic Con and my Girl Friday Emma wants to tag along. So I have to make her a TOS Dress and decide that I’m going to remake mine. the reason? Because I have managed to find the accurate colour fabric used in the show, in not only her Operations Red, but my Science Blue. Had I not found the right fabric, I probably wouldn’t have remade it. I once again misguidedly gave myself a week to make both uniforms, and manage to knock them both out in four hours a piece. Which considering Emma lives in an entirely different state, her uniform turned out amazingly. Though I realised the hard way that even with the 5cm I added to the length, I couldn’t hem her uniform, not that anyone would have noticed.

 

I got a brand new waist cincher and a soft cup bra (which I strongly recommend for anyone using this costume, the original pattern did not make allowances for brassieres with modern cups) for this costume to go along with my normal shapewear. I also opted for a darker shade tight to go with the dress (and mistakenly pay $75 for them to split as soon as I put them on). I’m able to put on both mine and Emma’s spots on in an hour and we spend the entire day booth babeing it up on the show floor.

It is unlikely that Jacinta will see another TOS dress, but as the Animus utilises a variant to the post-DS9 uniform, she might get a uniform upgrade.

 

<3 PrincessJazz

The Royal Court: Handmade vs Store Bought Costumes

Hello Lovelies.

I am on the record stating that all of my costumes, both for cosplay and re-enactment are hand made. I have been trained in textiles and dressmaking and I have the skill to be able to make costumes, I know this isn’t a skillset a lot of newbie cosplayers have. I have on occasion looked at store-bought as a cheaper alternative for costumes or components I simply do not have the skill or means to make myself.

Last year I was preparing for Oz-Comic Con Sydney and like many cosplayers, I was frantically preparing my line up. I had already premiered my Arkham Knight Harley Quinn at Supanova Sydney that year and I planned on reprising that costume.

And you are all aware of THAT little trickster Photo Credit: Hoon Photography

That was when I learned that the Starfleet International Chapter I am a part of the USS Tydirium, was going to have a booth at the event. Now I hadn’t worn a Trek uniform in about three years at this point, I had actually dropped off of the cosplay radar thanks to uni, and then starting my career as a nurse. So naturally I got my Original Series Science Uniform out of the closet and tried it on.

 

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This was the last time I wore my ‘Original’ Series Dress

 

And well this happened.

This is that same costume three years later
This is that same costume three years later, and yes, that is my butt

In three years my boobs had managed to eat my costume. As it was to the correct measurements of the Original Series, it already was rather high on my thigh, three years later, it was barely past my crotch, and my bust had destroyed any chance of zipping it up (and you can see more than a bit of my butt).

This was a month before the con, and at that point, I had very little free time in front of me, my options were to either lop off my boobs or to make a new costume. And I think more than a few of you would hate the first option. As my fiance was in the process of ordering a new Nemesis Tunic for himself, I decided that I would take the plunge and order a replacement uniform. I took my measurements and sent along the money.

Three weeks later this arrived.

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Note my lack of happiness with having to put it on again

The Store Bought Costume

I bought this Original Series Dress from an online vendor well regarded by my Chapter, all the male members source their tunics from it, and I know a few of the ladies have also bought this very uniform. This costume is widely available, essentially every online vendor makes this uniform. It cost me $84.00AUD, which is about what I paid in fabric to make the very same costume. I have seen many gorgeous ladies on my Star Trek Girls Showcase page wearing this costume, and I will never fault anyone for wearing a store bought costume, the unfortunate issue I have is I own accurate TOS uniforms, it just felt wrong.

The Construction

Compared to the Season Two Original Series Uniform, which was made out of a four-way stretch double knit cotton, the widely available store bought version is made out of a poly-cotton blend, and felt like I was wearing a polo shirt. The costume lacks the back mounted hidden zipper, which only served to extend the feeling that it was an oversized polo shirt.

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Thanks to my camera happy fiance. you can see the struggle I had getting out of the Store bought costume
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Note the white line down the side, that is the hidden zipper position on the actual uniform

The lack of the zipper means that the uniform lacks any ability to contour. The original uniform, for all its failings, was designed to highlight the female officer wearing it. and you’ll note that the above photos of my first Original Dress, that it still retains my hourglass shape even when not zipped up. The two photos at the start of this article were taken within minutes. I’m not wearing my normal shapewear, just a well-fitted bra, and I look two different sizes. This is because the dress isn’t brought in at the waist like it should.

 

The collar, is atrocious, it barely even resembles the accurate collar (not to mention points in the wrong direction, down instead of to the side)

It was, however, the right length, and did have the correct pleat at the front of the dress, and all the front seams, while essentially cosmetic, did make it appear like the Original Series Dress.

