ChatterCove: Interview with Astelier Studios

Introducing ChatterCove, a series of open dialogues with makers, cosplayers and others in the cosplay community.

Astelier Studios is a maker duo from Malaysia - Midori and Mitsuki. Being seasoned makers with 10 years of experience, Astelier Studios shared their struggles with confidence in both roles, how they became full time commissioners during COVID, and the challenges they faced. We also discussed the power of cosplay to build communities and the importance of having the right mindset.

Cosplay

Starting off, would you mind introducing yourself, a little bit about your background, and how long you've been in the cosplay world?

Right. So we've been cosplaying for I guess 10 years? Yeah, I started back in high school. We got to know about a newspaper centered around comics and pop culture. So then we got to know about cosplay through those kinds of media. And we've just really like sewing. At that point, we just wanted to cosplay our favorite characters, and then attend a convention with friends. So that's how we started. We learn mostly from YouTube and Google. We actually had the most fun when we are making the costumes.

I love that. Can you talk a little bit about what's kept you in the world for as long as it has? What are your favorite things that you've done in the past 10 years?

I think it's really about meeting people. Our best friends are together because of cosplay as well. I think we make the most meaningful relationships through cosplay. It's really what made us start learning new games and theories and character designs. Most of us are living separated right now, and you're in different states. So we usually come together, at least once a year, and cosplay together. So it's something look forward to all the time. And after many years of doing it, just like it's like a tradition.

That's awesome. Community is huge when it comes to having fun and being with people who share love for similar things. I'm curious, what is the cosplay world like in Malaysia?

Actually, cosplay is really popular in Malaysia. It's been really growing over the years. There's conventions every year. There's a convention center and it's connected to the mall. We can see everyone likes cosplaying and they do multiple character. It's like a carnival. If you're into games or anime manga, you have a natural feeling to want to express it more. So of course, like doing fan art drawing doujins, cosplay is one of the another ways you can express your love for the characters.

What do you think the community can improve on? What are some challenges that you see with like cosplay and the costume community?

For me, I think a lot of people tend to compare themselves to someone else. You're always feeling a little inferior, like, "oh, they look so good. Why I don't look as good". or "someone else already cosplayed this character and they did it so well. So I don't want to do it anymore". But that's not the point. It's your cosplay. It's your self-expression. So yeah, you should put in your own effort and just go for it. If someone else's costume looks really good, you can reference and learn. It's important to study what makes it look good. Learn, observe, and try to find how to do it. I think having the right mindset to keep on improving will motivate us to do better.

That's awesome. Kind of looking within and looking at your own journey, rather than looking outward towards everybody else.

Commissioning

I'd love to hear more about how you got started with commissioning. I know you said there was definitely some self doubt. So curious to hear how you decided to take take a commission for someone? And then how did you guys eventually transition to full time?

Three years ago, people have been telling us "oh, you should make costume for other people". And we were like, "Nah, we're not good enough, maybe next time". And then our friends came to us, and really wanted this character, but she couldn't find it anywhere. We wanted her to be able to cosplay and the desire to help her was stronger than the insecurity. And to be honest, that costume actually turned out not that great. We had so much doubts of our work, we were spending more time going around in circles, procrastinating, and fearing not be able to deliver it. Well, in the end, the costume we delivered wasn't really that great. So after that, we offered to remake the costume for her.

We realized that there's no point to beat yourself down when things didn't go well. We learned a lot from the experience, how to do better and how to communicate with clients, learn better ways to manage the process. Yeah. If you run into problems, you can be honest about it and talk to your clients. So in the end, she was, of course, very pleased with the final costume.

Turning your art into a business is definitely challenging. When did you guys decided to go full time? Can you talk a little bit about that transition?

Three years ago, we weren't doing it full time. It was just that one costume and another friend as well. So COVID definitely pushed us to start this full time. We were in the tourism business. And we were kind of stuck there it was hard to find an exit point when you're in it. then COVID just forced everything to stop. So we finally sat down and focused on what we wanted to do. We should dedicating our time into something that matters more to us. And with the costumes, we eventually just got enough orders to sustain a business. We really enjoy it so much more than the job that we had previously. It makes sense to just stay here than go back to tourism.

Sounds like a blessing in disguise. Do you mind sharing what is like a day in the life like for you as full time commissioners? How do you split the work or the responsibilities?

Day to day, I will mostly be on the computer doing the planning, figuring out what comes first, what next. Most of the costumes have different parts, like accessories. So one of us will be working on that the other will do pattern makings. Wherever I'm weak, she's good at. She's the best work partner.

It's amazing that both of you complement each other's skills so well. I know you mentioned there's a couple things that you had to learn. Can you share a little bit the skills you had to pick up after you became a commissioner?

So back in university, we were Media and Communication graduates. I think that really equipped us for the business side of things. There was a lot of skill we had to learn from scratch, because there's no one around us that runs a business that could really guide us. So just a lot of trial and errors. And even things like accountings, that's something we had to learn on our own. Any problems that come up, we just learn, ask people, books, and YouTube.

What would you say are some biggest challenges that you faced as a commissioner?

The biggest hurdle we had so far is how to price how to price for things. Even giving an estimate like a quotation is not easy. It's not as simple as just estimating the materials and estimating how much time. Those two are not enough to really give you a good estimate. There's a lot of things you don't realize that goes into the work of making a costume. There's a lot more research time, equipment, communication that needs to be put in.

Also, you have to market your work. Writing Instagram posts or things like that take time. There's no one that's gonna do it besides you. You can pay for someone else to do but not at the beginning when you're not really profiting much. You have to manage your time well. and balance all of those business tasks. But I think you have fun, so this doesn't feel like a chore.

And I guess most importantly, if you're tired, take a break. Taking breaks is the best way to keep yourself performing at high levels. I mean, we've done costumes that we burned the midnight oil to finish. Versus what we've taking time to do well. Obviously, the quality and the results are very different. So we'd rather take more time because we don't want to rush the process at all.

For others who have done a few commissions and are thinking about "should I do it full time", do you have any advice for how to think about it?

Hmm, I guess it's quite personal. I mean, if you have an existing job that pays you well, then it's okay to do commissions part time. But if you're talking about plunging into full time, there's a lot more considerations, like your finances to sustain yourself. Because there's going to be low times certainly. In our case, we kind of had no other options that we wanted to consider. So it worked out for us, I guess. most importantly is why you want to do it? What's your your core reason why do you want to do commissions? We really wanted to help people achieve their dream cosplays. And because this is something we really enjoy doing, it makes sense for us to do this full time.

Thank you so much for sharing! This is super helpful for anyone who has struggled with confidence when they're making costumes, or anyone thinking about getting into commissioning.

Final thoughts

We hope this conversation has helped you get a glimpse into the joy of cosplay and the life of a commissioner. We will be hosting more conversations with cosplayers, makers, and others who have found a way to turn their passion into a way to support themselves. If you would like to share your story, please get in touch with us!

Check out our other ChatterCove posts!