WornOUT 2019 Cosplay – the final segment in the 3 part series. The Upcycle Cosplay Challenge was the third and final category from the WornOUT? event on the night and showcased some talented cosplayers as they explored The Future of Waste in the cosplay arena.
The WornOUT 2019 event, hosted by Reverse Garbage Queensland, is proudly sponsored by Brisbane City Council (who have signed a 3 year sponsorship agreement, 2019 being the first year), as well as the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
Cosplay
Cosplay is a play on words – Costume and Play – and is rather popular in the popculture arena, with various conventions and exhibitions being held around Australia (and the world) specially for cosplay (and includes panels, meet & greets, photo and autograph opportunities with a wide range of celebrities in the entertainment and comic book arenas).
The WornOUT 2019 Cosplay Challenge was all about making costumes from upcycled products and materials, 90% of the materials used had to be sourced from Reverse Garbage Queensland (contestants chosen each received a $200 gift voucher to spend in store).
The Master of Ceremonies for the Upcycling Cosplay Challenge was “Lady Discardia” (aka Louise GIllard) – who also had the important role of being the Cosplay Curator for Reverse Garbage Queensland.
The photography for this post has been supplied by Sarah Minazzo (William Minazzo supplied the feature group photo).
Dubbed a “Superhero at recycling trash and turning it into cosplay treasure” by Channel Ten’s “Totally Wild”, Sarah is an award winning cosplayer who focuses on upcycling cosplay creating methods. She has hosted panels at Oz Comic Con, including one recently hosted with RGQ on the subject. Sarah is currently a member of the Queensland Ghostbusters Franchise and Rebel Legion Tatooine Base and is a writer for SupaNova Comic-Con and Gaming. You can follow Sarah’s upcycling cosplay adventures at https://www.instagram.com/starscribe88/ – it is no wonder that Sarah was a judge for the Cosplay segment at the event, given her own vast experience in this area.
On the night, there were 9 cosplayers who took to the stage to show off their recycling and upcycling superpowers and wow the audience with their creations…
Adam Clayton
Adam’s character was Caleb Widogast, a young wizard of the Dwendalian Empire. Formerly a student of Trent Ikithon from the Cerberus Assembly, Caleb was trained to be an enforcer of the Imperial Will through his magical talents; radicalized to serve without question. (From the Aevilon Universe fandom).
Adam’s costume was made of a multitude of pieces. Items sourced from RGQ included fabrics, coreflute, vinyl ribbon rolls and plastic strips. Op-shop finds and personal stash items included belt, handbag, slippers and pants.
A lot of upcycling went into the above items, from dying the pants and undershirt (the undershirt made from a vintage pattern found in an op-shop), to the shoes starting with the slippers as a base, and adding coreflute, vinyl ribbon, plastic strips and fabric.
The fully lined, ankle length coat was made using a pattern found online at Mood Fabrics and altered to fit.
Alan Harding
Making his debut appearance in the Upcycling Cosplay Challenge, Alan entered on stage as “Scout Master Telion” of the Ultra-Marines, a veteran warrior of many space battles.
The items Alan sourced from RGQ for his costume were old trophies, different thicknesses of discarded foam, pool flotation boards, plastic bottles, plastic containers and tubing, PVC material cloth, and… the souls of many great heroes of mankind.
If you’d like to follow Alan, you can find him here: https://gothsandgamers.wixsite.com/ggmodels
Brendan Boskma
Another debutante to the challenge, Brendan took to the stage as “Zenpool” (from the Marvel Universe). Following the events of Winter 2014’s “AXIS” storyline, Deadpool, along with other characters, found his personality reversed—and so adopted a path of non-violence — relatively speaking, that is.
Items sourced from RGQ for this costume were black satin, white polyester, white lycra stool covers, black lycra old machinery cover, broom handles, coreflute boards and rope net.
The shoes, unique with their split toes, were made of old shoe soles, coreflute boards, cricket pads, buttons and black lycra from an old machinery cover. There’s evn a fake frozen turkey, carved from an old foam footstool and covered in stockings and white lycra, then spray painted and encased in a rope net.
Brendan says “To get inner Zen within us all, I would like to see less waste and more recycling to help clean the world. Having more recycled cosplayers can help spread that message”
Jessica Foulds
Jess is a returning challenger to this event (and as a cosplayer myself, there’s nothing I love more than seeing families who cosplay together).
Jess and son took to the stage as “Pyramid Head” (also known as “Red Pyramid”) from the Silent Hill video game franchise (and movie).
This year, Jess has solely used RGQ materials to build these costumes such as cardboard sheets, plastic test lids, thick foam boarding, small foam off-cuts, craft glue, plastic nuts, testing trays, fabric and leather off-cuts.
