Keyoto Creations has been in the cosplay scene for a good few years now, certainly to their advantage. No stranger to masquerades, Keyoto even has a few awards under their belt – looking at the skill displayed, it’s not hard to see why!
Age: 25
Location: West Midlands
Favourite food: pizza or sushi
What inspired you to first start cosplaying?
I started off watching YouTube videos of cosplayers and it looked like a lot of fun, so I went to my first con in 2011 (Birmingham MCM) and had a great time. I only wore a hoodie I’d made since I wasn’t sure how many people would be in costume, but then decided to keep going and start making my own stuff. It’s gone from there, but I’ve been into sewing since 2007-2008.
What’s your favourite part of the costume making process?
One of my favourite things to do is make armour from foam, I enjoy that a bit more than sewing these days. Research is fun too. It’s great watching videos of the character you cosplay to get useful information into the character’s backstory. I like to be one of those people that gets really into character sometimes.
What would you say has been your most challenging build so far?
A while back I made Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon 2 which took quite a long time. My Ana Amari cosplay from Overwatch came with a lot of challenges too, pretty much everything was made from scratch. I know I had to remake some parts of that at least five times, and when I did Hiccup the jacket was just one centimetre out on the back and I had to remake that!
Do you have a dream cosplay you’d like to work towards? Can you use any techniques you’ve picked up on in the past to help you?
It would have to be Jacob Frye from Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate. I’ve made two of his costumes now, but the Baron Jordane’s Finery variant has lots of embroidery and would be a super hard costume to make. My armour work from previous costumes would help.
If you could go back in time and give newbie Keyoto one piece of advice, what would it be?
Don’t panic if something doesn’t work, you can always redo it. Don’t stress and don’t freak out over a masquerade. It’s not the end of the world!