By Dave Paone
Campus News
Hepzibah, a mutant from X-Men. Starfire, an alien princess from Teen Titans. Kefla, a martial artist from Dragon Ball Super.
These are just a few of the characters Abigail Loos, a 22-year-old from East Hampton, New York, dresses as when she attends comic and anime conventions regularly.
But what makes her costumes different from those of many other attendees is that they’re homemade. She and her mother, Teresa Loos, make most of them from scratch with very few parts being store-bought.
Teresa started sewing as a child when she took home economics in school, as well as private lessons from her aunt who sewed. The aunt’s sewing machine was truly old school in that it didn’t run on electricity, but was powered by her foot on a treadle.
By high school Teresa was sewing costumes for the school play and owned her own sewing machine at age 16. Not only was it electric, Teresa describes it as a “new, top-of-the-line one” and paid it off with $10 per week.
For many years Abigail had birthday parties with themes, and for her 14th, she picked cosplay. By 17 she was hooked and started to go to conventions, or “cons” as they’re called in the industry.
In the beginning, Teresa would make Abigail’s costumes entirely on her own, but soon after Abigail started sewing the simple components, such as straight stitches and hems. The more complex components, such as hidden zippers, are sewn by Teresa.
Eventually, Abigail made patterns from scratch, by encasing herself in kitchen, plastic wrap, covering that with duct tape, drawing lines with a Sharpie and then cutting everything off.
There’s something called a “big build,” which is mostly what it sounds like: a big costume or accessory built out of foam or moldable plastic. If a big build is needed for one of her costumes, Abigail takes on that task herself.
Even for Teresa, there was a lot to learn about making costumes specific to cosplay.
She learned the hard way that she needed to use a heat gun on foam before painting it. “Because if you don’t melt it a little bit before you paint it, the paint you just put on it falls into all the holes,” she said.
Another time Abigail had just finished an elaborate breastplate made from plastic that was supposed to look like armor. Abigail painted details on it to give the illusion of battle damage. Teresa took it outside to spray paint it with a chrome finish but under the summer sun, the thing melted.
Often cons have costume competitions and, in general, the rule is anything store-bought has to be modified by at least 75% in order to qualify. Abigail has won over 20 costume competitions and is often approached by excited cosplayers asking how things were made.
Naturally, the Looses can’t manufacture working boots on their own so those are purchased, but always modified. For Illy from Monster Girl Doctor, Abigail added toes with claws.
The clothing part of the costume is just the beginning. Many anime and video game characters wear jewelry and elaborate accessories. Many others have props, generally staffs or weapons. The Looses make these as well.
Conventions have a strict policy on weapons. Nothing can be functional (also called “con-friendly”), so when Abigail dresses as Fran from Final Fantasy XII, she carries a bow but not an arrow.
In addition to going to cons as an attendee, Abigail is 25% of a quartet who performs as the Fantastic Four. Naturally, she’s the girl. They were hired at a con in May to walk around and take pictures with attendees, boosting morale.
Yuna from Final Fantasy X holds a fond memory for Abigail because she was cosplaying as that character when she was on the receiving end of her first kiss.
Making costumes from scratch is both time-consuming and expensive. The Looses estimate they spent “a little under a thousand” dollars on supplies the first year they got serious. “It can get expensive,” said Teresa.
Thus far Teresa and Abigail have made about two dozen costumes and they have no plans to stop since it bonds them as mother and daughter.
As Teresa put it, “We found something we can do together. I love it.”
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