#5 Erica Melisandre is Red Enchantress Cosplay

#5 Erica Melisandre is Red Enchantress Cosplay

I know what you’re thinking…”that can’t possibly be her last name or is it?”  No it isn’t, as I was gullible enough to ask–it’s her second alias as it’s one of her favorite Cosplays she’s done and favorite character from Game Of Thrones.  She chooses to keep her cosplay life separate from her work and personal life and I’m respecting her privacy and not going to reveal her name here either.  Excellent choice for a name, though, I might add–it’s perfect for her as you’ll see upon reading the rest of the article here.

I can’t tell you enough how excited I am to be bringing you “Red” as my next Featured Cosplayer as she was one of the very first ones I had in mind when I decided to start this page topic to my blog.  I first met her at MegaCon 2018 as she was donning one of her Padme cosplays from Star Wars and I just  had to get a picture, as it was perfect in my mind.  I immediately started following her social media accounts and found out that another day at MegaCon she would be doing Amy Pond from the 11th Doctor from Doctor Who.  She was sweet enough to allow this stranger to meet up with her and get a picture together in front of the Tardis.  Out of all the Cosplayers I’ve featured here I feel more excited and connected to what she’s done as I studied her profile.  She loves Star Trek, anything Joss Whedon, Doctor Who, Underworld and Resident Evil, GOT, and J.K. Rowling, just to name a few.

Imagine my surprise and giddiness when after I published only my second cosplayer here that she approached me and asked how I choose cosplayers to interview.  I immediately responded that she was definitely on my list!

Imagine my surprise, again, that she is well connected to my most recently published Featured Artist Turbo Time Cosplay as they have collaborated on several group cosplays together; so I was getting a good sneak peek and learning about her before I started invading her life by trying to get to know her.  And what a wonderful lassie she turned out to be!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen her without a smile on her face.

She’s incredibly talented as she has made from scratch most of her cosplays, she’s the wig master as her wigs she uses and styles are flawless with every use, she thoroughly enjoys and gets into each character she portrays, has a heart for the friends she’s made on the cosplay journey, and an incredible soft spot and passion for animals as she’s a full vegan for many, many years now.

Schooling Us All on How it’s Done: Red Makes and has Control Over Everything 

As a graduate and student of fashion and costume design at The International Academy of Design & Technology it’s only natural for her to shine as a Cosmaker.  Almost all of her Cosplays have been hand made, sewn and put together by her using her acquired skills and natural talents.  When I asked her for some “work in progress” pics she had already had them well organized and laid out, each, in a well composed collage as I would imagine a tutorial would be presented.  Check it out: 

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Wiggin’ Out Over Her Wig Work

One thing I immediately noticed as I began studying her profile is her amazing work and flawless use of wigs for her cosplays.  In the beginning I had to always ask myself “…is that her real hair styled and colored or a wig…?”  Most of her cosplays require wigs and she really shines and is brilliant at it.  Is it the shape/size of her head or the shape/size of her face, or is she just that good with manipulating the look of a great hair style through a fake mop? 

So you can see for yourself, let’s immediately get started with the extensive gallery of photos that I’ve chosen to present Red Enchantress Cosplay to you starting with who she’s named after:

Red Enchantress Gallery of Photos

Melisandre, the Red Woman, from Game of Thrones

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Bellatrix Lestrange From Harry Potter

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Resident Evil Cosplays

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Selene from Underworld

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Callisto from Xena Warrior Princess

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Queenie Goldstein Cosplay from Fantastic Beasts

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Amy Pond, Companion to the Eleventh Doctor

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Padme Amidala from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

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Classic Star Trek Cosplay

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Deanna Troi from Star Trek The Next Generation

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More Awesome Characters recreated by Red Enchantress Cosplay

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Group and Collaborated Cosplays With Other Cosplayers

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Out Of Cosplay

Let me introduce you to what makes Erica Melisandre happy other than cosplay as I stole her bio from her personal Facebook page where she reveals that she’s an “artist, vegan, animal rights and environmental [activist], cosplayer, cat lover, and corgi butts [cutest doggo].

I’ve come to know these things, already, getting to know her and they are truly some fascinating passions she’s undertaken as who she defines herself as.  I don’t think I would be able to do these justice talking about them here so I asked her to sum up her “out of cosplay” life for us.  This is what she said,

“…Hmm.. well, you know the vegan, and animal lover part. I try to raise awareness about adopting dogs and cats from shelters, and donating to help the no kill shelters, and organizations that have fosters for animals.

I love being at Disney and Universal, theme parks are always so much fun. But I won’t go near big rollercoasters lol.

I paint and draw, love going to museums (art, history, science). I’m a big Jane Austen fan, and a broadway/theater musical fanatic. I love seeing shows and plays. I live for musicals… my favorite is Phantom of the Opera.

My dream is to open a Vegan bakery/cafe, where local artist can display their work, and open a shelter for animals. I would take in every kind of animal that needed help…”

Another cool part about Red is her love for dinosaurs.  If I ever wanted to find Red at a convention without contacting her first I only need to hang out for a little at any cool dinosaur display booth.  It all started as a kid for her as she would play with dinosaur toys and games with her brother all the time and as she got older learned a lot about them and was fascinated with the history and the current evidence of fossils.  She still collects toys, figurines and Jurassic park memorabilia today.  So it was no surprise when asking her about her favorite movies, Jurassic Park (specifically III) came up as one high on the list, along with The Mummy, Practical Magic, Phantom of the Opera and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.

