Four students from Salt Lake Community College’s fashion program will share their talents at Salt Lake Comic Con 2015 later this week. For one student in particular, Comic Con is the perfect place for creative expression.
Although everyone attends Comic Con for different reasons, first-year fashion student Sara Thompson can showcase her talents to the world and find new inspiration.
“I [go to Comic Con] because of the cosplay community,” Thompson says. “Being able to dress up and see other people’s outfits that they’ve made, it’s just really fun [to] make new friends and it inspires me to do more.”
Cosplay, also known as costume play, allows people to channel their favorite fictional characters by wearing representative clothes and accessories.
Thompson gains satisfaction through being able to put a costume together with added elements of her own personality.
“Usually I find some connection within,” she says. “This time I’m doing Ariel, and I have just always loved her fun, free-spirited self.
“I always try to do Disney because it is very well recognized. Usually it is something I just really want to see myself in and I just go for it.”
Creating a cosplay costume takes quite a bit of motivation, according to Thompson. Through dedication and hard work, she finished her Ariel costume in four days.
“My biggest motivation for [the costume] was to see little girls smiling when I dress up as Ariel,” she says. “People recognize it, and sometimes [they] ask me, ‘Did you make that?’ [When] I say yes, they get really excited.”
As Thompson begins her journey through the SLCC fashion program, she dreams of being a designer.
With the program working as a guide, she wants to continue her work in cosplay.
“Sometimes I even get business [from cosplay] because [fans] want me to make something for them,” she adds.
She wants to continue her work in cosplay because of the impact it has on people.
With a love for creating her own fashion since she was young, Comic Con allows Thompson to keep her inner child alive with her cosplay creations.
“It’s kind of magical in a way,” she says. “It’s just so much fun seeing what comes out of it, knowing that you made it.”
