Vegan Tomb Raider Cosplay

6:27 pm HelenLJohnson 1 Comments

(LauraElizaCosplay Facebook)

(Very excited to share Tangled Wires first guest blog post by the excellent cosplayer - Laura Eliza. As veganism is becoming more popular as a lifestyle choice, it is interesting to see how vegan cosplayers, such as Laura, are able to recreate accurate costumes without using animal products. Disclaimer - Views in this blogpost are not necessarily the views of myself)

I’ve been cosplaying since late 2012 and I’ve been a vegan since 2014. Before that, I was a vegetarian for four years and didn’t use animal hides back then, either, so I’ve been animal-free products the whole time I’ve been a cosplayer. I don’t use leather, fur, feathers, suede, wool or silk – any product that comes from an animal living or dead. How, then, do I manage to cosplay the likes of Lara Croft?

There are plenty of alternatives available which are guilt-free and far cheaper to use for your crafts. For my weapon holsters, I use a combination of high quality textured vinyl, faux leather and foam, sewing with extra strength polyester thread. Clothing is usually fairly straightforward as vests are often cotton, polyester and elastane, all animal-free. Coats can be difficult to source – in Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015) Lara wears a red padded jacket at the start of the game and it took me a long time to source one that wasn’t feather filled. Boots can also be challenging to find – in the 2013 and 2015 rebooted games Lara wears ‘Timberland Charles St’ boots, which are real leather. They are a discontinued line and Timberland don’t do a synthetic alternative, so I had to find some synthetic leather boots which looked similar in style and add the top four speed lace hooks, darker laces and heel buckles myself. When looking for items try lots of different keywords – e.g. ‘brown combat boot, brown army boot, brown buckle boot, brown lace boot’.

Rise Holster Construction (LauraElizaCosplay Facebook)

I have been asked a couple of times when wearing my Lara cosplays about the ‘leather’ components, with people being very surprised that they are synthetic as they look so convincing. Some faux leather can look cheap and plastic-like but the vinyl I use is textured and grooved with an irregular pattern which looks like genuine animal hide, at a fraction of the monetary and environmental cost! It doesn’t smell and it’s easy to work with – I have a small sewing machine built for lightweight fabrics and I’m able to work with the vinyl and faux leather on this machine.

If you’d like more tips and tricks, or you’d like to know a bit more about my vegan lifestyle, please follow me on social media provided below. I also have an Etsy shop, ‘Earthcraft Emporium’, where I sell my handmade vegan friendly costume pieces, accessories and jewellery.

- Laura Eliza Cosplay

Tumblr, Facebook, Etsy, Twitter, Instagram