Here’s a cute little gallery of Red’s Dinosaur obsession:

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I’d like to visit a little longer here on her vegan life as she’ll be the first to tell you it’s one of the most important parts about her that she’d want you to know.  I’ll tell you right now that I contribute her health and flawless skin to the diet, so if, I had to, I can be sold alone just on the health benefits.  She used to be just vegetarian, but after doing more research she  learned how factory farming treated the animals and then went full vegan to not be tied in any way to the meat and dairy industry.

Veganism has come a long way as the amount of different delicacies and options have grown exponentially and one can easily be fooled on what is a full vegan meal versus non.  Erica offered me a cupcake that was a vegan one replacing the milk chocolate and “egg in the batter” version we all know and I was amazed how delicious the vegan cupcake was.

So whenever she opens her dream Vegan Café–I’ll be the first in line for it’s grand opening!

Red Enchantress Cosplay Continues to Turn Heads and Flourish

I gotta say I’m really enjoying watching the growth of all the Cosplayers I’ve chosen to bless my website with as their talents and popularity rises.  Red has been on the cover of Mayhem Magazine, been featured in the Magic issue–fall of 2018 of Cosplay Realm Magazine with her Queenie Cosplay from Fantastic Beasts, shined so much I found her to be featured here on my Featured Cosplayers page, won a couple of group cosplay contests (Xena and GOT) and has a fast growing Facebook and Instagram model accounts.

Speaking of social media, I’ve used Red Enchantress Cosplay’s example of her pages and posts as a guide for how I have done things myself…in fact she has become my tech savvy guru whenever I have any questions how to do something on these platforms.  I guess it helps that she already knows her way around the digital world and computers really well as her job is a graphic artist/designer for an ad agency.  In a way her job helps her with cosplay a lot as she likes to edit her photos and also add her logo to many of them as a kind of watermark to inhibit image theft.

Ms. Enchantress has several more fantastic cosplays on her profile and has many more coming up soon, but I’m not going to reveal them here to take away from her thunder.  I will, however, tell you what her dream cosplay is that she’ll be making happen someday, and that is Christine Daaé from Phantom of the Opera, her favorite novel, musical and film.  OH, I can’t wait to see this!

The Pathway to a Cosplayer

I’m fascinated by Red’s history and how you can see what brought her to eventually becoming a terrific Cosplayer cause it all started with Star Trek.  And just so all of you know, all of this mania over cosplay and the Con culture began with Star Trek.  The early sacrifice of enduring ridicule and being laughed at for “dressing up” in ones favorite Starfleet officer uniform and meeting up with fellow Trekkies in a library or other small public venue is what started it all.

Little Erica at the age of eight was a regular viewer of the classic Star Trek reruns and when her mother saw that there was going to be a Star Trek Convention locally she did what any eager to please mom would do and took Red there.  The absolute fascination in this little girls eyes as she saw all the people dressed up and with the same passion she had was all it took to keep her in love with the fandom forever!

Halloween is her favorite holiday and the many years growing up trick-or-treating in either a Star Trek costume, Rainbow Brite, or the Pink Ranger taps into an early itch to be somebody else for a moment.  Add that to her wizarding skills as a seamstress and wig dresser with fashion design and voila–you have the making of a fun, talented Cosplay artist.

There is an infectious, delightful spark that happens when one does their first official cosplay at a Con and that first cosplay for Red was Kaylee from Firefly.  Then “off to the races” she went after having so much fun and meeting many like minded folks such as herself. 

The Cosplay Life

My favorite question to ask any cosplayer I get to know and love is a loaded one…”What has Cosplay meant to you and why do you love it…?”  I absolutely adore her answer:

…”Cosplay has been such a huge turning point in my life. I have met so many wonderful people and creative people and I’ve made so many friends from cosplay and conventions. I’ve learned a lot from others and it’s forced me to learn more every time. It’s a creative outlet for me and being able to become a character that you’ve loved since childhood is one of the greatest things in the world for me. The first time I made my original series Red Star Trek dress, I cried as soon as I put it on with the wig and the boots. I’ve loved that outfit since I was an eight-year-old girl watching reruns of Star Trek the Original Series. So the moment I finally got to wear one , I was as happy as I’ve ever been. Sometimes when I cosplay, I feel like I take on the characteristics of that character and it helps me become them when I cosplay. It’s also seeing the reactions of other people because you might be wearing a costume of a character that they’ve always loved and never see that often…”

I probably talk about this every time, but it’s true about the people we meet and get to know at conventions, fellow cosplayers and photographers that connect with the same love for the art and fandom culture.  As easy as a child can make friends there’s something about cosplay that keeps the inner child alive with the excitement behind it.  I’ve had so much fun getting to know Erica, learning new things from her with the art, writing this article, and had such a blast with our shared photoshoot below.  I’m immediately already thinking of some other possible collaborations we can do together.

I can go on and on about Red Enchantress Cosplay, but I’ll urge you, instead, to go follow her on her social media platforms and see the wonders of her talents and passions yourself.  

This is the part where I try and pick a favorite cosplay of the artist I’m featuring and it isn’t what you might think if you’ve had a sneak peek below.  As much as I love Star Trek and her Deanna Troi, I’m picking her Amy Pond, specifically her Kiss-o-gram version.  As terrific as it looks it also has a special meaning to me as I talked about earlier as it was our first encounter together.

Our Shared Photoshoot Together With Photographer T Kirk Photos