Feature Friday: AK Cosplay Creations
June has been so refreshing. It has been a month for getting my life back in order and fresh perspectives on new things. Last week, I featured my first artist, and this week I’m very excited to feature my first cosplay couple for Feature Friday! Kat is a great friend, and also my future sister-in-law. She is new to the cosplay community, and her boyfriend, Alex is a wonderful cosplay veteran. Together they have already made their first amazing couples cosplay, and I’m very excited to introduce you to them today. Keep reading to learn more about this dynamic duo, AK Cosplay Creations.
*Note: If a question has separate responses from the two of them I have separated their answers, and I made Alex’s response in italics to try to readability simpler.
AK Cosplay Creations
What is your cosplay name? AK Cosplay Creations
How did you come about your cosplay name? Actually, my roommate brought it up, he mentioned he was rooting for “Team AK”, that’s kinda where it was born.
What is your real world names? Alex and Kat
What do you do when you aren’t cosplaying? Typically when we aren’t building for cosplay, we are either planning road trips/new cities to see, playing video games, watching scary movies, or hanging with friends.
How old are you? I’ll be 25 at the end of June, and Alex will turn 27 on Labor Day. Gross. I’m super old.
How long have you been cosplaying?
Kat: Under a year. My first convention was this past spring.
Alex: As far as myself, I’ve been cosplaying on and off since I was 16. Had to take a little break from actually making cosplay while I was in the Army. But I still attended conventions.
What made you want to start cosplaying?
Kat: Halloween is my favorite holiday-I’ve always loved costumes so I’ve been interested in trying cosplay for the last few years, but I didn’t know how to make my own pieces or sew so I got too nervous to attempt anything. Luckily, I’m dating a man who can do both, so he wanted me to try this out with him and I’ve had fun so far!
Alex: I just really wanted to bring characters to life that I saw either in video games, anime, or comic books. It’s what I love, so why not bring them to life, you know?
Tell me about your approach to cosplay as a cosplay duo.
Kat: Cosmetics are something I really enjoy (hello Sephora), so I come up with the makeup ideas and do them, while Alex builds the props, armor, and sews if the cosplay requires it.
Alex: From my perspective, it’s generally based on how difficult it’ll be to create. So I break it down and figure out if it’s something that we can get done or something that’ll just have to go on the cosplan list for later when I get the skills to do said cosplay.
What is your dream cosplay (individuals and as a couple)? Beauty and the Beast
Kat: Ball gown version of Ariel
Alex: I have a pretty long list, Armor build from Diablo 3, Scarlet Spider, and Knight Artorias from Dark Souls to name a few.
(ALEX) Share some of your history as a cosplayer, since you’ve been into this longer than Kat. Started pretty small, went to my first anime convention as Pikachu. Didn’t know how to sew anything. Next year decided that I wanted to do something proper, so I hastily made an Aang cosplay from Avatar: The Last Airbender. After that I mostly just helped people sew and create really big pieces. When I got out of the military I started learning how to build armor, and props making that my main focus. I did a few in between like Jack Frost, Future Trunks, and a Alolan Marowak gijinka just to get my feet wet so to speak since I was gone for a few years.
Tell us about your first cosplay project together (inspiration, design, build…). Kat mentioned she would really like to a couple cosplay, we were playing Super Mario Galaxy and we thought it’d be cool to cosplay as Mario and Rosalina. The more I thought about it I thought it would be cooler to make a Warrior Mario and Rosalina, Kat signed on for the idea. So we built from there. She gave major input while I built the armor and props. It was a new experience working with someone but definitely gave me a lot more motivation to finish. It turned out well for our first project, we did it in little less than a month and a half before the con. We feed off each other creatively and the positive input always helps keep me on track. I know we’ll get better in our respective forte’s, and become a pretty amazing cosplay couple.
What project are you currently working on? Currently, we are prepping for Dragon Con, so we have a few different cosplays. The first is a Disney Variation of Kingdom Hearts characters with keyblades, with Alex doing a genderbend character of one of the Disney Villains. We’re also re-vamping our Mario and Rosalina armor.
Who is your favorite cosplayer/ cosplayer you most admire?
Kat: You, Sadie! Hahaha (not just saying this because we’re basically family). But really, it’s incredible the pieces I’ve seen you sew and create.
Alex: I have a few, Male: Leon Chiro, Maul Cosplay, Gym Cosplay, Moderately Okay Cosplay Female: Inastes tears (Her armor builds are absolutely insane) and my friend Kaylala Cosplay (She’s super humble and kind)
(KAT)Being relatively new to the cosplay community, what is your impression of it so far? I’ve really enjoyed it! Everyone seems to be really nice. I look forward to the opportunity to get to meet new people through this and make new connections and friendships. It’s been fun to see the effort people have put into their costumes.
Top 5 resources/tutorials you have found for cosplay help? Kamui Cosplay has amazing tutorials, Evil Ted has a lot for foam and prop work, I use pinterest A LOT, along with Youtube. Seriously, Youtube.
Anything else you want to add? From me specifically, don’t be scared to jump into it. Just do it. You’ll regret not doing it. Just cosplay for the fun of it. Some of the friendliest people I’ve met, some of the most fun I’ve had, and the most humbling experiences have come from cosplaying and the community. Not only that, but I’ve learned some really cool skills.
I’m very excited to say that we will all be cosplaying together in the future, and I can’t wait to watch them grow. Make sure you follow their social media linked below. Leave a comment for myself or them, and don’t forget to subscribe via email or Bloglovin’ to never miss a post!
AK Cosplay Creations’ Social Media:
Joint Instagram: @ak.cosplaycreations
Kat’s Personal Instagram: @kat_le_chat_