lady-ava-cosplay:

La Muerte from The Book of Life. 

Costume drafted and constructed by me. 

Facebook Page: Lady Ava Cosplay Instagram: ladyavacosplay

Construction time: 4 months

Make-up By: LuckyGrimCosplay

Photos #1-2: JL7 Photography #3-5: Darkain Multimedia/Photo #6: LionBoogy

This project has been a huge on-going part of my life for the last four months. La Muerte was originally never on my radar to cosplay.  A student of mine showed me the design as a maybe to make for her since she loved the movie so much. When i saw the design, I was just thinking how out there and over the top it was.

Oshi and I went to see The Book of Life because I was curious and it looked like a fun movie. When La Muerte first appeared on the screen, I was blown away by the design, thinking it was almost insane to make something like that. It looked impossible to be done and done well. As the movie was wrapping up, I had almost set my mind on doing one of the twins. But then La Muerte had one last scene with Xibalba. And the line she said hit me in the gut harder than I ever thought it would: “Anyone can die. These kids will have the courage to live.”

I left the theater in a state of deep thought after that. It took me a day or two until I asked Oshi, “What would you think if said I wanted to cosplay La Muerte?” He looked me in the eye over breakfast and said, “I would say you are crazy.” I just laughed and left the conversation at that. After he left that day, I went and bought my fabrics for her.

I kept very quiet about starting to work on La Muerte because I wasn’t sure if people would call me crazy. This was way outside my comfort zone and I was thinking I was nuts. It took me nearly a month to say anything publicly on social media because I wanted to make sure I could do this. I researched, sketched, drafted and saw the film multiple times to make sure everything was going to be the way I wanted.

Over the last few months, my anxiety had grown to crippling levels. My life had become doctors, shrinks, and horrible medicine that made me sick or worse: not like myself. I lost motivation and confidence in myself as a cosplayer and a person.  Nothing I made gave me the joy I craved and I debated stopping all together. And with the treatments and growing bills with nothing helping,  I was beginning to lose hope in my own life. But when I worked on this one costume, that all went away. All the stress. The anxiety. The feelings of dread and horrible fears and depression. I found myself getting lost in sketching the designs, making skulls, hand sewing trim or even making candles float. Everything else didn’t matter. I have never had a costume that I felt this strongly about and didn’t see her as just another costume. She isn’t. She became my therapy.  My whole time cosplaying, I have never had something like this. I didn’t make her for anyone else but me. When I tried her on with everything and saw myself in the mirror for the first time, I cried from joy, shock, and sadness that it was over. I’m proud of my work.  And I love it. All because of one line at the very end of the film.  ”Anyone can die. These kids will have the courage to live.” And courage was what I needed to realize that I’m better and stronger than something like anxiety and just…live.

The feedback on La Muerte has been nothing short of mind-blowing for me. The reblogs, likes, tweets, shares, etc that came in from all over the world made me sit in my hotel room on Saturday Night of Katsucon and just cry from joy. I never thought that I would get this much love for something that I put so much work into. And that it is STILL being reblogged is overwhelming me. This film was an inspiration for me on so many levels. I love animated movies but this one was just breathtaking. I wish that I could personally thank the director Jorge R Gutierrez for giving us this beautiful film. The music, the art, and the characters. They just were something that in this point of my life was a welcome breath of air. And for me, La Muerte is not just another costume. And she will never be that to me. 

A massive thank you has to go out to Oshi, Erisaka, LuckyGrim, and Pat for being the most amazing handlers for me at the convention. They kept me sane, hydrated, and happy during the whole time I wore her and I am in their debt. <3

And finally: to everyone who has reblogged and commented on my costume, from the bottom of my heart, I have to say:

Thank you. <3