Modeling comes in many forms, and for many purposes: for to illustrate advertising, to make art, and sometimes just for fun. Visitors to the Alexis Park Resort this weekend found a lot of models – Cosplay models, contracted from “Costume Play” – having fun. They were there for the annual Anime Vegas convention, held this year from September 4th through the 6th.
Newly-16 year old Caitlin Parker had flown in from Charlotte, North Carolina for the convention, a birthday gift from her father. She was a serious fan of Anime, having transitioned from Pokemon early in her childhood to the darker movies of Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki. His films tend to feature strong, independent young women, perhaps helping with the appeal to a largely female fan base. The success of his work spawned films from America as well, diluting the Japanese origins of the Anime movement in this country. Caitlin finds material to stoke her interest on the CW network and late-night on the Cartoon network, when the films turn to darker, more adult fare. She and her friend Amanda were quick to reel off names of what they took to be the canon of Anime devotees – works that “everyone would be familiar with”: Miyakaki’s “Spirited Away” and Japanese shows by other authors such as “Naruto”, “Bleach” and “InuYasha”, and indeed, many of the Cosplay models were playing characters from those shows. Others were modeling stylized fashions; there was an entire seminar devoted to Japanese Lolita-style clothing, which is decidedly un-Nabokov-like: http://www.lolitafashion.org
Most of the attendees seemed to be in their early 20s and had been interested in Anime and Cosplay for several years. Caitlin’s mother Michelle wondered aloud if the generation following them would continue to have the same high level of interest in what seems something of a fad. From behind her post at the registration desk, Erin Robertson didn’t seem concerned. She has attended every Las Vegas anime convention since the very first in 2003, and says each year the crowd grows in both size and enthusiasm. This year some 3,000 people registered to attend, and she sees nothing but growth ahead.
Erin estimated that nearly three quarters of the attendees at the convention were there for Cosplay, and indeed a great majority of them were in outfits that would be decidedly unusual as street wear. Cosplay modeling is an art form that knows no bounds of age, gender, ethnicity or body type. Hundreds of attendees were walking around in elaborate, high-concept costumes. Still, for most, the “dress up” seemed only a little more than nominal: some extra costume makeup, perhaps a relevant T-shirt accessorized by fuzzy fake ears or some other props to suggest they were “in character”.
Las Vegas resident Danni G. is a serious devotee of Cosplay, and yet there she was in her customary alt-version of civilian clothes. She explained: people are still just arriving and getting settled in. The serious costumes come out on Sunday, the day of the Masquerade Ball when she and her group would be in full regalia.