#about xena

[poetryincostume]

Hey, what kind of costuming do you do? I'm obsessed with the corsets you've posted, they honestly look immaculate and I love the period inspiration. are you a historical costumer?

Hello!

Thank you so much, I'm so glad you like them! I've been wanting to make a ribbon corset for years, so finally making two has been very pleasing.

I broadly call myself a cosplayer as much as I call myself anything. I have a lot of feelings about the various labels people use and the forms of gatekeeping and snobbery that come from each. Really costume, in whatever form you may approach it, is an art form.

I have been working as a professional costumier in the UK film industry (tho not right now, thank you US studios for your greed) for the last 13 years. I’ve only been making for myself since 2017. I approach all of my projects the same way I approach my work - and have been so lucky to observe incredible designers working: I always end up falling into research holes and drag in historicsim, art, pop culture, and all sorts into my projects. But at the heart of it all, for me, is exploring character and narrative. Painting and sculpting characters out of fabric.

This is largely why I refer to my personal work as cosplay for ease: because I'm making characters or using character, theme or story as a leaping off point. See my little star warsy inspired jacket, and The Madwoman. The Saddest Girl In The World works as a standalone piece in this vein, but is also part of a bigger, whole costume that I started uuhhhhh a year ago. I want everything I make to stand on its own and express something.

Left to right: - Numa, Star Wars Rebels - I closely referenced the French Resistance in my research and making, but this is a true and true 'accurate' cosplay. - Olivier Mira Armstrong, Fullmetal Alchmist - also an 'accurate' cosplay, but I did deep research in historical tailoring, Japanese tailoring, and World War II military tailoring and created the entire costume using historical techniques. I won two competitions with this costume! - Princess Zelda, Breath of the Wild - an example of me building from the skin out. This is an accurately historical turn-of-the-century combination set made using historical handkerchief and insertion techniques and entirely handsewn. However I infused it with character and story by constructing the main body of the combinations of triangles, and piecing it together with three point needlework (more triangles), for a total Triforce infusion. There is a full set of similarly triforcey companion undergarments.

It's all fake and in space; it's all poetry. I'm playing. With costume. So I guess I'm a cosplayer, but when you're playing the limit is your imagination.

[duckuwu]

This is obviously a lil bit geared towards those who were alive and watching tv in the 90s, but youngins who've found their way into these shows, feel free to chime in. I was just thinking that most of us had a singular show that was OURS back then, even if we might've watched the others. Which one did you fandom the hardest / would you have fandomed the hardest?

[beemovieerotica]

watching fantasy/sci-fi shows from the 80's and 90's is so healing for your brain actually..........

i see people trying to hype them up too by showing off really impressive practical effects for the time, and sure, that's nice. but I unironically love seeing very obvious foam boulders bounce off people, and wooden swords clash, and bright flashes of light from "laser guns"... and it is so much better than 90% of shit today, and you know why?

key fucking difference: they inhabit it. everyone on screen is putting their entire soul into it. and I think people forget that tv is at its very essence theater, you tune in and suspend your disbelief, and you are always aware you are watching a story. if you go to a play and see someone stabbed with a very obvious fake knife, it doesn't fucking matter, does it?

because everyone's forgot that you're not there to see how good of a real-looking fake knife somebody can make, you're there to see people who can make you believe in the emotional truth of a story.

xena warrior princess is superior to every single marvel movie that has ever been made for the key fact that i can watch two actors struggling in "quicksand" which is very obviously just dirt that they were buried in up to their chests, but they are SCREAMING, wailing, crying: they are selling it and I am there for them ---

no marvel movie will ever achieve emotional truth as long as their direction goes: "Alright. So you're trapped in [redacted] next to [redacted], and you feel very [redacted]. And, action!"

