Cosplay Feature: The Geekettes

A small geek girl gamer group (try saying that five times fast!), The Geekettes are more than just a YouTube channel where they rant and rave about comics, games and television shows. They are talented cosplayers who design and make most of their costumes and attend conventions and charity events alike. We had the chance to chat with them about cosplaying, upcoming events and some of their favorite games.

Tell us a little about yourselves.

The Geekettes are a cosplay-gamer group that was founded in July of 2013 by 3 friends that found themselves finally in the same town and wanting to get back into cosplay. Their first convention together was Fan Expo in Toronto, August 2013.They often cosplay in groups, most commonly (so far) the Gotham City Sirens with Manda Cowled as Harley Quinn, Ashe Rogue as Poison Ivy and Ray Retro as Catwoman, though they cosplay as many other characters as well and keep expanding their wardrobes. The Geekettes also have their own Youtube channel where they are awkwardly adorkable talking about their lives, cosplays and other geeky things.

Ashe Rogue – I’ve always been immersed in gaming and sci-fi and they have definitely moulded who I am today.

Manda Cowled – I am very new to cosplay, Ashe and Ray have been cosplaying for a while and finally got me into it. I had attempted to cosplay when I was 16 back in 2006 and as my chobits ears fell apart on the way, my Harley costume wasn’t ready in time and I generally had NO clue what I was doing, I stopped, went through highschool and college wishing I could be Harley Quinn or Power Girl and becoming more and more obsessed with comic books.

Finally in 2013 I moved to Toronto for work, lived with Ashe Rogue for a while and the girls talked me into trying again. So at Fan Expo I had four costumes that didn’t fall apart and had the best time of my life… and thus became hooked!

My cosplaying career started with Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony, Batgirl from Batman New 52 #0, Steampunk Harley Quinn by NoFlutter and Captain Hammer from Dr. Horrible. I have done a few more costumes since for 2013 and am working on approximately 9 for 2014 including more Harley Quinn and Pixie from Young X-men.

What first inspired you to start The Geekettes?

Ashe – We have been talking for ages about wanting to create a cosplay group, and this year I sat down with them and made them make this group with me.

Manda – Ashe Rogue is honestly the reason we started, she’s always really wanted to, and after watching many other cosplayers succeed she asked Ray and I to make it happen. I would give her all the credit for starting this, and am very thankful for it.

I started cosplaying because I always loved Halloween, not for the candy or trick or treating, but for the costumes, the ability to be someone else just for a night, I had no idea it was a hobby I could get into, and thanks to my friends I did and I am loving it.

How long have you been cosplaying individually?

Ashe – I’ve been cosplaying since 2006.

Manda – I failed on an epic scale in 2006 and finally got back into cosplay August 2013 at Fan Expo Toronto.

You guys primarily cosplay characters from DC Comics so far, do you think you’ll do some Marvel characters in the future? If so, which characters?

Ashe – I have some gaming characters, Marvel, some other comic book characters, anime and movie/television show based characters that I have planned for this and next year! I’m incredibly excited.

Manda – That is my fault, I am a HUGE Batman fan and have many DC characters I want to cosplay and may have convinced the girls as well. We are definitely cosplaying Marvel characters in the coming years, I am hoping to do Pixie from Young X-men and maybe Thor from Avengers. But we won’t only be doing comic books, Ashe is a big Gamer and her and Ray are really into manga and anime so I’m sure we will be expanding out our groups and individual costumes.

 

Your costumes are usually your own spin on the character, what made you decide to do that as opposed to donning the traditional costumes of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy?

Ashe – We have done the classic animated series costumes before, and we completely fell in love with NoFlutter’s steampunk version of the characters. But of course we are planning on doing the animated series costumes again.

Manda – We will eventually be doing different versions of these characters but the No Flutter design really caught us this year and so we decided to go for it. I also did Animated Series Harley and Batgirl from New 52 but the entire group has always loved No Flutter and we thought it would be a great first group cosplay, and be very memorable.

