Rebecca Singleton / JangoBerry Cosplay

To say I’m completely devoted to Disney would be an understatement. My room is filled to the brim with Disney merchandise and if I can afford to, I will take a quick trip to Paris to the happiest place on earth, Disneyland. So, to create Disney cosplays is a must.

For my first ever con I made a complete Elsa cosplay, by hand, with barely any sewing knowledge at all. Obviously, it fell to pieces pretty quickly, but I was proud and with my best friend cosplaying Elsa’s sister, Anna, by my side I was beaming with pride. To be able to cosplay something you love, in such a supporting community, there is nothing better.

From that day the obsession began, I was making plans left, right and centre, eventually realising there weren’t enough conventions to display my ambition.

Like many cosplayers, I’ve found I’m not completely satisfied by what I see on the screen, especially with older Disney animations. The 2-D animation is absolutely beautiful, but it can seem quite basic which is understandable, given every single shot was drawn by hand. I try to enhance and personalise my cosplay’s by adding further detail.

When beginning a project, I always find myself looking at concept art, Disneyland’s costumes and historical dresses from the time the animation was set, then draw up designs for my pieces. I find when looking at Disney’s versions of these costumes, it can give a proper insight into what the designers and animators intended the costumes to look like, however, the physical costumes are not made by the same people, who did the concept art for the animations. These costumes can be incredibly different, and some costumes are not at all appealing. For example, looking at Belle’s ball gown from Beauty and the Beast, the animation for this was beautiful, the dress glided across the floor with such grace and is still one of Disney’s most memorable dresses. But then we look at Disneyland’s portrayal of the dress, it doesn’t glide as it is secured to a hoop skirt, it’s made from a shiny fabric which can look cheap and worst of all, its bright yellow.

Therefore, we cannot just simply take something from the screen and make it exactly the same, some adaptation is required. I found the best way of doing this is looking at the history of the fairytales and the clothes that would have been worn within those time periods. Once again this can be very hit and miss because some of the outfits are so incredibly different, they would not be recognised as the character but other times, it can work incredibly well. For example, when designing Briar Rose (from Sleeping Beauty) I found that it was originally a Germanic tale written in the 1600s. However, looking at the animation, they seem to have taken their inspiration from much later. The fashion was still beautiful, and I was able to incorporate so elements such as lace around the skirt and sleeves and floral headdresses. The changes I made were very small but it’s personal and makes the cosplay completely my own.

Disney’s newer 3-D animations contain so much detail within their designs that there is less need to add extra detail yourself. I still choose to alter them so they are still more historically accurate, but not too much or the character would no longer be recognisable.

I also look at the processes used at the time to make the clothing so I can add another dimension to the dress. Obviously, it is not feasible to build my own loom and make my own fabric from source materials that would be used at the time. Instead, I look more to the detail, such as beading, lace and embroidery.

Whist looking at the skirt for Anna, I noticed that many versions looked like the décor had been printed on however such techniques we’re not used in Norway during that time period. All decorative patterns were woven or embroidered onto the cloth. So, it was my decision to embroider the décor onto the skirt, this process took at least a hundred hours to complete but the results are well worth it. Rather than a vinyl print, I have detail and historical accuracy, admittedly I’m still new to embroidery and the stitches are a bit messy but with every flower, I am learning and improving.

Even though it creates a lot of work, learning extra skills can improve cosplays and expand horizons. With each cosplay comes new challenges especially with sourcing materials. I struggled to find a specific patterned fabric for yet another sleeping beauty dress (if you haven't already guessed, she’s my favourite) so I decided to make my own.

Using pink chiffon as a base I experimented with many techniques, first I tried sublimation printing but found that the ink washed away quickly with water, then I tried transfer paper. I found that this was a costly process which also changed the feel of the fabric and gave it this undesirable shine. I eventually decided on screen printing using ink.

Once again this is a timely process but to make sure the cosplay is at the best quality I can get, it is completely worth it. There’s something incredibly appealing about personalising the cosplay, making 100% unique and tailoring just how you like it.

Choosing what to cosplay is always a question with too many answers, myself like many other cosplayers probably have a list of over a hundred yet we must decide. My decision to cosplay Disney princesses I not simply ’because I love Disney’ (even though I do). It’s based on multiple different factors that come together to leave me with my final decision, such as the design of the outfit, how much I enjoyed the character and, what I call, overall ‘swooshiness’ of the dress.

However, it is so much more than this. I know first hand that simply liking how a character is designed does not mean you will enjoy wearing it. I was putting together a Harley cosplay and as soon as I put it on, I could tell it was wrong. I love Harley's character but no matter how hard I tried it wasn’t me, I couldn’t enjoy being her.

You have to be comfortable in both the cosplay and the character. This is where Disney works for me. The princesses constantly have a happy go lucky air to them and always look to see the world, not as it is, but what it could be. Having this outlook on life is almost intoxicating, so when I am in my cosplay, I smile, and I encourage others to do the same. Who wouldn’t smile if they saw Elsa and Anna prancing around the streets of London or if a little girl sees her favourite princess walking around and runs up for a hug? Putting a little magic into people’s life, simply by dressing up as a character is truly one of the best feelings ever.