samsnedorf
- Nov 20, 2017
- 4 min read

The beauty of cosplay

Halloween costumes as a doctor and nurse from 2015

I’m sure that I’ve written about it before, and my numerous posts about cosplaying and costumes have made it very clear – but just in case you didn’t know. I am passionate about dress-up.

This fact was known all the way back in nursery school which my annual report stated that “Sam loves playing in the dress-up corner”.

This past Halloween was a tribute to the fact that not much has changed.

Cosplay as Emi Isuzu in 2010

I’ve spent most of my life doing what was expected of me.

Matriculated, studied at university, got an office job, and then another one and then another one and so on for something like 6 years until my misery forced me to stop and go on my own.

It hasn’t been at all easy and truth be told. I am struggling to make ends meet and earn decent amount, but for the first time in my work career – I am happy.

I write all the time, create blog posts, take photos, film and edit videos, drink gin, attend events and more recently, have begun to create costumes.

A Black Canary and Emma Frost Cosplay that my sister and I did in 2009

I was asked by my partner’s parents what the latest outfit was for seeing as Halloween has been over for a while and I simply lifted my shoulders and shrugged. “Just because, that’s why.”

Well maybe a little more than just because.

But because I am creating gorgeous albeit slightly wonky and flawed costumes and that process makes me incredibly happy.

A Blood Rayne Cosplay I did at Rage in 2010

I don’t think many people know this about me but just as I was finishing high school, I was unsure of what to study. For a while I had my heart set on fashion design. I actually went to apply at LISOF which is the Joburg fashion school, and I was accepted. It was all lined up until my dad stepped in and said that I had to do something more constructive. I am neither happy nor sad that I didn’t study it because my journalism degree taught me a lot. It simply meant that I didn’t get to hone in on my skills as a seamstress because the passion for fashion never went away.

A 1920's costume party I attended in 2008

So I finally gradated with a better understanding of writing and the degree which was supposed to help me get writing jobs. It didn’t. Not really. And it still doesn’t. I’ve been trying this whole year, to pitch to magazines, to contact public relations companies and brands, all in an attempt to get writing jobs but the market is very tough and more than that, I am not a good hustler.

After a few months, when I grew fed up of dead air, I decided that it was time to do my own thing and have been focused on that ever since.

Ranging through my adoration for gin, to my wanderlust, my modelling career and as I said – now my costumes which I can dedicate a little more time to.

My 21st birthday which I dressed up as a bride for

They aren’t perfect, this much I am aware of. I also know I could never hope to become a professional cosplayer because my love is divided between costumes and writing and it is a very fine juggling act that I have to maintain in order to keep balance.

I hope that I can somehow combine the two in a way that is unique and interesting and hopefully someday, I will be able to earn from this path.

Punk rock prom 21st birth I attended in 2010

That way I won’t have to justify why I am making unusual costumes. It will be my job!

Here’s hoping that this first step takes me along the path that I want to be on.

I am fully open to a world of different possibilities because I know that I hate the mundane.

I want a crazy, unusual, unpredictable line of work that allows for my creativity to flourish and for me to afford to do what I want in the way I like.

I think this might be national Austrian attire that was given to me in 2009

I don’t think I have ever sounded more like a Millennial than now and that’s totally cool too because I know that I want more for myself. I want to be happy in my job and I want to do it my way, so I will work long and hard until I can figure that out. This is my story and I am the author. I will write each page as I see fit, whilst garbed in the finest princess dresses that were all crafted by my hands!