Congratulations Jess on taking home 3rd prize! You can follow Jess and her family’s cosplay adventures here: https://www.facebook.com/PocketFoxWolfMikaCosplay/
Lisa Simpson
Lisa is another debutante who entered the challenge this year. Her entry was of a Farseer from the World of Warhammer 40k fandom; farseers are the most potent and respected form of Eldar psyker or Seer. They’re a group of leaders among the race of Eldar, they look into the future with with psychic power to predict the turn of events and save their people from death.
Lisa sourced the following for her build: red & grey stretch fabrics, black ‘holographic’ fabric, sticky back EVA foam panels, recycled cylindrical containers from RGQ, and black pants from an op shop.
You can follow along with Lisa’s adventures and builds here: https://www.instagram.com/kiritroll/
Michaela Welch
This is Michaela’s third year entering into the Upcycling Cosplay Challenge. She wowed the audience last year with her amazing cosplay build and sewing skills as Poison Ivy, and this year returns as Maleficent (I do love a good villain… I often think they’re just a little misunderstood, so this was probably one of my faves on the night).
As a lover of steampunk, Michaela brought a little of that passion into her costume when creating it.
Just some of the salvaged items that have gone into her build include long strips of black hard foam, sheets of plywood cut-offs, a computer mouse shell, black PVC material, acrylic tan curtain fabric, nylon rope, twine, teal & black silky hair, test pot of brown paint, tintex craft paste & dye, and various pieces from the pick-n-mix section.
Michaela took home 2nd prize for this amazing costume (well done!!) – you can follow her steampunk and cosplay adventures here: https://www.facebook.com/steampunkMe
Pipa Anderson
Whilst this is Pipa’s first time entering the Upcycle Cosplay Challenge, she is by no means new to the cosplay world. One of her most recent builds was as the White Queen from Alice in Wonderland, where she hand stitched the corset during one of the first cosplay meetings for this event.
Pipa recreated Malanya from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for this challenge. Malanya is a Fairy, patron and God of horses – he even has the power to revive any horse that has been killed.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of her ‘hooves’ to show you (that’s right – hooves!) but they were pretty darn amazing! Pipa used scrap fabrics, old wigs and upcycled parts from previous costumes for this build.
You can follow more of Pipa’s cosplay creations and adventures here (oh and if you’re a Game of Thrones fan like I am, you’ll LOVE her Arya Stark costume!): https://www.instagram.com/sparkdoscosplays/
Scott Bourke
Scott returned to the stage this year as the cover art character “The Conqueror” – a 100% upcycled costume (some of you may know him better as the ‘face’ of the WornOUT 2019 Upcycle Cosplay Challenge posters – Boba Fett – he took home first prize last year for that costume, yet another 100% upcycled costume!)
Scott has shared the process of his build on his Twitch Live streams, clocking up around 60 hours on stream building the Conqueror (he’ll also be releasing digital plans for the helmet and flail in the coming week for those keen to work on their own builds!
Using PVC plastic that were once signs at a jeans shop, Scott has created realistic looking wood panels for his shield which also uses off-cuts of foam. PVC signs were also used in the helmet and over 350 soft drink pull tabs have been bent and interlinked to create the chain mail at the back of the helmet “tedious but very effective” says Scott.
You can follow along and be inspired by Scott’s builds by following him on his instagram account here: https://www.instagram.com/shedquartercreations/
Tahnee Amadio
Tahnee is a returning designer to the Upcycled Cosplay Challenge. She rocked the stage last year with her rendition of Queen Amidala from the Star Wars franchise, and she didn’t disappoint this year with her rendition of Katniss Everdeen.
Tahnee’s costume was built solely from salvaged materials, with a considerable bulk of it coming from RGQ such as lace, glitter tulle, packing foam sheets, battery powered Christmas lights, beads, wire, black satin, video tape, tent poles and tent peg bags.
Tahnee WOWED audiences when it was revealed that she actually created TWO costumes for the budget… the second costume being revealed when she started to do a twirl on stage, in true Katniss style… complete with the Mockingjay ‘Three Finger Salute’.
Tahnee took home 1st prize for her amazing efforts – well done!
Well that about wraps up the WornOUT 2019 Cosplay event, as well as the three part series on this amazingly resourceful and sustainable fashion event.
I’m actually considering submitting an expression of interest for next year’s cosplay event after seeing this (a majority of my own costumes are upcycled or handsewn creations, so this is definitely my kind of event!)
Congratulations to all the contestants in the cosplay challenge, you all did an amazing job and you’re helping to inspire others in the cosplay world to think outside the box with their builds, and help change the future of waste!
If you missed out on any of the other articles in this series, you can find them here:
Part One: WornOUT 2019 Refashion
Part Two: WornOUT 2019 Wearable Art
We’d love to hear your thoughts about the event, any upcycled builds you may be working on, or how you’re reducing waste at home (post them below in the comments section, along with any links to projects you’re working on too!)
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