This is the way! Cosplay is when you dress as a popular character from film, TV, games. Cosplayers usually start by buying costumes, and then realise it’s cheaper and more fun to make your own and customise it. Emily is involved with Chelmsford Takeover with Essex Cosplayers and Chelmsford For You. The whole town centre gets taken over by characters and vehicles, with chances to learn about craft and meet creators, and get selfies with RoboCop (next event Saturday 12th April 2025). Featuring the famous cosplay conga, where you can see George Lucas (not the real one), Transformers, Star Wars characters and White Walkers all partying down Chelmsford High Street. Emily’s most famous character is Bo-Katan from The Mandalorian, badass strong female role model character played by Katie Sackhoff. Emily’s helmet is 3D printed and then hand painted and finished, with added interior foam padding (a washing up sponge). For Star Wars there are a lot of 3D models available to buy and print yourself, and Etsy has a lot of cosplay cutting guides. Emily’s latest creation is Dame Aylin from Baldur’s Gate 3, which has massive angel wings and armour - made from polythene underlay for flooring and EVA foam. YouTube is your friend for research for materials, templates and builds. Polyprops is a great website for EVA foam - cut it, heat gun it into shapes, stick it. Costumes take a lot of work, Emily’s latest was 3 months working all day every day. Emily updated Bo-Katan with furry ears to join a furry meetup - cosplay fun is encouraged! Cosplayers can occasionally get called in to work on the movie and TV franchises they love - as creators and as background actors (like the 501st for Star Wars). Nick goes on a long monologue about RoboCop - sorry. Emily only started cosplay in lockdown, she started face painting, then dressing up on Twitch streams (Ciri from Witcher III: The Wild Hunt), doing TikTok dances, and following motivation from positive feedback the cosplay escalated. Cosplay is very hard to make a career from - for most it’s a hobby or a side-hustle. Doing cosplay you stealth learn so many varied creative skills. Cosplay is a supportive community, reach out to people to ask them questions about their craft. Nerdiness is becoming much for accepted and trendy in society. How to compete at cosplay competitions. Cosplay secrets: They get dressed in the Comic Con carpark! How gory can you go in cosplay before it’s unacceptable?

Emily on Instagram
Emily on TikTok
All Emily's links
Essex Cosplayers
Chelmsford Takeover

Are You Creative? recorded by Adam at Lawker Media, Chelmsford, ESSEX
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK