Utahn creates winning costume, competes in world competition

Utahn creates winning costume, competes in world competition

(Melissa Schurig)


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PROVO — A Provo woman traveled to Japan Thursday to compete in the World Cosplay Summit.

Melissa Schurig began designing and creating costumes when she was in high school theater, according to publicist Hayley Bird. Schurig began making costumes when her theater group was left without a designer, and after making several, she began entering her work into national competitions.

“It’s marrying the two things I like: being on stage and making costumes,” Schurig said in a news release. “And when you put them together into a presentation, it’s a lot of fun."

Schurig competed in the 10th annual World Cosplay Summit at the Anime Central Convention on May 16-18 in Rosemont, Illinois. The event requires contestants to create a costume based on a character from Japanese anime, manga or a video game. Schurig and her competition partner, Shannon Deonier, won first place and are now competing in Nagoya, Japan, against teams from 26 countries.

“Contestants from each country are picked based on performance and craftsmanship,” Schurig said in a news release. “At the same time, contestants are also representing their countries and being ambassadors to this event.”

Schurig’s costume for the competition was based on a character called Mana from a Japanese anime television series called “Guilty Crown.” The costume consists of 20,000 rhinestones, 15 yards of silk and a crown with horns. Schurig had to learn how to hand-dye as well as how to use rhinestones for the first time as she made her costume, Bird said. She had to hand-dye the fabric a gradient pink to black pattern.

“Whenever I pick a new costume, I always try to learn something new,” Schurig said. “I think once there isn’t something to learn it would be boring because there’s just no challenge anymore. And in costuming I don’t see that happening. There’s always going to be something that I don’t know.”

Bird said Schurig currently works at Taylor Maid, a costume and makeup store, where she designs, creates and repairs the rental costumes.

The World Cosplay Summit runs from July 24 through Aug. 6.

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