D23 Expo 2013 – Cosplay

laura%27s%20masthead%20copy2.jpg

The D23 Expo encourages guests to come in costume and one of the fun things to do is wander around and see all the people who dress up. There is a lot of creativity and artistry involved in those costume – you don’t see people dressed in costumes they bought at a costume shop!

D23 Expo 2013

By the way – thank you to everyone who allowed us to take their photo!

This year for the first time the D23 Expo held a costume contest: Heroes and Villains a la Mode. Guests were competing for one of five Edna Mode (The Incredibles’ costume designer) trophies. There were five categories: Best Craftsmanship, Best Re-creation, Original Design, Best Young Fan, and Best in Show.

D23 Expo 2013

On Friday morning contestants could sign up for the costume, and there was some pre-judging done, because only 40 entries made it to the final costume contest on Friday afternoon. (This was held in Stage 23, and there was PLENTY of room – lots of empty seats.) A number of people who didn’t make the final cut were in the audience…and there were some pretty incredible costumes that were left out!

D23 Expo 2013

D23 Expo 2013

D23 Expo 2013

The judges were Mona May, costumer designer for “Enchanted”, Jai Rodriguez, from “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”, and Devon Odessa, from “My So-Called Life”. The contestants came out from backstage where they posed behind this shadow screen, then came out and took a turn on the runway before going over to let the judges have a better look.

D23 Expo 2013

Mona May is a costumer designer, so she was especially interested in seeing the costumes up close. She asked lots of questions about the costumes and made some very complimentary remarks. One of the best moments was seeing the two people who came out dressed as Giselle and Prince Edward – costumes that Mona had originally designed. They didn’t know that Mona would be one of the judges, and she seemed impressed by their re-creation of her design. (They eventually won the Best Craftsmanship award.)

D23 Expo 2013

After all the contestants had come out the judges had to leave to deliberate, and that left the host with time to fill, and apparently no one had considered what to do with that. Some of the other costumed people came up on stage and that helped fill in some of the time.

D23 Expo 2013

When the judges came back all of the contestants came out and we got a final look at them. There were some really great costumes – I was very impressed by the Hat Box Ghost (and amazed that it didn’t win anything).

D23 Expo 2013

Lee has put together a video of the Costume Contest, below I have some additional still photos that Lee or I took.

I was surprised this didn’t win for Original Design:

D23 Expo 2013

And this one was really well-done:

D23 Expo 2013

Very clever:

D23 Expo 2013

Three generations in this group!

D23 Expo 2013

All of the winners:

D23 Expo 2013

Best Re-Creation (this was really gorgeous):

D23 Expo 2013

See elsewhere at the Expo:

D23 Expo 2013

D23 Expo 2013

D23 Expo 2013

D23 Expo 2013

D23 Expo 2013

Great use of a wheelchair!

D23 Expo 2013

They have a few kinks to work out of the costume contest, but I hope it will be back – it was fun to watch. Congratulations to all of the participants – there was really some incredible creativity and craftsmanship in all of the costumes.

Trending Now

Laura Gilbreath is a native of San Diego, CA. She has been making the trek up Interstate 5 to Disneyland since she was a small child and terrified of talking tikis and hitchhiking ghosts. She and her husband Lee enjoy trips to Disneyland and Walt Disney World, as well as sailings on the Disney Cruise Line.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

2 Replies to “D23 Expo 2013 – Cosplay”

  1. Thank you for the wonderful video of the whole contest! I was Snow White. I really appreciate this as I went to the convention by myself and it’s very helpful for me to see how I performed. 🙂