The first ever anime related costume I made and wore was of Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach a little over 8 years ago. Back then I didn’t know the first thing about what cosplay is. The costume was for a costume party which I organized for the Birthday of a dear friend. And here is the thing, dressing up is something I enjoy in general. Part of it is my professional interest, experience and fascinations with clothes and costumes. And then another part is my own personal style which I personally would call eclectic but I have heard others call kooky, weird and a whole bunch of other synonyms of strange.

So that being said, my love for clothes and costumes took me to dressing up for all sorts of occasions which eventually led me to cosplaying where I can not only dress up but explore making and using props and stage performance. And when I say many, many occasions, I really do mean it. Birthdays and parties are one thing but we I have also dressed as a vampire-bride and a geisha-samurai for Halloween affairs; and don’t even get me started on the many costumes and personas I have took on as a presenter of various events - they span from Yuuko of xxxHolic fame to my male alter ego dressed as a Japanese nobleman.

My first “official” cosplay was at Aniventure 2010 where I was Ofuku from Basilisk. Still, the idea was more to support the stage play performance my friends were putting on than to really participate in the cosplay competition. That came a couple of years later for Aniplay 2014 where I cosplayed Idris/TARDIS from Doctor Who with which costume I won the opportunity to represent Bulgaria at the Eurocosplay competition the same year. The experience was incredible and this led to several more competitive ventures to date such as the Headless horseman from Sleepy Hollow (Eurocosplay 2014) and the Jedi Master at Aniplay 2015.

Being able to form, style, even mold a character – that is what cosplaying is for me. To play around with it. No matter if I am the one who becomes that character or someone else because apart from cosplaying myself, I have helped others do it as well – be it by simply dressing them up and helping them arrange what they have already done themselves or creating their costumes and styles from scratch as for example for my friends Denislav (Sayonara, Zetsubou sensei) and Kiril (Samurai 7).