The new trend in social media is sharing the cosplay progress in this last decade. However, for me it is extra special, as I did start my adventures as a cosplayer almost exactly ten years ago! I want to make a trip back to the beginning when I first started in this wonderful world and analyse how things have changed since in this last decade of cosplay.
To this date I have worn about 125 cosplays, and this doesn’t include the ones I made for friends and family nor that time I dressed as Captain Hook for a school carnival when I was 12 (Who wants to be Wendy when you can be a pirate?).
2009. When cosplay and conventions were new
Anime, comics and fantasy films where not new at that time. I personally had grown watching Star Wars and Dragon Ball Z on TV, reading Black Canary and Batman comics my father owned and devouring Fushigi Yuugi and other mangas which had started to appear when I was a teenager. I had heard of big conventions in London, Barcelona and the Comic Con in the USA (I am from Spain) but there were only local meetings in our little city.
It wasn’t until the very end of 2009 when new conventions started to appear in the smaller cities. At the time Death Note was a great hit, and of course I did have a try myself. However, my first ever cosplay was Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy and my new discovered hobby, videogames. At the time most cosplayers made their cosplays with things in their wardrobes, but oh boy, this hobby was cool.
2010. Spreading the love.
In my first year as a cosplayer I was just one more jumping in the new fashion. By 2010 I had a few friends willing to give it a try. We had decided on our cosplays, had gone shopping for fabric, everything was planned.
Of course they didn’t stick at it for long. But I did want to cosplay! It was cool! I would find myself the day before the convention improvising a cosplay like my Persocon cosplay and I had so much fun. In 2010 I only made one cosplay, but that was about to change.
2011. The competition starts
Fast forwards to 2011, the competitions seemed to be a thing. The prizes were terrible, an old fashioned trophy and some old comics, not worth the effort, but joining did look like fun.
I entered my first competition with my Megurine Luka. I barely knew how to sew at the time, and it was around here when I bought my first decent wig. Of course I did not win, but I did make so many new friends! I was hooked! I couldn’t wait to do more cosplays.
2012. Getting better
By 2012 the cosplay community was growing. More and more people were joining the hobby and conventions were getting bigger and happened more often. There was also more information on internet and I did start my own blog too.
It was in this year when I won my first ever cosplay prize with my Ignis cosplay. I had improved a lot, now I could make my own patterns and some props, even improvise a few moves for the skits.
2013. Cosplay all year around
In this year there were even more new conventions. Not only in the main cities but in some towns too. I had the chance to talk in my first ever panel about cosplay and I did join the local geek club too!
By now I knew or had heard the names of most of the local cosplayers. It was before my first panel when I met her. The most awesome cosplayer in my city (arguably, but she was kinda cool) and it was cosplay love at first sight, that year I made 16 cosplays and many of them with my partner in crime Larxenne, including Asuna Yuuki! Not only that, I joined my own gang of geeks, we could talk about cosplay all day! It was just awesome, you could cosplay all year around.
2014. The big prizes
So far I had only heard of small prizes in small cosplay competitions, but this had started to change. The prizes were getting bigger. Some conventions started offering big sums of money. It was clear that cosplay was getting popular too with lots of cosplay and long queues to compete and to watch too!
Of course I started traveling with my group of friends from convention to convention, we entered many competitions, one of them with my Kindred Vampire, but overall, we just enjoyed the ride. We just had fun and we met even more cosplayers in the process.
2015. The professional cosplayers
As I said, cosplay was getting bigger, and some people were progressively getting more known. Jessica Nigri, Yaya Han and Kamui had been there for quite a while but other names were starting to surface.
This year my friends created a new and better convention in my city, we invited non other than Jessica Nigri to the convention. I myself was getting better at crafting too. And I also entered cosplay panels like the one with my Koujaku. It was all like a dream.
2016. The peek of cosplay
For me 2016 was probably the craziest cosplay year. There were so many competitions, events, prizes and things to do. Virtually you could spend every single weekend in a new convention wearing a different cosplay.
This year I made a total of 23 cosplays. And visited at least a dozen conventions. My record to date. I also won several prizes, some of them with my best friend. Furthermore, that year I made my biggest built to date, Hana. It was epic, but it was also what seemed the beginning of the end.
2017. Going down
2017 was a strange year. I can’t explain how, but everyone seemed to have had enough. I moved countries (I live now in England) and had to slow down on my cosplay frenzy myself. However, everybody else seemed to need a break too. Cosplay competitions seemed to have less and less contestants and many cosplayers, including my best friend, retired.
Although I still made many cosplays, going to conventions didn’t seem to be as satisfying as before. The competition and the people going to the events had started to change. It was just too crowded, and it didn’t feel the same.
2018. New generations
I got back to the conventions in 2018. There was barely anyone from my old days behind the stage. But I began to notice a new movement. There was a new generation coming. A new wave of teenagers reading manga and comics, teenagers that were starting to make their own cosplays as I had done ten years before.
I still made cosplay but mostly on my own grounds, staying away from big crowds at conventions and having a much more relaxed time with on location photoshoots, like the one of my Wonder Woman cosplay.
2019. The digital era
Ten years have passed and I am still doing cosplay. Conventions are still a thing and they will still keep going for quite a while but the audience is much bigger today. It has changed too. It is much easier to buy good quality cosplays online so it is more easily available to everyone.
Today cosplayers don’t wait for a convention to wear new cosplays. As I did for Raven Branwen. Cosplay happens every day. Social media has made it super easy to share cosplays. You don’t need a convention anymore to showcase your love for a fandom. Now a days you can cosplay from home, you don’t even need to get out of your house. And books and blogs about cosplay are easily available everywhere. It has been a long journey but it has been a good one.
And what next?
Who knows what will happen next, my generation of cosplayers had great fun, some of them have decided to go back to where they left it. My bestie too! I don’t know what will be the next step, but for now, I will go back to my list of ideas to create even more awesome cosplays to share with you, and I hope it is so for many more years to come!
Like my stories? Remember that if you like my cosplays and tutorials you can support me on Ko-fi. Also, if you are looking for patterns and cosplay related downloadables make sure to check my collection!
