S0nified is part of America’s World Cosplay Summit Team and a tried and true Spider-Fan.

CD: You’ve been chosen to represent the United States at the World Cosplay summit in Japan.For readers who aren’t familiar with the cosplay world can you tell us a little about how you were chosen and what you’re going to do in the competition?

S0: Basically, when New York Anime Festival announced that they were hosting the preliminaries for the World Cosplay Summit, my friend and partner-in-crime, Renee, and I decided to jump on the opportunity and do a skit with characters that Renee absolutly loved. We spent the following two months churning out costumes and choreographing and practicing for our performance. We competed against about 10 other teams and ended up being chosen! We’ve been very excited with our performance for Japan and started brainstorming ideas, but I will say that we are going to have an epic performance starring characters from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

CD: While you have never been to Japan before-you have been on Japanese television. A few years ago a Japanease film crew came to your house and did a story on you. What was that experiance like? How did they find out about you?

S0: It was a little scary having a camera crew follow me around filming my day-to-day experiences with preparing for a competition in Chicago. To be honest, it never got “normal” having cameras on me. But it was very memorable indeed, to show the Japanese audience what its like to be a cosplayer from New York City and the different resources we have. They found out about me through my job at the time, I was working in the manga section at Forbidden Planet, a famous comic book store in the heart of NYC, and they called up asking if they knew any cosplayers and I happen to be the only one there that cosplayed, so my boss sent them to me.

CD: You’ve competed in cosplay competetions, and you’ve also been a judge-which do you think is more fun?

S0: Honestly, both are experiences that I recommend everyone to try out if they have the chance. I feel so excited going out there on stage and performing for an audience but at the same time, judging takes the stress out of performing and you can actually see what other people put into their costumes and you learn so much from that. I prefer both.

CD: You’re currently a student at new York’s prestigious fashion design school, FIT. What are your aspirations once you graduate? Is your ultimate goal to design a clothing line-or are you planning on going into costume design for film, television or theater?

S0: Haha, I’m actually a former student. Leave it to me to get lazy and not go back to school, but I just filled out my portfolio to gain admittance back soon. When I did go though, it was one of the hardest transitions I’ve ever done from an academic high school to an art school. Its never been my goal to be a fashion designer, but my dream is to one day design for movies and hopefully win an Oscar. Will that happen? Who knows.

CD: In addition to making your own costumes, you also make costumes for others. About how many commisions do you get in a year?

S0: Generally I don’t take commissions. I do occassionally make costumes for my friends, but I have horrible time management issues and put too much on my plate, so even that I have to keep at a minimum. I would like to eventually set up a studio for making costumes, but that’s in the very far future.

CD: How long does it generally take you to finish a costume?

S0: Depends on how complex it is. It can range from a day if I really need to rush it all the way to 4 years and counting, I’ve been working on perfecting my dream costume all this time and I’m still not happy with it.

CD: You’re a big fan of “Patternmaking for Fashion Design” by Helen-Joseph Armstrong-what do you think makes this the definitive patternmaking book?

S0: It shows you EVERYTHING! Oh man, this book is my bible. When I’m in doubt how a pattern should look, I turn to my amazing textbook, look up what I need and replicate it. I might’ve turned to the poofy sleeves page so many times that I think it has disintegrated.

CD: You got Stan Lee to sign your Spidergirl costume-how did you manage that?

S0: I was unfortunatly unable to make it to NYCC that year due to being sick, but my friend Alex asked to borrow the costume. Next thing I knew, I got a phone call from my friend, Nick, screaming.. SCREAMING that he met Stan Lee and that he got his Spider-Man costume signed and then I screamed back “IS MINE SIGNED ALSO!?” and he screamed yes and I screamed some more.. it was really nerdy. He sent me the picture with all of them together and I started to cry. I was so upset that I couldn’t be there to meet the creator of my hero, but it was enough for me that they got to meet him and have him sign my costume.

CD: Speaking of Spiders,you’re a huge Spider-Man fan, what do you think of the drastic changes that have been made to his life in his comic books?

S0: I’m coming after you, Quesada. No, seriously, I was upset, very upset. I’m a avid MJ and Petey fan since as long as I can remember. And to see the marriage be broken up like that, I felt like my entire experience with the Spidey-marriage was wiped out. I’m very passionate about Spider-Man. But I’ve been reading ASM and its starting to grow on me, so we’ll see how it pans out. Quesada, I’m looking at you, you mess this up and you’ll have an irate Spidey-fan at your door!

CD: There are several cosplay girls who are internet celebrities-do you guys all get along and hang out-or are there alot of rivalries going on?

S0: Well, honestly, I don’t know too many cosplay internet celebrities. Obviously I know OF them, but I’m too shy to approach people. The ones that I do know are all amazing sweethearts and we all pretty much get along. There will be times that we might be competing against each other, but the feeling is that we all cheer each other on. At least that’s what my SPRING BREAK crew does. But I would love to get to know as many cosplayers as possible, “famous” or not. We’re all dorks in this crazy hobby of ours.

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