It's always interesting catching up with customers who are wearing and using our corsets for different and creative purposes.
We entered the very lively cosplay world of Goulburn Comic Con this month with a 'corset for cosplayers stall'. Although it was super busy with corsets we still managed to do a bridal fitting for two of our long time GS customers amidst the chaos (thanks Jackie, Cosh & helper, Instahamster)! Here's a couple of pix of our stall beside Julie-Anne and Angela from the Steampunk Victoriana Fair. White mesh corsets continued to be popular with cosplayers for foundation garments.
Lovely pic of Annette, corsetiere extraordinaire cuddling up to one of our Lace & Satin under bust corsets!
Below is local Goulburn cosplayer Hannah in a really cool cosplay of Gwen Stacy Spider-Gwen with matching hair. We fitted her for one of our lace under bust corsets.
Local cosplayer John with Julie-Anne, the organiser of another favourite event in Goulburn, The Steampunk Victoriana Fair.
Kieran from famous zine, The Living Bread was our neighbour at Comic Con.
One of the incredible cosplays by Wolf Lord Works Props
It's now the perfect time to share a conversation I had with a very talented cosplayer who wears a GS corset under most of her amazing costumes.
Senra Aria is an Australian cosplayer who makes most of her own incredible costumes and has been wearing one of our classic under bust corsets for the past 12 years to create shape and silhouette underneath her cosplays.
Senra Aria told me she was 16 when she bought her corset from us (she's now 28) and it's been worn underneath almost every costume!
Q. How many of these cosplay costumes do you wear your GS corset under?
A. All the costumes in the following images are worn over my under bust corset. It's really been my go to!
Q. How many of these amazing cosplays did you make yourself?
A. All of these except for Tinker Belle and Rapunzel are costumes that I made myself. Ball gowns are my favourite. I cinch as much as possible with my GS corset for that hourglass figure!
**What you may not realise is that Senra Aria is legally blind, uses a white cane and has a beautiful guide dog called Banner. She has about just under an inch left of central vision! I don't know how she does it but she manages to create these exquisite cosplay costumes and does performances all around the world. She has been an ambassador for Guide Dogs Australia. Here she is with Banner.
She has a Bachelor Degree in Music with a major in performance classical singing and studied continuer level Japanese for HSC. She has used these skills well in her cosplaying career. She enjoys doing anime song covers as well as her classical, more operatic pieces.
She sang in Japanese at the World Karaoke Grand Prix in Japan in 2015 when she represented Australia. Here's the Madoka Magica anime cosplay costume she made and wore in that comp.
These two cosplay gowns I made when I represented Australia at the World Cosplay Summit in Japan in 2017.
Each gown made up half of my entry and due to the show schedule I ended up having to wear the purple gown (Lacie Baskerville from Pandora Hearts) under the light blue/ivory gown! I had to put ice packs down the back of my costume backstage, as the heat was so intense.
My corset was definitely good for helping me support the petticoat and the weight of the two very heavy ballgowns that went over it. The behind the scenes image of me in the corset and the huge petticoat was at that comp.
Q. So what made you want to get a new corset now, specifically the Undercover Angel (white mesh) corset?
A. I wanted a white one to go under my latest Elsa cosplay from the end of Frozen 2. It's a very structured costume and needs the support underneath. I thought the mesh one would be a good update to get the optimum comfort in warmer months too.
Q. So if covid & lockdowns & all that fun stuff hadn't happened where would you be and what would you be doing at this time of year?
A. I definitely would have been much busier with competitions and travel! I love taking my costumes overseas to shoot - for example I did photos of Belle at the palace Versailles and Elsa on a fjord in Flam, Norway. September is usually when I would be away in Europe with my parents as we have family in England. Last year we had planned to be in Scotland and I was super excited to shoot Merida from Brave there!
Q. Did the security at Versailles freak out with you shooting Belle or were they ok with it (I heard from another performer customer they were really weird with people being in costume)?
