Well I am now back on track with this little blog so back to my cosplays of the month and this month is defo a personal favourite of mine. Any UK convention goer is bound to have seen these two around alot as they are some of the best cosplayers from this fandom I have ever seen.
So enough of me rambling and falling over myself to get to the point... Here we go!
Photo by Paul Elder
Photo by John Shek
Name: Hannah
Age: 23
Where are you from?: Swindon, Wiltshire
How
long have you been cosplaying?: I've been cosplaying since 2007, but
I'd only really started to take it seriously since 2012!
Why did
you decide to cosplay this character?: As soon as I got pretty deep into
the Beetlejuice fandom, I knew I had to cosplay Lydia in some form. Her
character just spoke to me and I just felt really connected to her. I
could sympathise with how she felt like the outcast and a freak in her
own family; loving the bizarre and the supernatural only for it to turn
around and bite her on the behind, in a sense. Initially I'd wanted to
perfect a cartoon!Lydia cosplay, until I found a black straw hat whilst
out shopping one day. Then after the first make-up test run I realised
my face wasn't so badly suited for Winona and decided to give it a spin.
Photo By Food and Cosplay
It certainly helped that at that point me and Amy had met through
Tumblr and had roleplaying accounts for Betelgeuse and Lydia and just--
decided to cosplay our 'muses'. We knew we just had to pursue it!
Photo by John Shek
Tell
us about your costume: For Lydia I currently have the 'moving day'
outfit which she wears as the Deetzs' furniture arrives/when she first
spots the Maitlands, and I also have the wedding dress (which Amy did an
AMAZING job creating). I love both of the outfits to death and can't
honestly pick which one is my favourite, though of course the 'hat'
outfit is much easier to travel with (and IN!) as the dress restricts
movement quite a bit. But… nothing quite beats getting to be a reluctant
bride for a day!
Photo by John Shek
The only trouble I find with both outfits is the
lack of pockets, my lack of free hands due to props (the camera and the
Handbook vs the bouquet) and worrying constantly about whether the
spikes in my fringe will hold. Other than that… they're terribly fun
outfits to wear.
I've added just one personal touch: I wear a
wedding ring as part of my cosplay constantly; we try to be as
in-character as possible at events so it's just as a sort of
in-joke/explanation as to why Lydia and Betelgeuse would be 'travelling
around' together in the first place- a post-movie marriage!
Best
thing about cosplaying this character: Getting to be Lydia. I say it
constantly after I take it off and de-make-up- it crushes me not to be
her for another day, not to re-enact moments from my favourite movie
like that and not get to experience the adrenaline rush I get from
cosplaying. I would literally do it every day if I could. Not to mention
the feedback, which is incredible! I can't believe the amount of people
who have told me how much I look like Winona Ryder, it just leaves me
speechless!
Photo By Aminah Meena
Name: Amy
Age: 29
Where are you from?: Brighton
How
long have you been cosplaying?: I’m relatively new to cosplay ( I
first started October last year) but I’ve been dressing up and running
around in strange clothing since I could toddle.
Photo by John Shek
What did you
decide to cosplay this character?: Up until the point of thinking ‘how
the heck am I going to do this?’ I was running a Tumblr blog as
Beetlejuice – answering questions in character and drawing stupid
pictures to accompany them. Me and Hannah got chatting about how much
fun it would be to have a get-together at MCM- and then it shifted to
who we could cosplay as. I saw other people were having a great time
dressing as him- and that sealed it.
Photo By Tascha Dearing
Tell us about your costume:
The striped suit took the most work, and was my first project. Actually
it was my first big sewing project too- always good to jump in at the
deep end (several costume meltdowns later- it’s really not. Don’t listen
to me) It’s more of a take on his outfit than a straight movie
copy-although I’m hoping to make a faithful replica one day soon.
Photo by John Shek
I
couldn’t find suitable fabric anywhere in the UK- and I’m still
searching for that illusive perfect one. In the end I imported some
lovely stuff from America with plush black stripes. It was tricky to
stitch but looked great when aged with tea and coffee. The buttons are
all different- a mixture little skulls and an antique beetle decorated
one for the front.
The makeup was the hardest part- lots of trial
and error. I have very long hair- and hiding it all to give him his
distinctive receding hair-line was going to be the biggest challenge.
Luckily I found an amazing tutorial on Youtube by a makeup artist who
not only developed great technique using dyed crepe wool- but also made
high quality bald caps to build the look onto. From there I found out
from others sites about using train landscaping hobby grass to create
his mossy stubble and what paints and powders worked. The teeth are
another important aspect- they really transform the whole look into
something really nasty. It’s evolving every time and I love figuring
out new elements to add.
Photo By ShinigamiPhotography
Best thing about cosplaying this
character: Hard to pick just one! I love being unrecognisable as me- and
at the same time a character lots of people know and respond to. It’s
also feels great to be really gross looking- and not have to worry when
makeup gets all over your clothes. It just becomes part of the look.
Photo by Paul Elder
To see more of these two here is there facebook page Cosplay for the Recently Deceased
