We are lucky to get a feature story about Twin Cities cosplayers, a business story about professional cosplay-costume makers, and a third story about girl geeks (including Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges).
Here’s some more cosplay coolness for you. We find two cosplayers with their own very different variations on the “Star Wars” character Princess Leia.
The Leia variant known as “Slave Leia” — when Carrie Fisher’s character was held prisoner by Jabba the Hut in “Return of the Jedi” — is a favorite of female (and even a few male) cosplayers.
Jill Kari, of Superior, Wis., added a few special touches to the Slave Leia bikini she wore at Wizard World Comic Con in Minneapolis this year.
The outfit, commissioned from a costume maker, has Mandalorian symbols (a la Boba Fett, the “Star Wars” bounty hunter), engraved into the bikini pieces.
“The colors are a nod to Boba Fett,” as well, said Kari, who works as a personal trainer and children’s photographer. “I’ve always loved the Slave Leia costume but I wanted something a little more bad-ass.” She found a wig maker to do the synthetic dreadlocks that are part of her ensemble.
Though her costume was one of the more risqué outfits at Wizard World Comic Con, she said male attendees were respectful of her — aside from a few “creeper-ish” photographers lingering a bit too long on her.
“I was personally more concerned about my young son pulling my skirt off,” she said. Kari has also done a “Star Wars” episode-four version of Princess Leia:
Melissa Adorn
Not every cosplayer is obsessed with badass heroes. Some, such as Melissa Adorn of St. Paul, prefer more-whimsical characters. She went for a Disney-style interpretation of Princess Leia at Wizard World Comic Con this year, for instance.
Adorn of Adorn Cosplay has done Disney princesses — such as Cinderella, Princess Jasmine from “Aladdin” and Anna from “Frozen” — along with Alice from “Alice in Wonderland” and the video-game character Princess Peach from Nintendo’s Mario franchise.
Adorn, who works at Minnesota Youth Symphonies, adores running into fellow Disney and Nintendo cosplayers, and has made many a friend that way.
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