From beautiful frill dresses to heavy steampunk helmets, the art of costume making varies widely and leaves observable the sheer ingenuity that some people have for bringing the realm of fiction into a tangible reality. Cosplay, a portmanteau of ‘costume play’, goes a step further, seeing participants creating lavish costumes and performing as the character of their choosing.

Alice: Gabriella Balzan as one of her childhood favourites, Alice in Wonderland. Photo: Sven Farrugia

Gabriella Balzan, a 24-year-old radiographer and aspiring seamstress, has been making costumes and taking part in cosplay competitions for the past few years. Having discovered cosplay while at a comic convention in Cardiff, she was blown away by the variety of participants.

“Seeing all those people portraying different characters was amazing and it rekindled my love for creating costumes,” Balzan says. “I came back to Malta determined to work on a Halloween costume; I picked the character of Enchantress from the movie Suicide Squad.

“My friends liked it so much that they encouraged me to go to Malta Comic Con in my cosplay. I’ve never looked back from that day and I’ve been cosplaying for two years now.”

While the term ‘cosplay’ was coined in Japan in the 1980s, the practice of fan costuming has an even longer history, possibly as far back as the early 20th century. The comic strip Mr Skygack from Mars seems to have left an impression on readers of the time, with reports of fans dressing up as Mr Skygack for masquerade balls dating back to 1908.

Ariel – details of lace and beading work in Balzan’s Ariel costume, inspired by 80s styles.

As a child Balzan already showed an affinity for costuming, crafting her own for carnival and school plays. Cosplay not only provided a bridge for her to resume that hobby into adulthood, but also pushed her to try out new things and push her boundaries.

“Cosplay allows you to be a different character for a short period of time,” Balzan says.

“In real life I am a very quiet person, but cosplaying helps me be more outgoing and confident. Interacting with other people in cosplay is also amusing, and so is meeting cosplayers at events.”

Cosplay has also led to Balzan developing some serious skills as a seamstress, as the complex and intricate costumes she goes for present opportunities to tackle some challenging techniques. Balzan taught herself how to sew five years ago, something she credits to online tutorials and “lots of practice and trial and error”. For cosplaying, she sought out private lessons to improve and solidify those skills. Despite this, every costume doesn’t come with a manual and has its own challenges. Even when stuck, however, Balzan finds that friends and resources always have a suggestion or solution.

Cosplaying helps me be more outgoing and confident

“One interesting thing about the cosplay community is that people are always ready to help and teach others.”

Balzan creates every aspect of her costumes herself, barring some challenging items such as wigs or shoes, which means that a single costume can sometimes be both a costly and time-consuming endeavour.

Details from the leatherwork that went into Balzan’s Yennefer costume, from the game series The Witcher.

Selecting a character is the first step. Balzan tends to gravitate towards characters whose aesthetic she admires, such as the case with the Enchantress costume. However, she has also made some nostalgic choices, cosplaying as Snow White and Alice in Wonderland, her childhood favourites.

Strong female characters are also traits that Balzan finds inspirational, which led her to create her Esmeralda and Princess Jasmine costumes.

Once the selection is made, the real leg work begins. Balzan researches the costumes thoroughly, making references and reading up on the original designer’s intent. Selecting the appropriate fabrics and materials is an essential part in getting the look down. Despite this, Balzan also does her best to use recycled fabrics, not only to reduce the cost but also to be friendlier to the environment. Then it’s just a matter of tailoring to fit and adding details until the desired result is achieved, which may be easier said than done.

The length of time taken to create a cosplay varies, depending on the amount of detail the cosplay requires.

“My Snow White cosplay took me nearly a year to complete,” Balzan says, “whereas my Alice cosplay only took me two weeks to sew.”

Much of that time is down in the details that Balzan lovingly puts into her work. Her research often leads her to interesting avenues in the character’s conception, which manifest into flourishes on the costume itself. Despite cosplaying well-known characters, she strives to add her own unique touches to some of the costumes.

“Snow White was based on Margaretha von Waldeck’s story from the 16th century, so I included elements in the costume from the period of that era. For Ariel, I recycled two wedding dresses from the 80s. The Little Mermaid came out in 1989 so I gave it a bold silhouette which was popular at the time.”

“As for Jasmine’s cosplay, I looked at oriental traditional outfits and included intricate bead work which is usually found in such clothing – I even manged to buy real Indian beads for the costume.”

From winning awards to judging cosplay competitions abroad, Balzan has come a long way in a short time and feels both honoured and lucky to have her skills recognised. Presently, she’s putting the finishing touches down on her Poison Ivy costume for this weekend’s Comic Con and is working on more exciting projects for future events.

Despite it being her hobby, Balzan hopes to further herself even more should the opportunity arise, and ultimately wishes to study costume design abroad. And to those sitting on the fence on participating in cosplay, she has a word of advice.

“Go ahead and enjoy every second of it!”

Cosplayers will be meeting up at the Malta Comic Com today and tomorrow at the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre, Ta’ Qali.

Details from the beading in Balzan’s Princess Jasmine costume.