Tag: fangirl

BlerDCon 2021

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After a year of no concerts or nerd conventions, and armed with both doses of the Pfizer vaccine, my best friend, Brooke and I made the trek to Arlington, VA for the fourth annual BlerDCon.* (Now with vaccination and mask mandates for your safety!)

I actually didn’t know that BlerDCon was a thing until Brooke kidnapped me back in 2019 in order to attend and I had a blast. It is hands down the best con I’ve ever attended, though I only have 10 years of New York Comic Con and 1 year of Anime NYC to compare it to. While our first year at BlerDCon was amazing (we only got to stay for 18 hours out of the 3 days), this year we took it up a notch,  as this was the year of the Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune “couple cosplay.”

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Call Me A Villainess – New York Comic Con 2018 Cosplay

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This past January while scrolling through Instagram I saw an ad for a teal curly lace front wig and I immediately sent the link to my brother,  telling him that I had found my next New York Comic Con cosplay project – the (probably) misunderstood and mysterious Eclipsa Butterfly, Queen of Darkness from Disney’s “Star vs. the Forces of Evil.”Related image

If you follow me on Instagram I showed you just how supportive my brother was of this choice in cosplay as he gifted me a huge black sun hat for my birthday solely for this purpose. After I had the hat in my possession I knew there was no turning back on this plan so into cosplay-construction mode I went. Continue reading →

Disney Fangirl Fashion feat. Little Petal

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Being plus size and a huge Disney, Harry Potter, Anime, J-rock, and Marvel fangirl is really not easy. For one thing, when it comes to shopping for geek/nerdy tees, and cosplay apparel it is rare to find pieces in sizes larger than an XL for women.  Then there is the expectation that one should only choose characters that are of your same race. As I mentioned before in an earlier post,  cosplaying is often seen as something that should only be done by those that “can truly emulate a character as depicted in comics, film and video games.” This obviously leaves people of color as well as plus size women like myself out or at risk of getting highly criticized by the geek community.

For this reason, when it came time to order my  Little Petal convertible dress, I had originally chose the Korra dress because I figured that that was a character I could get away with cosplaying, but when I started communicating with designer, Danielle Ward I changed my mind.  As a body positive designer and business owner, she doesn’t believe in things like size limiting who you can dress up as, rather you should think of who you see yourself as. For me that made the decision easy – Esmeralda from Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

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Q&A with Body Positive, Comic Book Convertible Dress Designer, Danielle Ward of Little Petal

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New York Comic Con 2014. I was determined to be one of the first people to get this limited edition Sailor Moon t-shirt that had been announced by Viz Media on Twitter a few days before. During my more than two hour wait in line for the con to officially open,  I decided to put on some lip stick and I was approached by this beautiful young woman who asked to use my compact to touch up her make up. We talked about make up, the con and of course her cosplay. She was wearing this interesting dress which she changed three times while we were on line.  Later that same day as I walked the show-floor I bumped into this young woman again at a booth covered with pictures of women in dresses like the one she was wearing and she introduced me to the designer, Danielle Ward. Owner of Little Petal, she designs and creates custom convertible dresses that are comfy and sophisticated.  These dresses are unique recreations of characters from comics, manga, anime, film and even video games.  As someone who, at the time, hadn’t cosplayed but wanted to, I was stunned by the concept. One dress, multiple styles. I put down my deposit immediately. Danielle is so amazingly creative and talented that I just had to find out more about her.

Check out my talk with Danielle below!

Disclaimer: Responses have been edited for clarity and length.

leannaandme

Leanna (Little Petal’s Webmaster) and Danielle at Megacon.

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My First (Plus Size) Cosplay Experience

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I attended my first Comic Con back in 2011 with a friend. While my friend burst into the Con scene in full Star Wars Imperial Officer regalia, I, on the other hand went with a Sailor Moon t-shirt I purchased the week before, worn under a black quarter-sleeved, knee length hoodie. (This was back in the day when I was still uncomfortable being in heavily populated social situations and always wanted to be covered.) Prior to this I had known about cosplay*, having seen examples on Tumblr but it was a whole other thing seeing it in person. I was in awe at the things people had managed to recreate and I was jealous of my friend for not only did he have the means to own such a detailed cosplay, but the ability to wear it as well. Continue reading →