Colette Tatou at Ratatouille: The Adventure in Disneyland Paris

I am pretty sure there is a character from every Pixar movie that I want to cosplay. I just really love Pixar. One character on my cosplay to-do list, that had been on there for a while, was Colette Tatou from Ratatouille. Well, I finally found the perfect time to make it.

Disneyland Paris had a Mickey's Halloween Party on Halloween, and I didn't have school that weekend. It was also perfect because they had just opened a Ratatouille area. Time for Colette to visit Gusteau's

Also, thanks to school, I already had quite a few elements to the costume.
Chef shoes: check.
Chef trousers: check.
French chef impression: check. (How else are we suppose to entertain ourselves during our breaks?)

I know for Halloween you are suppose to dress up as something you aren't. Well I'm not a badass French chef, I'm a pastry student. That is different enough for me!

The wig was tricky to find as Colette has a weird purple, red, wine, plum, black hair colour and no bangs. Finally, I found a long haired wig on Amazon, then used a lamp and my head to try and cut it. Not perfect, but it did the trick for the time being.

Had I access to a sewing machine, I would have made the jacket and apron, but I didn't so I ordered those from Amazon as well. The apron was perfect. The jacket came with short sleeves. I ordered a long-sleeved one. I kept that for later use, and went to my local kitchen store and bought a long-sleeve white chef's jacket. I had a discount there for being a culinary school student so it wasn't hefty on the wallet.

This jacket, though, was too big. With tricky maneuvering, I managed to pin it so I could take the back and shoulders in. I sewed those before shortening the hem.

I was now ready to go!





My friend, Kira, borrowed my Wendy Darling costume, and before we knew it, we were at Disneyland Paris.










The Ratatouille area was small and in the back of the Walt Disney Studio Park. Disneyland Paris has two parks. Disneyland, which is very much like the Anaheim Disneyland, and The Walk Disney Studios, which was like Disney California Adventure only more focused on movie making.




The Ratatouille area has the Ratatouille: The Adventure ride and the restaurant Chez Remy, along with a fountain and archway. Also, the giant Gusteau's sign. This is where I posed for my photos.







Kira became my photographer, with our high-tech iPhone cameras. The photos aren't perfect, but the experience was. People were actually calling me Colette, then smiling and being happy at seeing me. Especially the cast members working the Ratatouille ride.

I mean, ultimately, isn't that what cosplay is all about? To bring smiles to people by bringing these characters to life? I think if you can do that, then all your time and effort is completely worth it.


-Charlotte

 

 

 

Molly Hooper at St. Bart's Hospital

The Museum of London recently opened a Sherlock Holmes exhibit and with that came an abundance of new Sherlock related experiences. On October 25th, my friend was visiting from France and that was also the first day of the museum's Sherlock Holmes Walking Tour. I signed us up and saw this as the perfect opportunity to take my first photo for this blog.

Starting at the Sherlock Holmes statue outside the Baker Street tube station, we were lead by a museum guide around the area to important locations to the man who never lived and would never die. It was a great tour and my friend and I both enjoyed it a lot as it gave us more information than we previously knew. The tour concluded at the famed corner of St. Bart's hospital well known to fans of the modern BBC Sherlock television series.


It was here, once the tour concluded, that I threw on my Molly Hooper lab coat, with the her badge, over the ruffled plaid shirt I made and dress trousers. This was my Halloween costume from 2013 that I made in half a day. It is Molly Hooper's outfit from when you first see her in Sherlock from the episode 'A Study in Pink'.





As we found out on the tour, many of the others in our group were fans of the modern Sherlock series, so several were amused by my quick swap of coats and watched between taking their own photos of the building, as I walked over to the nearest sign that said 'St Bartholomew's Hospital' and my friend took pictures.


I then quickly re-swapped coats and we wandered off to the museum. On many occasions I had been mistaken for a real doctor while wearing the coat, and this close to a hospital I didn't want to risk this mishap.


For a first time trying this, I think it went very well. I didn't want to try more considering it was a hospital.



-Charlotte

 

I'm Going On An Adventure

T.A.R.D.I.S. Jacket and a T.A.R.D.I.S.

The idea of visiting somewhere and wearing an outfit specific to that location isn't a completely new idea. For example, when visiting a Disney park, guests often wear Disney related shirts. The Fashion Exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum offers somewhat of an explanation for this. Over the years, t-shirts have evolved from mere undershirts to what we know them today as forms of advertisement. People wear shirts displaying things they like, and thus promoting it to the world. So if you go to a Disney park and wear a Disney related shirt, you are promoting that you like Disney, and it brings you even more into the experience.




Lately, just as the t-shirt has evolved over time, so has the wearing of Disney related shirts at Disney parks. The current trend is something called Disney Bound. This is where you wear an outfit that resembles what a Disney character wears- almost like a costume, but not quite. This form of dressing when visiting a park, further brings the guest into the environment and can even enhance the experience.

What I'm doing here is a bit more extreme than just dressing like a character. What I am proposing, is wearing the full costume of a character in the environment that they come from. I hope to travel to as many locations as possible and take pictures while wearing my costumes. I will then come back here and post the photos while writing about my experiences.

How many locations I will visit? I don't know, but I'm going to try to go to as many as possible.

Marko's jacket from Lost Boys at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk

I've always found wearing something reminiscent of a character to a location that they come from to be quite fun, not just for me but for people around me as well. So I've already explored this idea, but now to delve further into it and see what happens.










I hope you find this as interesting as I find it. And all I have left to say, until my first official post, is...


Adventure is out there!

Hogwart's shirt and Slytherin jacket on the Hogwart's steps.