coaf 2025

It’s officially been one whole year since I started cosplaying! Yahoo! My partner and I went to Colorado Anime Fest this past weekend in Denver and it was so much fun. This is the first time I was able to be in costume for all 3 days of a convention. Alec and I were Jinshi and Maomao, respectively, from Apothecary Diaries on Friday. Unfortunately, we forgot to take any photos together so you’ll have to wait to see any pics. These costumes we just ordered online, which is not my favorite honestly but I do see the benefit of just having a costume you can throw on and be comfortable and recognizable as the character. I did make little cat ears to add some personality.

For Saturday, we wore our Shin and Lena cosplays from 86. I found a secondhand Lena costume online a few months ago and I am really happy with it. The wig was included and definitely is wayyy more manageable than the only other wig I’ve worn (Stocking). It doesn’t tangle at the slightest movement and was pretty easy to style and wear. I also found it amazing that the costume had an integrated pouch that was character accurate and just big enough to hold my phone, card wallet (shout out moon gear<3), and some hand sanitizer. I thrifted the boots like an hour before we got to the convention.

Alec was able to thrift his jacket, pants, and shoes for Shin. I had a white tie-dye blank bandana that he used. We found some black gloves at the dollar store after striking out at the thrift and cut holes in them to match. He seemed comfortable all day. We could definitely add the gun strap on his leg next time he wants to dress up. He joked about cutting a hole in the pants to display his Undertaker tattoo (identifying symbol for Shin’s character).

While I think I have more fun and feel more satisfaction wearing an outfit that I made myself, it was still really fun being Lena all day. I didn’t see myself as wanting to spend that much time and resources on making a uniform as detailed as hers, especially in time to wear for COAF. I am grateful to be able to dedicate more time to making plushies and hand warmers for y’all<3. But that does mean less energy for hobby sewing. I did cut and style the wig and am especially happy with how well the little antenna stood up all day. And something I have learned is that costumes can evolve over time, so I will definitely have more opportunity to personalize it in the future.

Alec always looks for 86 merch at conventions and so far has struck out every time. He’s been wanting to show his love for this anime and it was really awesome getting to cosplay the main characters together. It’s definitely a less popular show but we got some good reactions from people throughout the day. It’s such a dopamine hit to be complimented on your cosplay. I crave it. Not to be self absorbed or anything but when else will people want to take photos of or with you just because of how you look? I don’t plan on being famous ever but it feels pretty nice when people are genuinely excited to see a character they love walking around the Marriott Denver Tech Center.

I knew the Turbo Baba I made for Alec for Christmas was going to come with us to the convention. Then I realized I had a pink sweatshirt and white leg warmers. All I needed was a blue pleated skirt and I could be a cute and comfy Ayase Momo. I found some brown clogs at my local thrift store that I used for both Maomao and Momo. Thank God these shoes and the Lena boots both turned out to be comfortable for walking around in all day. I did not find a skirt at the thrift, but I did find a blue bed sheet for exactly $1 which later became a pleated miniskirt. It was fun to sew some apparel after mostly plushies for so long. I used this pattern, available for free with tutorial. I forgot to bring my big resin earrings that are similar to Momo’s, but I did find my big chainmail earrings that I thought I lost in August!! Big day for me with that one. It was a comfy costume to wind down the activities on Sunday.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far. We’re planning on going to Nan Desu Kan in August and I’m so excited to cosplay a full weekend there again. We are trying to coordinate a group cosplay with four of us so I hope everything works out. I volunteered to make basically all of the costumes so I will definitely be keeping myself busy. If you wanna chat, leave a comment here or contact me via this website or instagram! Much love<3