Alena Van Arendonk: A Queen of Cosplay

http://andsewingishalfthebattle.com

Alena, you’re massively involved in cosplay. Tell us how it all began for you!

Back around the turn of the millennium, I was fairly active in the burgeoning anime fandom. I had attended fan events before, but at that time casual or “hall” cosplay was much more common at anime conventions than at comic or sci-fi cons, so I hadn’t been exposed to much fan costuming until joining that community.

In 2002, I learned about a small anime convention happening in my home town and decided to put together my first cosplay costume. It didn’t matter that I didn’t know the first thing about sewing; I used duct tape and safety pins to hold together a recognizable (if not particularly good) costume. I had fun, and when we decided to attend another convention a few months later, I assembled another costume—this time tacking it together using a free motel button-repair kit, which was the only needle and thread I owned. Eventually I wanted to make more elaborate costumes, and that was motivation to learn new skills… including, well, how to sew.

Skip ahead a decade and a half, and now I own two sewing machines, a serger, an embroidery machine, a laser cutter, a collection of power tools, and over 100 wigs. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I don’t regret any of it. (Except perhaps the lack of closet space.)

What new cosplays have you got in the works for yourself and your group, or what would you like to do one day?Our current group project is a set of fantasy costumes from a Chinese TV series. The production designer for that series also designed for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, so as you can imagine, they’re quite elaborate. My costume has a ridiculous amount of embroidery and embellishment, and it’s a bit intimidating because I only really started doing embroidery last year, and don’t consider myself very skilled at it yet! But I learn best when I challenge myself, so hopefully this costume will help me improve.

I’m also slated to do a Clockwork Droid (Doctor Who) for a judges’ group at Chicago TARDIS later this year, and I have several perpetual WIPs that I’d like to finish at some point. There’s always a pile of half-completed costumes in the corner of the sewing room.

Storytime! What’s the funniest or strangest thing that ever happened to you while in costume?

I do a lot of crossplay (playing male characters) and I’ve gotten pretty good at making myself look masculine using body modification, makeup design, even glued-on stubble. I’ve occasionally been mistaken for a guy by other congoers (I always declare, “I’m a girl!” when entering a public restroom to avoid startling anyone), but one experience tops them all: I was dressed as Nathan Drake (Uncharted), and happened to be standing beside my sister. Our mother spotted us, came over and asked Laura, “Where’s your sister? I haven’t seen her all day.” I started laughing, and Mom just stared at me blankly. It took several seconds for the penny to drop, and when it did, it was a slow, “Oh… my… gosh. I thought you were a man.”

I guess if I can fool my own mother, I’m doing something right!