Kapalaka

facebook.com/kapalaka.cosplay

I love to sew and my hobby is to show appreciation for my favorite characters by dressing up as them as accurately as possible. In my spare time I can be found making costumes of my favorite media characters and indulging in all sorts of crafts. My cosplay alias "Kapalaka" came from two sources: Golduck (one of my favorite Pokémon and it is a kappa), and gibberish my high school best friend used to attach to my first name. We would come up with silly names added onto each other's first names. The more ridiculous, the better. He called me Cristini, Ku-ristana, etc, the most elaborate of which was Cristanalakakanatini. This was around the time I was looking to create a committable and unique screenname and "Kapalaka" was the natural choice. No regrets thus far, so it's a winner!

My love for video games and anime led me to the cosplay community in 2005. It was my senior year of high school and I thought the regular "vote for me" signs were lame when I ran for Homecoming Court, so I pursued a different type of campaign by making silly ads with my face over the bodies of my favorite Final Fantasy girls. I wondered if people actually make these outfits and wore them. When I saw people cosplaying online, I immediately researched upcoming conventions and looking up cosplay photos of my favorite characters. CosplayLab was particularly helpful with their Spotlights and Look-Alikes, and the cosplayers I found in there I still look up to today.