C4 cosplay competitors hope to earn international debut

By Adelle Ellis, Times Reporter

Two locals will be donning their best costumes and participating in a large cosplay competition in Calgary – the Clara Cow’s Cosplay Cup (C4) – for a chance at winning first place and representing Canada in the Netherlands in the C4 World Cup finals in 2020.
This will be the second time in two years that Autumn Desjardins and her partner Conor Anderson will be entering the C4 duo cosplay contest taking place on May 18 at the Calgary Telus Convention Centre.
Last year the couple placed third at C4 and they hope to take that experience and some critiques to make it to first place this year.
“Hoping to place higher than last year … our goal this year is to try and do better,” said Desjardins.
In this hobby, made up of a mixture of costume and play to bring fictional characters to life, both participants love how everyone involved is friendly, accepting and welcoming, how it is OK to both be yourself and dress up as someone else, and the creativity of making new costumes, personas and performances.
Desjardins, a co-current program student at the University of Calgary (U of C) taking both natural science and education, became serious about cosplay in 2014 after being introduced to it two years prior. She is a seasoned costume designer and performer, having made nearly 50 homemade costumes in the past six years and winning over 10 major awards from both local and national level competitions.
“I love cosplay and continue to do it for many reasons. I love the craft, and bringing my level of craftsmanship higher and higher with each costume is something I love to do,” said Desjardins, who added that as a hobby, cosplay is a big confidence boost as you get to portray your fictional heroes and be anyone that you want for the day. “What is more awesome than being a superhero, a Jedi or an adventurer for a day,” she said.
Anderson, although newer to the cosplay scene, has competed in three competitions and is very talented when creating performances for the competitions as he is currently studying drama at U of C.
This year, Desjardins and Anderson will be dressing up as Miguel and Tulio, respectively, from The Road to El Dorado.
For the C4 competition, at least 80 per cent of their costumes must be homemade. Desjardins said they created every piece of their costumes, from head to toe, using the original design of the characters and applying the design to what they would look like in the real world outside of illustration.
The costumes took over 600 hours to make and they include approximately 500 metres of embroidery floss, over 15,000 beads and many hand-sculpted pieces to represent Aztec culture as accurately as possible.
Not only is costume part of the scoring points for the C4 competition, but 60 per cent of the points are based from a two-and-a-half-minute performance during which the competitors must also make all their props, sets and audio. The duo is planning a skit based on two con men attempting to scam the audience; however, the scam goes horribly wrong.
Desjardins and Anderson expect the competition to be tough as competitors fly in from across Canada to compete in the May long weekend competition. However, they still hope to come away from the weekend with the coveted first-place prize and a chance at representing Canada in an international cosplay competition next year.
Regardless of how they do, both participants agree the experience of participating is something they both enjoy.
“I still get to run around conventions, meet new people, spend time with friends … it’s also a way to sort of pay homage to series’ and characters I love,” said Anderson.