Cosplayer of the Week: Peredhil Cosplay

Peredhil Cosplay seems to be a pretty busy little cosplayer, besides making her own costumes she’s part of a cosplay group called The Empires Guild, having fun with her friends and just being an awesome cosplayer. On top of this she also has a few invisible illnesses which means she has to be careful about what she cosplays and how she cosplays. She was wonderful enough to talk to us about her cosplay and how her illnesses effect her.

Age: 22

Location: East Sussex, UK

What is your favourite food? Hmm this is tough, but in the end, I’d have to say Jam Tarts

Photo by Sonesh Joshi Photography

You have done a huge variety of costumes, some more complicated than others, how do you decide which costumes to pick?

Usually I pick costumes based on the character, if I like the character enough, I’ll want to cosplay it at some point! This can lead to huge variety in difficulty of costume for me.

It’ll also depends on what else is going on at the time, if there’s a lot of conventions on that I want to go to in a short space of time, I’ll usually go for a simpler costume I know I can finish in time. I will then plan a time for when I want to challenge myself, and pick something more complicated. For the more complicated costumes, I sometimes pick more on the love of the design side of things and look for a costume to challenge myself with.

A lot of the time too I will do a group/duo costume and sometimes that’ll be a choice of which character I like/think I will suit the most, or picking one to fit in!

You cosplayed Vaan from Final Fantasy XII, who has an open shirt, how did you get around the challenge of having an open chest as a girl?

I have done quite a few open shirt costumes in the past, such as Tidus (FFX) and Sanada Yukimura ( Sengoku Basara), so luckily when it came to Vaan I knew what I was doing when it comes to open shirt binding (as there are not many places to hide under Vaan’s little cropped waistcoat!). I used sports tape to strap myself down and then used body tape to make sure the top was firmly stuck down to me. The most important thing when attempting to open shirt bind, is to make sure you’re comfortable and its not painful, and use the widest tape you can. Make sure it’s not pulling and use tape that’s right for you. Luckily I am a fairly flat person anyway so doing open shirt binding isn’t too much of a challenge for myself.

Photo by Manga Girl Photography

You are part of a team/group called The Empires Guild. Can you tell us how that came about and how it’s changed the way you cosplay?

The Empires Guild came about when myself and a group of close friends realised that all our cosplay plans were starting to become ‘group cosplay plans.’ And as none of us at the time had a Facebook page, we decided to have a group page, a place where we could put all our images and group photos from any of the shoots we did.

I think that it changed the way I cosplayed, in that it gave me confidence. I knew I always had people behind me, that wanted to cosplay with me. It made me see that I could do the things I thought would be impossible.

It’s also widened the variety of costumes I’ve made as we’ve all got our own tastes in media, and costuming with each other has really expanded what I do. We’ve all given each other suggestions of characters and it’s really interesting to see what characters others would pick for you.

Photo by Enyaron Takashiro

You posted about invisible illnesses a few months ago and some of the conditions you suffer from. Do these illnesses affect the way you cosplay? Do you find that sometimes having cosplay helps cope with these illnesses?

Yes, as much as try to not let my disabilities effect my life, unfortunately they can affect the way I cosplay. For example, due to my joint condition (EDS) it means that I cannot wear anything too heavy. Having a costume with a large prop or that have things attached to them, such as wings can be very difficult for me and I wouldn’t be able to stay in that costume for very long.
I do also have to be very careful with my footwear, no silly high heels for me!

Having a chronic illness does mean that some days are worse than others, and there can be days where I cannot make anything, due to either injuring my wrist or my fingers being too swollen to hold a needle (whoops!) so I have to listen to my body and limit myself on those bad days.

But cosplay has been a huge help for coping with my problems. I can make things, and feel a sense of pride at the end of it, no matter what I went through getting to that stage. Having a goal and working towards something, I believe, helps hugely with people with chronic illnesses. I am so lucky to be able to continue my hobby and have friends that can help me when I struggle.

What has been the most tricky technique you have had to master so far?

Probably knowing how to line a piece of clothing. When I first started I had no clue what lining even was! The insides of my costumes looked abysmal! I am still learning and getting things wrong (a lot) but at least I am working on getting better!

Oh and wigs.

urgh.

What advice would you give to new cosplayers?

Cosplay is for fun, it’s a hobby, it’s for you. Don’t let others get you down, if you think their costume is better than yours, or you feel you could never accomplish what you see online remember, everyone starts somewhere. Ask others, look at tutorials, experiment with different materials. Find what works for you, theres no wrong way to cosplay. Keep your head up, you’re doing great