The Pros

  • Cost. As I pointed out, this dress cost the same as the fabric I bought to make its replacement, and it arrived at my door in three weeks. It took me about a week to make my second TOS dress.
  • Modifiability: I have seen ladies take this dress and add a zipper, as well as seen them tailor it so it looks like the actual product. A lot of ladies know how to take in/let out clothes, but not necessarily have the means to make them, so store bought is an avenue for those who can modify, not necessarily make. In fact, this is what I do for all my fiance’s costumes, as even with my skill, I cannot make Men’s costumes.
  • Instant recognition: For all its faults, you can still notice that this is the Original Series Dress. Only people like me, who are trained in design or the uber-fan is going to notice that the actual costume was made with a double knit cotton and not a poly-cotton.

The Cons

  • The Cut: It is still like wearing an oversized polo shirt, which means it breathes like a polo shirt.2016-10-02-19-14-00
  • The Style: this is the seamstress in me, but because it doesn’t taper in at the waist, if you have even the slightest bust, the dress will hang from your body. Also the lack of a zipper means you will struggle to get it on/off.
  • The Fabric: As you can see in this comparison photo between the store bought uniform and my third uniform. The third uniform is made out of the colour fabric used in the show. This points out how different the textures are, and how different the colours are as these are supposed to be the SAME uniform.
  • That Collar: I just cannot forgive that collar, I just can’t. It’s just wrong.

 

 

 

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This is Uniform #3

 

The Handmade Costume

When I received the store bought costume and saw how it looked on me, I immediately went “Nope” and realised I was going to have to make a new Dress.

At the time, I couldn’t find the same blue I used the first time, which is a four-way stretch double knit cotton, so I opted for the Season Two Nurses uniform worn by Nurse Chapel, and knocked that out within that week, even making my own nurses badge (and yes I am aware now its backwards :P).

Photo Credit: Rivencraft Photography
Photo Credit: Rivencraft Photography

 

 

The Construction

I spent about $145.00 AUD in fabric, thread and zippers to make that uniform, and I spent the same again to make my third uniform, which is actually more accurate than my first dress. I haven’t calculated my cost in time to make any of these uniforms, (Though the last two were made in roughly four hours a piece).

I will be doing a retrospective on my TOS dresses so I won’t go into much detail, but you can see from these photos the stark differences between a $70.00 Store Bought and a $145.00 Hand made uniform. Even with my level of skill, if you compare my Original Dress to my Third Dress, you can see discrepancies between them, namely their supposed to be the same colour (which their not) and the front pleat isn’t in the right spot on my original dress, so even seamstresses can make mistakes.

The Pros

  • Tailoring: as I am making it myself to my own measurements, I can try it on and take it in, or let it out etc, so it will fit properly.
  • Level of Detail: This one is purely due to the fact that I own an original TOS pattern, and I use it to make my uniforms, I had to LEARN how to read a pattern that is older than I am, to be able to make it as accurate as possible.
  • Speed: I am on record saying that I can knock a TOS Dress out in three hours. That is also because I have now made four of them. The first one took me three weeks, the second took a week, now I am confident enough to make them hours before the event.
  • Appearance: tailored costumes just look and feel better, and it shows when you wear it. There is no proper way to describe it. You can see the photo of me in the Store Bought, I didn’t put that face on for show.

The Cons

  • Cost: As I pointed out, the handmade costume cost twice the amount the storebought costume did, that can put them out of the price range of most people, it also creates an issue where seamstresses get abused by people who aren’t aware that online vendors do things to keep prices down, that individual seamstresses cannot do, and this is usually at the expense of quality. There was no way that any online vendor could match the level of accuracy in my own  handmade costumes without charging a similar result. This is the reason why Anovos Uniforms cost several hundred and in some cases several thousand dollars and they look exactly like the prop department versions. But Anovos is out of the price range of most beginner cosplayers, (even cosplayers that have been doing this for six years I might add), so the market for online, primarily Asian based costume makers has flourished.
  • Level of skill: as I’ve pointed out, I’m a trained seamstress, I’ve learned my trade over many years, this is a skill that is not readily taught anymore, which means for people who cannot sew, they are forced to go to a seamstress where they will be charged not only for the materials but for their time as well.
  • Accessibility: It is simply easier to google search TOS Dress Cosplay and pay as low as $40 for a moderatly good cosplay, than it is to FIND an actual seamstress that would have the experience to make the uniform, as I said above, the pattern I have was made in the 60’s and is hard to come by.

I am well aware that there is a culture in the cosplay community that states that handmade is better than storebought. This is an ideology that I do not subscribe to, cosplay is whatever people make out of it, and whatever they put into it. While at OZ-Comic Con this Year, I took plenty of photos with ladies wearing both storebought and handmade Trek Uniforms (they are featured on my Showcase Page) and they were treated the same regardless which one they wore. I am a seamstress, and I will gladly give you advice on how to improve a costume you’ve bought, but I will NEVER belittle you for taking that route.

As a start, online vendors are perfect, and there are a few out there that actually make excellent costumes, but among the roses there are a lot of thorns. Do your research, ask your community a LOT of questions about their preferred vendors, and try and find actual photos of the costume, a lot of vendors use the same photos and they may not actually reflect the quality of the end product.

 

<3 PrincessJazz