Cosplayer Sarah Trenholm dressed up as comic book character Starka from "The Supers."

Image Credit: Ethan Ribeiro

When she was a child Sarah Trenholm's parents wouldn't let her dress up at Halloween. Now, as an adult, Trenholm sometimes dresses up just to go to the park or the mall.

The Vernon resident is one of a growing number of adults who take part in cosplay – people who dress up as characters from movies, books, TV shows and video games.

Whether as an escape from reality or to pay homage to a hero, cosplayers celebrate their love of pop culture icons and costumes at conventions known as comic cons.

And the Okanagan has several coming up, the first in Vernon, May 7, with similar events scheduled in Kelowna in August and Penticton in October.

And behind the masks, the latex and the spandex is a dedicated community of people spending hours at their sewing machines crafting their costumes to perfection.

Trenholm's been into cosplay for more than a decade.

"I made a Khaleesi mother of dragons (costume), wore it to work at the airport and someone said, 'you should be a cosplayer' and I said 'what's a cosplayer?'" Trenholm said.

Although she'd already been doing it for a few years she then found out there was an entire community of people that spent their time making and dressed up as their favourite characters.

Largely cosplayers just dress up to go to comic cons, which they often refer to as "cons," but Trenholm doesn't just restrict herself to the conventions. She'll dress up just for fun.

"People take a moment out of their day and go 'what the heck' and then it's followed by a smile," she said. "It's the best feeling ever."

Chad Genereux in his "Ninja Turtles" suit.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED: Chad Genereux

So why does she do it?

"There's nothing like seeing (a child) being so excited that they just saw their hero or their villain or their role model... in costume in the flesh in front of them," she said. "It makes them just light up and I say that of any age because we all have that little five-year-old inside of us... whether we want to admit it or not."

Trenholm reckons she'd made about 10 full costumes and lots of smaller pieces throughout the last decade. A simple costume can take three full days, with more complex costumes taking far longer.

Alongside the creative process of making costumes, Trenholm likes the accomplishment and sense of achievement.

And there's another more nuanced aspect to cosplay as the wearer of the costume morphs into the character of the costume.

Trenholm often dresses up as Ruby from the animation series RWBY.

"She's very bubbly and happy and excited but she has a lot of sad in her, she's gone through a lot of shit, you can see the sad in her, and the stuff that she continues to go through," she said. "Her and I have got a lot in common but... my friends have pushed me to do this and I've been able to lead a lot of other people dressed as that character to do things that they would never have done before."

Cosplayer Latisa McCoy in one of her many joker costumes.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED: Latisa McCoy

Trenholm is chatty and upbeat and talks passionately about the costumes she creates and the characters she plays. There's also a thoughtful and philosophical aspect in the way she describes who she chooses to dress up as.

"The hardest character that I can be is Raven (from the Teen Titans comic books) because she can be so sad and I made it during a time in my life when I was sad, so it was easy then, but now it's hard," she said.

Kelowna resident Latisa McCoy has been into cosplay for 11 years.

As a person with autism McCoy says she leans towards cosplaying characters that gave her hope and inspired her to be a stronger and better person.

"It has allowed me to let my creativity out, as well as accept my autism in a way that it allows me to show what's in my brain and showcase that to people and not be judged for being a little weird or wacky," McCoy said.

She also likes the escapism.

"I get to be anything I want to be," she said. "If I want to be a villain I can dress up and be the villain, and dance around... and if I want to be a hero then I can take pictures with people and be the hero I wanted to be that day."

McCoy has made more than 20 costumes over the years which can take anywhere from one to six months to make and cost around $50 for a "cheap one" and more than $250 on others.

While $250 may sound like a lot of money for a costume you have to make yourself, others spend much larger sums of cash on their getups.

Kelowna resident Chad Genereux recently dropped $1,200 on a full Ninja Turtle outfit and thinks it was a steal of a deal.

As a 49-year-old professional martial arts teacher Genereux doesn't appear to fit the stereotype of what people may think a cosplayer is.

"It doesn't matter, your race, your nationality, your size, if you like a character, dress up as them," he said. "It's not gender-specific, it's not body-specific, it's just how much you love it."

And Genereux was into cosplay long before the term cosplay even existed.

"We didn't have a name for it... you were just a geek I guess," he said. "I was always into movies, TV and comics, stuff like that, (and) always tinkering around trying to make certain props and things. It was just something to do, we didn't have the internet."

From making Spiderman web-shooters to using the blades of an old hacksaw to make Wolverine claws, Genereux has been tinkering with comic book accessories for decades.

He said things changed about 10 years ago.

"It became more acceptable... the last few years it really exploded," he said. "People coming out of the woodwork, people that maybe you wouldn't expect, or people that are in a position of influence that are admitting to doing this kind of stuff."

One question for cosplayers is which they prefer, the making or the wearing?

"For me designing a costume, taking it from a sketch to something you can figure out is amazing," he said.

Sarah Trenholm as Raven from "Teen Titans."

Image Credit: Hayman Lee

While these Okanagan cosplayers are purely doing it for enjoyment, some people are making money out of it. And nearly all of those people are women.

A big hit several years ago, Kelowna-based Andy Rae Cosplay has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media – and almost all of her photos feature cleavage.

"Scantily clad is a huge part of it for a lot of girls that make tons and tons of money," Trenholm said.

But while Trenholm says the over-sexualized nature of cosplay is a part of it, it's only a small part of it.

"Say you dress up as a ghostbuster you have a sexy ghostbuster... but the ghostbusters aren't sexy... I think it's a slap in the face to the original character," she said.

Genereux said he's seen people that are plus-sized dressed up as characters that have never been portrayed that way.

"The first time I went (to a comic con), it blew me away," he said.

While the presumption to be Batman would be a tall well-built guy, Genereux says he's seen women at 5'7" pull off Batman brilliantly.

"It becomes more about the process of the costume than being 100 per cent accurate," he said.

Latisa McCoy.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED: Latisa McCoy

While cosplay means different things to different people, it's clear the community is tight, welcoming and encouraging to one another.

There's no doubt it's about escapism, but it's about more than that.

For McCoy, it clearly helps her get through the day-to-day.

"There are some days when it gets hard and you're just having a really rough day and things have gone wrong... and you look at your cosplay and just you put it on and you feel like you can keep going," she said. "It doesn't matter how much negativity in your head is going on, once you strap on that cosplay it can go away in an instant, then you go out in public not even caring what people think, but being the character all dressed up just."

She adds, "you can just feel happy."

Trenholm joined a "random acts of costuming group" and they all headed to a local hospital.

"It brought smiles to all those people," she said.

Sarah Trenholm as Ruby from "RWBY."

Image Credit: Hayman Lee

Vernon Vernon Comic Con takes place May 7. For more information go here.

Kelowna Comicon 2022 takes place Aug. 20 and 21. For more information go here.

Penticton's Penti-con takes place Oct. 22 and 23. For more information go here.

Chad Genereux.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED: Chad Genereux

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