234/365: (Fan) Service

After my sewing photo last week, some of the other blog members asked to see the results, so here they are! Myself (the shortest one of the group) and three friends as the wait staff from the manga series "Cafe Kichijoji de". We made every part of the uniforms (except the shoes)--shirts, pants, vests, aprons, ties, and napkins--and did all the wig styling (including dyeing a blonde wig mint green after the one she ordered was sent back to Hong Kong). The girl with the dark blue hair also made the blue stuffed kitty I'm holding, as well as a pair of straw men (she's holding them, but I don't know how well you can see them) because her character is into voodoo. :D

We had originally entered the Masquerade (aka costume contest) in both the craftsmanship and performance categories, then withdrew from performance because we didn't have time to actually write a skit, were then peer-pressured by the Masq staff into reentering, wrote a skit in about 10 minutes, rehearsed it about a dozen times, and ended up winning Best In Show, the combo award for combined craftsmanship and performance. It definitely made the late nights and sewing angst (we brought 3(!) sewing machines to our hotel) worthwhile.

We ended up volunteering to be the "wait staff" for an event at the con called a Guest Cafe--the original intent was to have the con's special guests (a few anime voice actors and a band) serve food to a select number of guests, then mingle with them, chat, do signings, etc. (the idea is based on the idea of a "Host Club", if that means anything to anyone). Instead we ended up doing all the serving so the guests were freed up to actually sit at the tables and talk to the attendees. I think it worked better that way, and the con staff was thrilled that we wanted to help out. I mean, when you cosplay as a waiter, you're sort of asking for it, right?

I pulled this photo off of Facebook so I don't know who took it--we got a professional shoot done as well, so I may replace the current photo with one of their proofs once they put them up on their website.

AnimeWorld Chicago, Rosemont, IL

~Sil