So many people took up weird and wonderful creative
things to pass the time over lockdown. Many people tried their hardest to make
the best cosplays they could...however Lena Mae decided to make the worst!
Lena really is the nicest Geordie you’ll ever meet, such a sweetheart with an
infectious smile. Find out here why this uber talent used her costuming skills
to go against everything were programmed to do and create a very different form
of art!
Thanks to Covid and lockdown Lena’s crap cosplays were born! Something good to
come out of covid! So, get yourself a cuppa, take a read and look at the work
for yourselves and be prepared to giggle a lot!
All pictures are taken
by Lena unless otherwise stated. All pictures are provided by Lena Mae.
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| Photo Credit: Scott Chalmers Photography |
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| Photo Credit: Scott Chalmers Photography |
have watched Fifth Element a few days before I found a pile of bandages in one of my costume boxes. I didn't really have a plan, I just like dressing up, so I wrapped them around myself mimicking Leeloo's iconic outfit. I mean, once you've started you have to go the whole hog, right? So, I draped a bit of orange fabric over my head, grabbed a B&Q multipass card and took a picture. It was the first one, and you can see in it I was actually laughing at how crap it looked! But I put it in my Instagram story and my DMs blew up with people LOLing with me...so that's when I started getting carried away!
How many cosplays did you do?
Oh gosh I'm not sure, I probably did around 20 'celebrities' and then
maybe 12 of my friends.
Yeah it just spiralled as you say, after Leeloo I'd just get an idea
every few days. My husband Jamie and I are really big on movies, visuals and
pop culture, particularly from the 80s so we're already surrounded by a tonne
of inspiration just in the house!
How did you decide
which character to do?
I didn't really put much thought into it, I think that's why it was so
fun and so crap, because it was all really sporadic! I didn't buy anything especially;
they were all just made from things I found lying around the house. So, for
example one day I noticed a PPE mask in the cupboard under the stairs and
figured it looked like an excellent codpiece, so Henry VIII was born (again)!
Or there was the blue bathrobe tie that reminded me of Heman's chest
piece...you get
Was there any that you made that didn’t make the cut to Instagram or the Calendar?
Yes! There were a couple who didn't make it out alive. Celery and bedsheet statue of Liberty and loo roll tube Elizabeth 1st were casualties of being too crap!
Did you think of any
characters you still haven’t done yet that you would like to?
It all reached a really natural end; I don't have any urge to make any more
presently. Now I'm back performing in shows, modelling jobs have started up
again and I'm teaching with Solid Gold Fitness my 80s aerobics too, all of
which are major outlets for my creativity. That's not to say I don't play
dress up for fun anymore!
What kind of materials did you
use?
Anything found around the house really! The list included jam, party
hats, caulking gun, takeaway sauces, plastic carrier bags, slices of bread,
pliers, Qtips, pillowcases, ping pong balls and a bottle of yellow paint.
Nope, it was all organic!
What was your favourite crap cosplay?
I really enjoyed being Bob Ross. I mean who wouldn't?! But it really tickled me. I video called my best friend while I was in costume, and we just cry laughed for about five minutes! Also, all five of the Spice Girls were fun.
What was the easiest crap cosplay?
I'd say Leeloo, the first ever. She was the easiest. A few bandages, a scrap of
fabric, done. I think I started to up my game after that!
What was the most challenging crap
cosplay?
Marge Simpson, because that yellow paint was deadly! It really smelled badly
and took about half an hour to scrub off in the shower...Plus I couldn't see a
thing through those ping pong ball & raisin eyes!
How long did the cosplays take you to
do?
I tried to keep it quick so there wasn't time to put too much thought into it.
Twenty minutes tops each.
What was the response to your crap
cosplay posts?
It started with little DMs, you know people laughing about a costume or
commenting on something I'd used which was lovely because it meant that it
wasn't just me who found it entertaining! But as it went on over the
Summer, I started receiving really quite emotional, heartfelt messages from
people who told me that it was really helping them through lockdown, like
actually making a difference to their lives. As a performer part of getting on
stage is through a need to do it, a sort of necessity to express yourself and
another part of it is knowing that you are touching someone's life in some way.
Maybe you're making them happy or excited or you make them laugh or even better
you're inspiring them to do something. Maybe they really don't like what you do
but at least they're FEELING something. That's really important to me, and over
lockdown that element was missing so to know that I was affecting people in a
positive way from being creative in my bedroom...well it was absolutely
wonderful.
I can't take credit for that; it wasn't my idea! I would get messages from my Insta followers and Facebook friends suggesting I make a calendar with the cosplays, but in classic self-doubting artist fashion I thought 'who would even buy one?!' After a few more prods and suggestions I figured fuck it, I'll do a small run of them. I think I ended up making five runs of 30 calendars! They just kept selling! What's extra nice is that I still get messages now every time we enter a new month from people having a laugh at whichever character they've turned the page to!
Did it inspire you to
do any true cosplays at all?
Not really, I don't really have time! Though I have been making a
Mandalorian themed burlesque act which I guess could be construed as a kind of
cosplay...of course I'm taking liberties with fabrics and construction! So far,
I've not seen Pedro Pascal adorned in any sequins...
Not being part of the scene, I have to say I don't think I know the names of any of cosplayers, but I did bump into a cosplay meet-up in Huddersfield recently though, and it was SO fun to see on the street. Really brightened up my day!
Do you think there’s any similarities between burlesque and cosplay at all?
For sure! Both employ huge amounts of imagination to create costuming. Both spend copious amounts of time in thick make up and wigs! I also think there's a lot of cross over between the burlesque and the nerd world, so with the same influences it's inevitable that the two should have similarities!
Can we expect to see more crap cosplays from you in the future?
Haha! Never say never!!
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| Photo Credit: Andy Clift |
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| Photo Credit: Robbie Jerrom |
Well, there you have it! Crap cosplay at its finest! I would like to thank Lena Mae for her time with this interview. Stay tuned for more cosplay interviews.
Skye Fawkes
Editor In Chief and Head Writer
