We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elizabeth Jolly. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elizabeth below.
Elizabeth, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
One of the most important things about cosplay, to me at least, is choosing characters whose story I feel connected to in some way. Whether that be something about the character’s journey in itself, something about the overarching story that they are from, or just that I like the character design, feeling connected to what I am making is essential to enjoying what I do. There are cosplays I have done, projects I have worked on, that I felt little to no connection with or felt I “had” to do for one reason or other–and those projects always come out worse than projects I care about and feel genuine passion for. With that in mind, though, sometimes a character or project I would not have expected to be especially attached to can turn into one of the most fun experiences in cosplay. Doing group cosplays with friends that I care about outside of our craft is one of my favorite ways to work. I have found characters I feel very confident as or fallen in love with characters I did not expect to because of working with friends, especially in my volunteer work with Greater Lafayette Fairytale Performers. We go to various events around the Lafayette, Indiana area as fairytale characters to bring magic to community members for whom a character experience like a theme park trip might not be as accessible for financial reasons or because of a disability or medical concern or something similar and bring magic to them. Recently, one of my favorite characters to portray has been Sleeping Beauty, who is not a character I would have considered meaningful to me before my work with this group. But she has become a favorite for me as a consequence of my work with GLFP, and now I treasure her as a character!
Elizabeth, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have been cosplaying for ten years, since I went to my first convention in 2013 and wanted to dress up for the costume parade. I did not know what cosplay was at the time but I have never looked back! Cosplay is a term derived from the words “costume” and “play,” and essentially entails dressing up as characters from pop culture. Movies, anime, video games, books, tv shows… nothing is safe from cosplayers’ creative eye. There are lots of different ways to go about cosplaying: some people make everything they wear, some prefer to commission others to make costumes for them, and some buy off of mass produced online retailers. From the maker’s side of things, essential elements to the craft of cosplay are sewing, wig styling, makeup work, and other crafting techniques like sculpting, painting, “foamsmithing” which is making armor and props out of EVA craft foam, or 3d printing. In the social media sphere, cosplay is virtually nothing without the tireless work of photographers and video editors; many cosplayers I know have become talented in these areas as well and are relatively self sufficient in their own studio spaces.
In my own work, I prefer to make the majority of what I wear, primarily sourcing my materials from thrift stores or other second hand options. If I buy a premade costume, I always look for a second hand costume before I look for a new one. I started sewing in 2014 on my mother’s horrible 1990s sewing machine and received a computerized machine from my grandmother that Christmas, which I still use today. Most of my costumes are made from recycled clothing, bedsheets, or curtains whenever it is possible to be both thrifty and accurate. I am passionate about recycling pieces in my work because it is both cost effective for me and better for the environment overall. Sometimes I am even able to disassemble an old costume to make a new one: my Asuka Langely cosplay from Neon Genesis Evangelion was an Alice in Wonderland dress I made from thrift store fabric in 2015 before I ripped the stitches out and reassembled it in early summer 2023 to be Asuka’s school uniform. That costume not only kept someone else’s waste out of a landfill, but has grown with me and my interests and been worn multiple times in each form. The only thing I generally buy completely new for a cosplay is a wig, which I then style with heat tools and lots of strong hairspray. I have recently started learning how to style wigs with foam inside to hold their shape, which has been an absolute game changer and is proof that, ten years in, I still have lots to learn.
I typically cosplay at comic or anime themed conventions around the Midwest area (primarily Indianapolis and Chicago), but have been able to branch out a bit more this past year and attend further away conventions throughout the USA, notably FanExpo Denver this summer. Conventions are often designed for cosplayers to come share what they have made with fellow artists and fellow nerds, and cosplay photographers will often set up booths alongside artists selling physical prints. Many conventions have costume contests with prizes ranging from cash to trophies to a spot on the judging panel for the next year’s contest. I am relatively new to competing, but this year I came in first place at InConJunction as Sailor Mars from the anime Sailor Moon, which is a costume I made completely from scratch. Competitions generally have requirements for making what you wear, and participants are judged on both construction and performance. The tiniest details count in competitions like these, and seeing what other competitors have made is genuinely so inspiring I often find myself rooting for the people I am supposed to want to see lose! When you see someone else who has poured their time, energy, and talent into a beautiful costume it is impossible not to be impressed. There is so much unique talent in the cosplay community.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
YouTube video tutorials are so incredibly helpful for things as simple as demonstrating how to sew a lining into a pair of shorts correctly to things as complicated as making a foam core for an intricate wig style. I spent so much time trying to just teach myself how to do everything based on pictures of other people’s finished or half finished work that it didn’t occur to me to really look for video tutorials until this year. There are so many wonderful resources out there both intended for cosplayers and intended for other kinds of creatives. One of the most surprisingly helpful resources I have discovered recently is watching doll customization videos. I do not make dolls, but seeing how artists translate characters into doll form has a surprising amount of overlap with cosplay, just on a smaller physical scale. Without these videos it never would have occurred to me to mix and pour resin to make custom buttons, for example.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding part of creative endeavors like cosplay is, to me, the community that grows from it. Some of the most amazing friends I have I met through going to conventions, and having a shared craft means I always have people I can ask for advice when I am having trouble with some aspect of creation. It means I have people I can collaborate with to cosplay multiple characters from the same media, and it also means I have people I can discover new media with to translate into cosplay in the future. Seeing a network of people at conventions and on social media who all love the same craft is something so beautiful, even if at the end of the day we are all just nerds in costumes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://casualmothcosplay.wixsite.com/home
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casual_moth_cosplay/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090760806826
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/casualmothcos
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@casualmothcosplay [email protected]
Image Credits
Lydia Deetz (black hair, red dress): Snaily Photography Sailor Mars (black hair, white and red and purple dress): Snaily Photography Jinx (blue hair, black top, stripe pants): Chris Gallevo Photography Asuka Langely (orange hair, blue dress): Zachary Houser Zatanna (top hat, personal photo): Count Elizabeth Megara and Hercules (only duo photo): Count Elizabeth as Hercules, self portrait