Cosplaying Yennefer of Vengerberg at CCA2022: a creative adventure

In 2019, I attended Comic Con at the Gallagher Convention Centre in a pleather catsuit, as Catwoman – the alter-ego of Batman’s favourite villian slash side chick (or was it sidekick?) Selina Kyle herself (the Anne Hathaway version).

There were several reasons for this. Firstly, I’m a DC over Marvel kind of girl.  

Secondly, I like the characterisation of Catwoman – she was neither good nor bad, just something of an antiheroine, which in many ways was relatable to a cynic like me.

I had also been going to gym, eating healthy and working hard that year and was confident that I could pull off a pleather catsuit – there were moments I felt more like Garfield than Catwoman, but for the most part, it worked.

Lastly – and mostly so – I decided to go as Catwoman because the cosplay was easy to pull off, in that it was ready for hire from one of Joburg’s many well-stocked costume hire outlets. Which I know says a lot about the people of Joburg in that we have these stores with pleather onesies on hand all year round – but hey, no one is really judging.

After consulting a friend on the look, he suggested I add a utility belt and high-heeled boots to it.

“Where can I get a utility belt for this?” I had asked.

“Er, you make one, duh,” he, a cosplay fundi, replied. And so, as I started wrapping empty Allergex and Lion Match boxes in sleek black material, I got my first experience of Cosplay artistry.

Cosplay – one of the biggest performance art communities in the world

Cosplay is the art of representing a known fictional character in real life in creative ways and is different from Halloween as it pays more attention to craftsmanship and detail.

The form of art finds its origins in Japan, during the early 1970s, becoming more popular on a global scale by the 1990s.

Now, with competitions that offer its winners significantly large sums of cash, the art of cosplay has become a world sport as such, with players being judged on accuracy, craftsmanship, presentation, and audience impact.

According to Allied Market Research, the global cosplay costumes market size was valued at $4,625.0 million in 2020, and is projected to reach $23,008.0 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 17.4% from 2021 to 2030. That’s quite telling about its popularity.

SA – a leading Cosplay champion with Kelsey Atkins

I was thrilled to learn that the number one cosplaying champion in the world was South African-born Kelsey Atkins also known as JinxKittie, and to be honest I think it was a titled well-deserved.

I remember seeing her at the 2019 Comic Con Africa, and being both enthralled, frightened and baffled by the extreme realism of her representation of the Blood Priestess Bathory.

I had read about that wackjob, the Lady Bathory, and all the horror stories that went with her fame, but never had I seen it brought to life in such a vivid and terrifyingly beautiful way.

Atkins was crowned Global Champion of Cosplay at Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. The outfit took over 600 hours of design, hand stitching, embroidering and 3D printing. She also won $5000 (that’s around R90 000). I admired that sort of dedication. I also wasn’t unimpressed with the prize money.

And so I decided that this year, at Comic Con 2022, after coming out of the hiatus now that the Covid situation was more or less under control, I was going to attempt to make my own cosplay outfit.

I had several factors to consider this year:  firstly, I hadn’t been working out all year – in fact I haven’t seen the gym since February. Also, I hadn’t been eating very healthy – getting back into journalism meant attending important events, and hosts are always graciously feeding us.

And lastly, I was much deeper into my 30s now. I would likely want to pull off a character that was not celebrated for their adolescent features and smaller bodyframes.  So that ruled out most of anime and manga for me.

I decided to delve deeper – I wanted to find a character I could relate to, one with a strong personality and a long dress that could cover the parts of me I didn’t feel so confident about but still kind of portray that I was robust in a strong, feminist sort of way.

Yennefer of Vengerberg – The Witcher

I remember browsing through the pages of Polish wordsmith Andrzej Sapkowski’s book and thinking what an odd writer this is with such a strange narrative. But as I read a little further on, I became more engrossed.

Something I really liked was the portrayal of the female characters and the strength they brought through. The series stayed true to this too. I mean, you have Queen Calanthe leading her armies to war, slurping on beer with blood and dirt on her face and bags under her eyes – but what a truly fearsome thing to behold, she was!

For me though, it was Yennefer of Vengerberg, the real ugly duckling of the plot – embittered by the hand of cards life had dealt her – and who, with a little bit of magic and a whole lot of what seems like back-door plastic surgery, becomes a swan worth reckoning with.

I love the message she sends. That even though her outsides were changed, she still felt the same resentment, anger and bitterness she always felt. How many times have we ourselves thought how much better I would feel if I looked differently? In the series, the writers really gave Yennefer some great lines. Thoughts that so many women watching this could relate to.

And seeing that she was 75 years old in season 1 when she meets Geralt of Rivia for the very first time in 1248 (just like how black don’t crack, mage don’t age – don’t question it), I figured it was fairly age appropriate for me too.

The cage dress

While seeking help for his beloved and hated companion, Jaskier, Geralt of Rivia is referred to the sorceress Yennefer. He finds her at the mayor’s house in the midst of an elaborate mind-control experiment or to put it plainly, an orgy. It is the first time these two – who were destined by all the forces in the world itself to be together – set eyes on each other. It is one charged scene and you feel the chemistry and magic come right off that screen as she raises her gaze to meet his.

As a die-hard romantic, I loved this moment. And I loved the dress she wore in this scene. This was the dress I would try to make.

What was I thinking?!

I did the necessary research. Found the videos of other cosplayers who attempted the cage dress. Looked at the outcomes of their attempts and to be fair, it all looked easy enough. And so I went out, bought the material and got straight to work on my costume play.

My first 5 attempts were complete and utter failures. This was one hard dress to make. From wire to cardboard, to corset boning, I just couldn’t get the sleeves to work.

I even attempted to reach out to several tailors and cosplay makers for some advice on the sleeves. They were all hesitant about this design.

“It’s almost impossible to get right. Maybe try to wear something else,” they advised gently. But how dare they! For some reason, I was feeling as stubborn about wanting this as Yennefer herself was at wanting her choice of fertility back. And she never gave up!

Time to give up

By the fifth attempt, I had lost all hope. I had a surplus of fabric glue, ribbons, easy wire, corset boning, and trilobal, but not a sense of how to make it all work. For the moment, I was done… so done!

I attended the first day of Comic Con, and even from Day 1, those cosplayers brought the heat.

My cosplay crush this year was Thifhuriwi Nephawe from Johannesburg who was dressed as the strong and resilient princess Neytiri of the alien Na’vi race from Avatar. As memorised as I had been with the blood priestess, I found myself feeling the same sense of awe seeing Nephawe’s makeup artist apply her craft to Nephawe’s perfectly set-for-it face.

As I drove home, I got one last silly idea in my head. I was going to cut up an old t-shirt to mimic that cage sleeve. I did just this. I worked on it for 3 hours flat-out, ignoring my aching back and sore fingers.

In the end, it worked. I also managed to find an old tap washer, with which I made the pendant of the choker. It also worked. Well, sort of. It was not perfect.

I would say it had little craftsmanship and not quite 100% accuracy, but the presentation and audience impact were there. My friends and colleagues immediately knew who I was and that was a good enough start for me.

If anything, I have a newfound respect for professional cosplayers. It’s not all just fun and games and pretty pics for the gram. It’s long hours, creatively thinking and rethinking methodologies, aching backs, bruised fingertips, faith, patience, perseverance and a will to try again and again till you get it right.

I just hope my spirit holds up as I endeavour to bring a better A-line and A-game to the next one.

Till next year!