[whenfatecollides]

Gabrielle going against her beliefs and deviating from the path she wanted to take in life in order to save Xena | bonus:

[normcore-tertiary-character]

"It's just a silly comedy," I think to myself, "I'm not going to get brain worms about it," I insist, ignoring the fact that I am the getting-brain-worms-about-silly-comedies person

[lightsaroundyourvanity]

xena warrior princess and her magnificent thighs

[chthonic-cassandra]

I know it gets tedious to talk over and over about all the lesbian things in Xena that no other piece of media does, but I rewatched "The Crusader" the other night and cannot stop thinking about the potency of the Xena-Gabrielle-Najara triangle, about how it gets to be vicious and ugly and complicated and sexy, about how much lights up in my mind when I think about it. No matter how many times I watch it, the show makes me feel like I didn't realize how much I was missing.

[sexy-sapphic-sorcerer]

I just need to inform you nerds about absolute madlad academic Joseph Brennan

most notably, he wrote a paper about a queer reading of Mordred in BBC Merlin which heavily cites his own (poorly photoshopped) pornographic slash manips

but he also edited a whole book about queerbaiting, including chapters about: Supernatural, Xena Warrior Princess, One Direction RPF, Supergirl, and the fucking Johnlock Conspiracy

all the rest of his work is about gay porn

I fucking love academia

[softpine]

working on the next post was frustrating me so i made more of coco's family to relax!! let's hear it for beautiful brown eyes

nico (33), nicole "coco" (23), monica (22), jasmine "jazzy" (18), amir (12), xena (1)

their family situation is very complicated but if you're interested:

nico was an oopsie when their mom was young. she got married and then quickly divorced nico's dad. coco looks up to her brother a lot. he's the kindest, most generous person you'll ever meet (gives you the shirt off his back kinda guy) and he loves coco so much, but he has an intellectual disability as a result of a complicated birth and he was never given the support he needed. he's had problems with substance abuse for a long time. growing up, coco always wanted to be around him, and unfortunately he didn't always do a good job of sheltering her. even though she doesn't blame him, he'll always blame himself for exposing her to his lifestyle.

when coco's mom met her dad, she didn't want to ruin things by getting married again. nevertheless, coco was planned. she was supposed to be the last baby (hence the cute matching names: nico and nicole).

monica came along so quick after coco that they were basically raised like twins, but coco was still very much a protective big sister to her because monica started losing her eyesight as a toddler. by middle school, she could only see light & shapes. she continued to go to the same school as coco, but she didn't get much in the way of accommodations, so coco was the one who helped her the most. she made sure monica never fell behind or felt different – she learned from nico that if she didn't support monica, no one would. they're the only 2 that share both the same birth parents, though monica always got along better with their dad than coco. oh also she's the sister that used to listen to danny's music fjkjsds

jazzy was from their mom's 2nd marriage which didn't last long. she spent summers with her dad in indiana, which made coco so jealous until she actually visited indiana herself lol. she goes to college at purdue so coco doesn't see her much. it also makes coco feel weird that they both started college at the same time though coco is 5 years older. she wants to be the big sister giving advice and helping jazzy through college, but jazzy has her life together more at 18 than coco ever has. she won't admit it, but she does judge coco for her life choices, and she has a lot of valid reasons for doing so. sadly jazzy had a front row seat to some of coco's worst moments. neither of them really know how to move on from that.

their mom is still married to amir's dad. he's the only kid still living with their mom. coco actually spends quite a lot of time with amir; he likes to stay at her apartment when he needs a break from his step siblings (who coco barely knows, since they moved in after she moved out). they also like to get out of the city and go exploring together / hiking

xena is....... complicated. she's the only one here that doesn't have the same birth mom and that's really all i can say. (btw i'm not bringing back the 2018 extreme red blush, the poor thing just has eczema)

[wistfulwatcher]

[deityofhearts]

sometimes I have thoughts about my little pony,,, (please ignore that there are errors a plenty and that my writing sucks i just word vomited this in my notes app without a second thought okay?)

[whenfatecollides]

scenes that changed me as a person (S01E24)

[bluebipples]

just fucking hear me out dude

[lonely-night]

bonus:

[xenaskywalker]

Xena but she's evil and sexy

[gay-baby-brig]

Madeleine Sami stealing scenes in Xena: Warrior Princess as Tyro of the Amazons