XBox 360 Rally

Giorgia Vecchini is arguably the best Cosplayer in the world. Her costumes have won her countless first place victories, and she is by and large considered the #1 cosplayer on the planet. Oh, and I have a major thing for her.

So when I got to sit down and talk with the Italian beauty, I was as giddy as a school child. We talked mostly about her past, and cosplaying. She opened up about some of her cosplay experiences, as well as gave me a slight peek inside her personal life. It was a fascinating interview, and I hope her and I can share some time again in the near future.

JW:> For those few people who are not in the know, what exactly IS cosplay?

GV:> Cosplay is the art of choosing a character you like and depicting it as close as possible to the original, both in the external look and in the behavior. To achieve this, you wear a costume, a wig, some make up and you let the character fill you so that you can actually become that character. Needless to say, if you want to stay as close as possible to the character, you don’t have to expect to be able to go to your local store and buy the costume: you have to make it, either from scratch or out of something suitable. Characters themselves can be chosen among mostly everything that you can think of: Japaneses or western animation and comics (anime and manga), movies, videogames… in Italy we even had some cosplays depicting characters from commercials.

JW:> When did you first decide to try cosplaying, and what character did you dress as?

GV:> Well you either are born as a cosplayer or you become one of them. I was born as such, since I cosplayed Heidi from Heidi: Girl of the Alps when I was only two years old Later, I used to attend comic conventions where some guys played some live fanatsy role playing game, wearing wizards, ogres and knights costumes, so I thought that I could have done the same using japanese animation characters. It was on the 21st of March of 1997, during the Spring Edition of Lucca Comics ‘97 I had my debut as a cosplayer wearing a Sailor Mars outfit from Sailor Moon.

JW:> Do you still have that Sailor Mars outfit?

GV:>Yes, I do have it, although it has gone under a couple of restyling, mainly concerning the transformation from Sailormars to Supersailormars and the remaking of the ribbons.

JW:> How much money do you spend, per year, on your costumes?

GV:> It actually depends on the type of costumes I create during the year. The cost of a typical costume can range from just few bucks to some hundred, depending on the complexity, the eventual need of accessories, wigs or armours. Despite having a strong Carnival tradition, In Italy we don’t have anything like Halloween stores, so we have to improvise. Internet is a great resource and eBay is our friend, but this leads to a very wide range of costs.

JW:> What is your “day job”? That is to ask, how do you fund your many Cosplay projects?

GW:> I am a ground stewardess in Verona’s airport and I’m close to get a university degree in Italian Literature. Occasionally I get some present (mainly wigs and shoes) from fans who want to contribute, but giorgiacosplay is almost entirely self financed.

I also take some photo session that helps me a lot to keep on this hobby.

JW:> How do you decide what characters to dress as?

GV:> I try to stick to the characters I like, but I pick those of them who I think I’ll fit in the best. I think that, to achieve the best final result, physical resemblance is a very good base to start from. A wig can help if your hair doesn’t have the exact shade of blue of the character’s one, but nothing will help you if you have nothing in common with the character. So I try to avoid childish kawaii character that won’t suit me and my body and I look for something more mature like Lara Croft or Wonder Woman.

Nevertheless, it is always a challenge (and an endless source of amusement) trying to depict characters that have nothing in common with me like Barone Ashura from Mazinger Z or Doctor Zero from Ogon Bat.

JW:> Which character are you most fond of Cosplaying as, and why?

GV:> I am particularly fond of Silen from Devilman because it is the costume with which I was able to win the World Cosplay Summit ‘05 in Nagoya and later meet Go Nagai (author of Devilman, Mazinger Z and many others), but also Alcyone OAV Version which is the one that let me be selected as the Italian representative for that contest and to be able to meet Leiji Matsumoto (author of Starblazers and Captain Harlock).

And again, I’m particularly fond of Baron Ashura, because it allows me to show my crazy side.

JW:> How long do you usually spend on creating your costumes?

GV:> Once again, it depends on the complexity of the costume, and on where you start counting from. The planning of a costume is something that can go on even for years, spent waiting for the right occasion to wear the costume, and looking for the right fabric/materials and/or for the right wig/accessory or planning details that never fit into eachother As long as the actual creation of the costume is concerned, thanks to the help of my parents, I’m usually able to create a costume in a time span ranging from one month to one week.

JW:> Do you enter many Cosplay competitions?

GV:> Despite the fact in Itay I am regarded as “the one who always wins”, I must say I don’t enter that many competitions, mostly because I don’t want people to think that after I became world champion I’m trying to boast. Furthermore, I prefer to spend money more on making actual cosplay than on transportation to attend conventions. Throw in the fact that I introduce a couple of conventions and you have quite a clear picture of the situation.

JW:> Have you been offered any mainstream modeling jobs as a result of your renown as a cosplayer?

GV:> I’ve recently posed as Wonder Woman and as a Schoolgal for a special issue of the Italian edition of Vogue and I’ve been occasionally asked to pose for some photographer’s exhibition.

In the last years I’m contacted very often by people who want me as special guest in some events, even around the world, or like a testimonial for some events.

JW:> Say someone wants to start Cosplaying. What advice would you give to help them figure out how to go about it?

GV:> I would suggest to go to a couple of convention, trying to figure out how different cosplayers approached to different problems and, most of all, talking to cosplayers, asking advice. I’ve never met a single cosplayer who wasn’t more than happy to tell the story of the costume he/she was wearing and how it had been made. If this person had a friend who is already a cosplayer, I would suggest to stay close, watching how he/she works and asking for advice and help. For the first costume I would go for something simple that could be sorted out of something that can be bought at the local store and then slightly modified. If possible, I would suggest to try cosplaying in group first, because the group will better handle the eventual performance, helping in breaking the fear for stage, and it will provide countless different situations for pictures to be shot by the audience and, all in all, it will be way more fun.

JW:> You’ve been Cosplaying for ten years now — not including yourself, what was the best, and what was the worst costumes you’ve ever seen?

GV:> I’ve been particularly impressed by a Gundam I saw in Nagoya during the World Cosplay Summit 06. When the guy was standing still, you could tell him from a man-sized size of a real Gundam, complete in every detail. And when he was on the stage, he started shooting things and blowing vapor in such an impressive show that I thought he would have lifted off at the end. As for the worst, when you go to conventions and you think you have a winner, someone eventually pops out, clearly (and sometime consciously and willingly) claiming this embarrassing award, so the competition is still open ^__^

JW:>And finally… you want to go out sometime?

GV:>Only if you come to pick me up with this. Of course, the car stays mine as a little present for the pleasant evening

JW:>Thank you so much for you time, Ms. Vecchini, and I’m sure we’re all looking forward to seeing what you come up with in the future.

GV:>Thank you, I really hope readers of Xbox360 rally appreciate when they see some cosplayer trying to bring to life videogames characters and thus wanting to share their passion for videogames. It has been a pleasure to talk to you and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Cosplay, Gioriga Vecchini, Interview