Dory

For the first Mermaid Parade since the coronavirus pandemic, Irvin wanted to go all out, so he decided to cosplay Dory from Finding Nemo.

Transforming a human body into that of a fish was quite a conceptual challenge - a yellow skirt would be Dory's tail, and some dark blue fabric became the dorsal fin, but it was the regular fins that were tricky. Irvin sewed the sleeves from scratch, which took almost as long as painting half his body blue.

Irvin's friends provided the much-needed context - Carolyn walked with a Nemo plushy, and Ralph carried a sign announcing "We Found Nemo!" With that and Irvin's refrain of "Just keep swimming!" lots of people (and especially children) were excited to see Dory.

But whenever Dory lost Nemo in the crowd, a majority of people seemed to think Irvin was dressed as the Ukrainian flag. Irvin was delighted with this - two costumes for the price of one, including a very timely one to honor Irvin's heritage!