Merrlia Cosplay is a medical student living in Romania. She has an incredible passion for cosplay and increasing cosplay accessibility in Eastern Europe. During this conversation, Merrlia discusses what keeps her cosplaying, the cosplay community in Romania, and how she gives back through commissioning.
Cosplaying
Do you mind sharing a bit about yourself, your background, and how you got into cosplay?
Well, I'm Merrlia and I'm 22. I'm a medical student in nursing. In my free time, I do cosplay, I sing, I write lyrics and stuff like that. But cosplay is my main hobby. And I've been doing it since 2017. When I was a child, I would always make those clothes for my dolls, and stuff like that by hand. I couldn't spend a day without doing something creative. And, frankly, my dad got me into the PC world. And some years later, I saw a random ad for a con, and this is when I actually got to know about cosplay. And this was so nice because I was wanting to do it for like two or three years before but I didn't have the guts to do it. I first did attend the festival here in Romania. It was a cosplay/Japanese-themed event. And there were these nice cosplayers from Bucharest, and they showed us their costumes. They do the parade in the mall. And this is how I got to do it.
How did you get started with making costumes?
Well, my mother was a seamstress. And one day, I just dug out the sewing machine and I started sewing because before that I was using my hand to sew and that was okay, too. And this is how I got into doing my own costumes. I tried doing trial and error. Because when you're self-taught you always learn from your mistakes. And my mother recommended to me that I should get glasses. I shouldn't use the sewing machine because the needle will break and it will get into my eye but that just talking because I broke so many needles and neither one of them broke into my eye. So it was okay.
That sounds great. And can you talk to us a little bit about what has kept you in cosplay since you were 17?
That's a pretty interesting question because I've tried countless hobbies, and I would always not be interested in them. I tried singing, I tried playing guitar. But I always went back to cosplay just simply because I could do anything I wanted. In terms of creating, I would have my own liberty of choosing whatever I want. I would bring stuff to life literally creating stuff from games that I couldn't have in real life. Simply because where I live in Eastern Europe, you couldn't buy those things from a local shop, for example, you had to do it on your own.
I see. So it's really about that creative aspect and getting these novel things that you can't get elsewhere. And can you tell us a bit about what is the cosplay world like in Eastern Europe?
There is a limited number of people that are in the community. There are new people every year. I don't know if they take it very seriously, but that's okay. Cosplay is a fun hobby. After all, you should have fun first. We have our own community, and we share secrets, we share our work in progress. We are like a huge family and we know each other very well. We even create costumes for one another or help with props. I've helped people in the community with some props. They're basically the only ones I've built commissions for. Now I'm really ready to do commissions for people outside my country. But I do offer a 50% discount to people in Romania because they are my family and because there's people that wants to do cosplay, but they're afraid. And this is how I can encourage them to get started. I help them with something here, I help with something there, mostly small cosplay commissions, but it gets them started and makes cosplay less scary.
Commissioning
You mentioned that you do commission work, Can you share a bit about how you first stepped into the commissioning world?
The most important thing when I accept a commission from someone is that I have to be sure I can do the project. Because if I don't have the skills, then I'll just let the person know that they can go to someone else in the community because there are more people that are more skilled than me. Or I just give them advice on how to do it, or how would I think what to do. This is the first step to know that I can make it happen to know that I have the tools and I have the means.
Do you remember the first commission that you took? And how did that process happen?
I started doing commissions in 2018. I started by doing necklaces. Then after I made a few, I started to do rings, jewelry, accessories and so on. And when I was more into cosplay, I started doing more intricate, more time-consuming projects. That's when I started to do garments.
What has been the challenging parts for you as a conditioner and running your conditioning business?
You know that when seamstresses work, they usually go and call their clients and say, Oh, you have to come and take a fitting for me. Well, this was the problem for me, because I couldn't see the person who I was supposed to do the garment for. And to the first client, I actually asked them to send me a t-shirt that would fit them. So I could take the measurements and do that. Frankly, I don't have to do that anymore, because I discovered other techniques to do the fitting. I asked the clients to do their measurements like everyone does. And after that, I make the pattern and then I modify it so I could use it.
You mentioned you're a med school student right now. Do you want to go down the medical path and have this as a side business? Are you trying to do this full-time? And what bigger goals do you have for yourself?
I kind of have a safety net with this university right now. I'm really scared that I would hurt someone if I go to the hospital, to be frank, but I want to work in a laboratory. I've been eager to do so since I joined the medical school and just do this as a job or either I go to the second University, I learned marketing, I learned fabrics, I learned everything I need, and I open my own business. But it's gonna be such a stressful situation if I want to do business here because we don't have a very open market in Eastern Europe. What is gonna happen? I think in 10 years, that customer is going to be a great deal here, but only in 10 years. This is why I want to build up my skills and be ready when that time comes.
Final Thoughts
We hope this conversation has helped you get a glimpse into ways to support yourself through cosplay but also help the community flourish. We will be hosting more conversations with cosplayers, makers, and more. If you would like to share your story, please get in touch with us!
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