Taisiya Flyagina on Lolits and Japanese street fashion

In Moscow, started exhibition of interactive entertainment "Igromir". Within its framework this year, for the first time, “Russian Comic Con” is held - a congress of fans of pop culture from comics to gadgets and, not least, cosplayers - masters of reincarnation in their favorite characters. Many do it professionally, and someone just comes in the original image for the sake of entertainment and meeting with like-minded people. Cosplay has long been a mass phenomenon all over the world, and in Russia its popularity is only growing every year. We talked with six characters, for whom cosplay has become an important part of life, about their characters, about how they regularly dress in a costume, why they do it and how it changed them.

It all started with the fact that I began to watch anime, then I saw on the Internet that there is cosplay - and it amazed and inspired me. In 2007, I went to several anime festivals, at first I just took pictures of cosplay, and then I also started cosplaying. This year I graduated from the British Higher School of Design, the faculty of graphic design, and I work as a designer and photographer in a creative agency. In general, thanks to cosplay, I learned a bunch of different things, not just photos: make complex makeup, sculpt some accessories. I am not very good at sewing, but I try. My parents looked at all this suspiciously at first, but then they began to support me: my mother helped me to sew my first costume, and my father sometimes assisted at photosets. I have an image in the spirit of Japanese street fashion, on the one hand, the sweet lolita "ama-rori", and on the other - the more traditional "wa-rori", with a hint of national costumes. In general, I really like traditional costumes of Asian countries: when I saw this dress, I just fell in love with it and decided to create such an image. Lolita has a lot of different styles: traditional, sweet, gothic, casual, princesses, white, black and so on. I plan to do another Gothic - a friend from China is now sewing me her costume. She is a fashion designer, we met this summer at the festival in Vietnam, in Ho Chi Minh City. We went there as invited guests, and they were also invited - there we became friends and communicate. I did not sew this dress, but ordered it. The lolita fashion has its own iconic brands like Angelic Pretty, but they are expensive and need to be ordered from Japan. In the creation of a lolita suit, most of the time is spent on delivery: until the wig comes, while the dress. There are a lot of specialty stores and eBay sellers on the Internet that deal specifically with lolita-fashion, all the beautiful shirts and dresses. The whole image can be collected in about a month.

At Asian festivals, foreign cosplayers play a huge role - mini-stars with their fan clubs.

I really like Japanese street fashion in general - not just lolita. Japanese fashionistas dress very creatively, and as a designer, it simply cannot leave you indifferent. I am generally interested in Japanese culture: I watch Japanese cinema, I listen to Japanese music - selectively, of course. The Japanese have a stunning design, illustrations, architecture, and I always enjoy viewing materials on these topics. I would like to learn Japanese, but so far, unfortunately, there is no time. This summer I went to foreign festivals for the first time - to Vietnam and Japan. In Japan, I was one of 8 Russian casting girls to go to the Japan Cosplay Photo Festival. He walked for two days, every day we performed in two different costumes, answered questions. We were asked about our hobbies, about Russian cosplay as a whole, and after the interview we went out to the hall and talked with Japanese cosplayers - they are, of course, super sweet. Asian festivals are arranged quite differently from ours, where foreign invited cosplayers play a huge role, a kind of mini-stars with their fan clubs. People from all over the world come to the festival - in Vietnam participants gathered from China, from Taiwan, there was even one boy from Sweden. And all this, to do a common favorite thing, is so great! The great thing is that then everyone continues to communicate. For example, I met a girl and a boy from China, and they suggested that I do a joint project. There are many festivals taking place in China, so I think in February we will go to them: we will perform together and arrange a joint photoset. We are all very healthy together, because besides cosplay, our hobbies play an important role: anime, games, Japanese pop culture.

My favorite anime is "Macross Frontier" and "My Goddess!". In general, I do not have one favorite genre - if the plot is interesting, then I will look. My favorite characters are also from there: Clan Clan from "Macross", in the image of which I went to Japan, and the main character, Verdandi, from the anime "My Goddess!". I also cosplayed the vocaloid Hatsune Miku, Cheryl Nome from Macross Front. Clan Clan I have generally three full suits, another pair of Lolita images - just a little while, about ten. But this year I was actively engaged in cosplay, before that I spent more time on photography and took a lot of time to photograph, process, improve my level as a photographer. Now I feel confident in photography and have achieved something, I can play with it. In real life, you usually communicate with only a few people from a cosplay party, and you come to the festival - and you see everyone. A bunch of familiar faces, it's so cool. These are all good, kind, positive people, we do joint projects with someone, I shot someone, they all communicate with each other, help, advise. Almost the most important and beautiful thing in cosplay is that it unites people.

Photographer: Alexander Karnyukhin