Interview of Marinyan (Italy)

1. For how long have you been in cosplay ?

I started doing cosplay in 2009, so now there are eight years.

2. Cosplay is a time consuming hobby. how long does it take to craft your costumes ?

Oh yes cosplay takes away some time, but I try to be as fast as possible in dealing the different costumes, sometimes because I am bored to work for too long on the same thing, and because I want to do many. I can work on cosplay when I'm not at work, so at lunchtime and in the evening... so I use about one month for each costume.

3. Any other hobby or passion besides cosplaying ?

Oh yes ! I really like to see anime and collect nendoroid. Lately I have less time to do it, but I like to take pictures when I spend time with my friends and then print them and create as many scrapbook.

4. What materials are you using for cosplay crafting, worbla ? Foam ? Can you talk about that a little bit ?

I know that there are many different materials to make cosplay, unfortunately I don't  know all the names, I often choose and use materials without knowing the exact name... But I had used worbla, foam and polyethylene. My favorite is the polyethylene I used to make guns and lately for a bow. With worbla and foam I'm still in trouble because I don't use them very well... Moreover worbla is an expensive material, if I can do the same thing with a material that is cheaper, or with some recovery material, I chose that. Spending less for every cosplay allows me to do more ones. 

5. Do you have any FAVORITE cosplayer ?

Ohh yes ! I love very much asian cosplayers, and I try to drawn inspiration from them. I follow and I really appreciate Neneko, Momo P Chen, Hiko. In Europe, however, I follow few people, but in this area my idol is Calssara.

6. Did you hurt yourself while making a cosplay or in a convention ?

Fortunately I didn't ever hurt me during a convention, the only thing is so much fatigue at the end of the days, but it is a very welcome tiredness !

7. Do you sell your old cosplays, or just keep it in a huge closet ?

For now I keep all my cosplays in a large closet. It's very difficult for me to be able to sell the clothes on which I worked and struggled... Also I always have the desire to improve them and reuse it.

8. Who teached you to craft your cosplays ? Your family ? By reading books or watching youtube tutorials ?

For the part of sewing I'm a self-taught, I still do not know how I can do things... I take inspiration from my clothes and I try to copy them... I design paper patterns and then I edit on my body. For weapons instead I learned thanks to some video tutorials ! Although each weapon or accessory is different.

9. Which conventions are you going to this year ?

For this year I think they are unfortunately finished... Surely next year I will attend the Romics, the Lucca Comics and Rimini Comix  although I hope to go to new ones !

10. What is your limit budget for a cosplay ?

For simpler cosplays always I try to keep myself within 80 - 100 €, if it is more complex cosplay with weapons or special accessories I can also spend more, even if I try to never exceed the 150 - 200 €.

11. Any future super secret cosplay project in mind ?

Soon you will see me in the shoes of Utaha Kasumigaoka from the anime Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata, then there will be a new Christmas cosplay (but I don't reveal anything). For new projects instead I still have nothing defined, although I have some ideas in mind.

12. What are you doing in "real" life for a living ?

I'm an interior designer, and daily I work in a furniture shop, my job is to plan, design and sell the furnitures to furnish the houses. 

13. You best experience from a convention ? And your worst ?

I think the best experience was at Lucca Comics, when I wore the cosplay of Kuroyukihime. Kuroyukihime is a character with big black and rose wings, I was walking wen a lady comes up to me with her daughter and asks me if she can make tangible the wings to his daughter because she is blind, in that moment I tried to describe my clothes to the girl who very gently touched my wings. It was a very emotional and important moment, my little thing may have made "happy" another person. As I write I have tears in my eyes...

Fortunately I had few negative experiences and all quite mild. I remember an experience that happened not long ago. At a convention a boy, with who I previously had taken some photos, asked me to take some photos. That boy is a particular person and makes me uncomfortable when shooting, so I gently said no to the photos... The result is a flame in which he denigrated my cosplay and my person... Luckily then everything is solved.

14. Any advice for cosplay wannabees or beginners ?

My biggest advice may be to choose with the heart the character to play, choose a character you like, with who you have things in common so that makes everything easier, beautiful and fun ! Practical advice instead is to look carefully at good images of the character and pay attention to proportions !

15. Do you have limits ? Some cosplays you will never make ?

I like the idea of never having limits. You never know what the future might bring. The only important thing for me is that I will not do cosplay in which I could feel bad, in that case it is not worth it for me to achieve it.

Her facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/MarinyanCosplay/

Her deviantart page : http://marinyancosplay.deviantart.com