Cosplay Closet Essentials: The Cosplay Bakery
Their name is delicious, and their cosplays are divine. The Cosplay Bakery, though relatively new to the cosplay scene, produces vividly detailed costumes with impeccable fit and styling. Taylor and Kevin have only been officially cosplaying for a little over a year, but their cosplays display a skill level on par with cosplayers who have been active for a decade. They took time out of their busy cosplay schedule (and preparations for their pending nuptials!) to talk with us about their cosplay.
When did the two of you start cosplaying?
“Technically the first time we conscientiously cosplayed was last years Comikaze in LA. I bought the tickets and booked a hotel for us as a birthday present for Kevin. But if you look back to our first AND second Halloween together we did dress up as marvel characters Black Widow (which was later evolved into a usable cosplay) Hawkeye, Venom, and Spider-Girl. Those don’t count so much but we CAN say we’ve been dabbling for a while.”
The amount of detail in your cosplays is amazing! Tell us about the process of making your cosplays.
“It takes us a while to really choose a character. We have this habit of pointing out possible cosplays and saying “hey that’d be cool to do”. Once we’ve made a real decision we look at the cosplay as a whole. We start on the big projects first, so whole look without going into details. If we can get through the process of getting the overall look completed in a few days then we know we are on to something. THEN we start looking at details. We are pretty aware that it’s the little things that make a cosplay great and we are always working on improving techniques and our skills. We make a lot of those details from craft foam. We are still pretty new to the game and learning, but we have become craft foam junkies. Foam and enamel spray, heat guns, back pack clips, spray paint, hot glue, you name it…we are using the basics to build affordable and do-able cosplays. Big picture stuff then little detail stuff. It doesn’t ALWAYS go that way, I know I buy wigs randomly and for Kevin’s Red Hood, he built the armor before we had the big picture stage complete. We’re flexible like that; go with the flow and trial by error sometimes works ok. When we have free time or days off our minds tend to wonder and a cosplay project can be born out of the blue and completed later that same day.”
What are your best resources for cosplay supplies?
“Oh man, we spend more time at Michaels than I ever expected to in my life. We’ll just wonder around, thinking about a prop, and start grabbing random stuff off the shelves. That’s how our giant Harley Quinn hammer came to be. Outside of that, we’ll make stops at Easleys costume shop to get random stuff to repurpose, or look around on the weird parts of the Internet for something… I’d be afraid to see what a stranger thought of our Google search history haha”
About like an author’s search history, I’m sure…
“Haha from the writers we know, I think that’s the search history that takes the cake.”
So describe the process of making your Dragonball Z costumes. What materials did you use?
“So that was one of those ‘Hey, I’m gonna make something today’ moments. Went to Michaels, bought a big roll of craft foam, and ruined the entire thing in an hour and a half haha. Round two was a little more successful, once I decided on how to build my own template, and start the reinforcement process, I poured a few hours here and there into making the foam look the part. Then the paint and sealer is what made the dimensions start to stand out. The boots were old slip on vans, with white craft foam wrapped around and up into boot covers. After the Saiyan armor was finished, we figured it was safe to start making Taylor’s Trunks, which was all secondhand clothing that was either dyed or cut up; it was a blast because it was pretty uncharted territory for both of us.”
Can you give us any hints on upcoming new cosplays? For instance, what are you cooking right now?
“Of course! We are currently getting our X-Force/mutant cosplays together for Fan Fest in December, as well as trying to find a way to pull off a wicked Batfleck suit. I’m a big dude, but he looks HUGE, and I want to be sure I don’t look too goofy in the cowl, so it’s going to be a challenge to have that finished by the movie. Other than that, we’ve been eyeing a few video games we could cosplay, but nothing out of the planning stage.”
What’s it like cosplaying as a couple? Are there arguments about what to cosplay as?
“Absolutely! There are so many costumes that Taylor would look amazing in, and I would just be the awkward male character running around. Outside of that, it’s pretty awesome. We have an out of the norm hobby that none of our other couple friends quite understand, and a lot of our nights in are spent with one of us sitting on the floor with a hot glue gun, while the other hangs out on the couch watching a movie and throwing out the occasional idea to help. Conventions are great because we are never flying solo, and if we are it’s never for too long. We aren’t just a couple that cosplays but we’re partners in this crazy world that comes with putting on these insanely awesome suits.”
And finally, give us your top three essentials that you feel every cosplayer needs in their closet.
“Heat gun, glue gun and craft foam. I think we’ve actually made an entire cosplay with just those 3 tools!”