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| Photos by ACCosplay. |
Taiga Aisaka
I love all forms of media - comics, TV, movies, books, anime... it's all good in my book. So it was surprising to realize that I'd never cosplayed from an anime, despite attending mainly anime conventions and loving anime for so many years.
I tend to cosplay from Western media more often. I think it's a little simpler because some of the characters are up for interpretation (like American cartoon characters). Plus, most of the time, when I like an anime character, their outfit is out of my skill range. (See: Mami Tomoe's magical girl outfit. Swoon!)
So when I saw the jacket and skirt for this costume up for sale, I scooped it up right away! I don't think I could sew a jacket or skirt this structured, and even though I am the third cosplayer to wear this costume, it fit like a dream.
Conventions
Materials
The Process
This costume is a little different since I didn't have to make anything. I found a white button-down at a Goodwill, picked up some more specific accessories from Ebay, and styled the wig, and it was done. I thought I was being smart by using faux thigh-highs instead of actual socks, but it wound up being kind of a pain anyway. Next time, I'll just do regular thigh-highs.My biggest concern with this costume is that Taiga is known for being a small character. She's around 4'11" and very petite - and I'm 5'6'' and not petite. While I think cosplay is for everyone, and I fully believe that everyone should cosplay whoever they want, I wondered if I'd be able to do this character justice in my own eyes. Once I tried on the entire costume, I was really pleased with it! I think it helps that I didn't have any other people cosplaying with me, so there's nobody to compare my own height to. Regardless, this character is a type I wouldn't usually cosplay, so I'm really happy that I went out of my comfort zone and tried something new.
Also, I just want to say that there's absolutely no shame in purchasing or commissioning entire costumes or pieces of costumes! While I love learning new skills, sometimes the only thing holding me back from finishing a costume is a difficult prop or wig. If you don't have the time, resources, or desire to learn to sew/style wigs/make props/whatever, commissioning is perfectly fine. In this case, I could buy the main parts of the costume for a super low price - I couldn't even buy materials for that much, let alone accounting for the time and energy it would take to learn how to sew a jacket. For me, this costume was a worthy investment.