Do you make all of your costumes by hand?

Ashe – I make mine, with the help of my lovely seamstress of a mother. She’s a bucket of knowledge and is always very helpful.

Manda – No, not at all, Ashe helps me a ton! She is going to be teaching me, I had sewn Stempunk Harley this year, but I get a lot of help from Ashton and buy many of the pieces. Joker had no sewing needed and Eevee was put together completely with safety pins because I have no idea what I am doing yet.

Do you have any cosplays in the works you can tell us about?

Ashe – I post hints all the time. But they are hush hush.

Manda – I have ordered a Pink wig and some Faerie ears for Pixie and I am hoping to get my Power Girl complete soon….oh and google Bombshell Harley Quinn. All the rest are still hopes and dreams and I will be announcing as pieces come in or are completed.

Manda – so far you have excellently portrayed some of Batman’s biggest foes; are there any heroes in your future or do you tend to prefer cosplaying villains?

Batman has some of the BEST villains, I personally love Joker and Harley and have had a lot of fun cosplaying them, but I do hope to get a cowl complete and to redo Batgirl as well as my favourite super hero Power Girl! Though from Marvel I like many more Heroes than villains so I will probably be equaling out by evil over there.

Ashe – Your Super-Santa Baby cosplay spent some well-deserved time at the number one spot on r/CosplayGirls, congrats! How long did it take for you to make the costume and what inspired the Santa Baby idea?

Thanks! It was pretty shocking. My friend showed me that one. It took me about 2 days to make and sew the fur trim. The first skirt I made was little bit too short. I’m always sketching out alternative costume ideas, and that was one of them!

As cosplayers, what did you think of the show “Heroes of Cosplay” and how they portrayed cosplayers?

Ashe – Honestly, I watched the first episode and was completely turned off. I wasn’t entirely pleased with the angle they were giving us.

Manda – I actually don’t have cable and don’t watch reality TV so I never did watch the show, but as it was reality TV and they need to script and cause drama to make it interesting I am sure it was terrible. I loved seeing the costumes pop up online and adore Yaya Han so I will say nothing else about the show for now.

You guys are gamers too; what have been some of your favorite games this year?

Ashe – Oh my, tough question! Injustice was a blast, fighting games are always fun when you have get togethers. I’m enjoying AC4 so far, Tomb Raider, and Pokemon of course! I really got into League of Legends this year as well.

Manda – Pokemon was at the top of my list as it is the first time I was able to beat the Elite Four with a fully Eeveelution team and I am SUPER excited about that as she is my fav pokemon! Also Fenniken is my new favourite starter along side Charmander now. I also got Kingdom Hearts on the 3DS for Xmas and am loving it so far! Other than that I am a fighter person so Marvel vs. Capcom and Injustice keep up most of my time and I avoided Batman Origins after I found out Paul Dini and Kevin Conroy were no longer part of it.

Which games, regardless of release date, do you always find yourself going back and replaying?

Ashe – Kingdom hearts, all of them. Hands down. I’m so incredibly excited for the new one.

Manda – Alice Madness Returns and Lollipop Chainsaw keep me entertained…oh and I LOVE my Sonic 2 and Street Fighter II on my Sega, I will play them any day!

What are we going to see more of on your YouTube channel in the coming months?

 

Ashe – We have some solo segments planned.

Manda – Hopefully some cosplay progress of our many costumes for 2014, our solo segments should be launching soon… but with Ashe not living in Toronto at the moment we are having some problems making weekly deadlines.

Do you have any conventions you’ll be attending in 2014?

Manda – So many! Fan Expo for one, we are returning with a new and awesome Sirens group, Niagra Falls so I can meet Jason David Frank on my birthday and really, really trying to get tickets for SDCC, but we will see what happens.

You can find The Geekettes as a group at the following links:

YouTube
Facebook
Tumblr
Official Site
Store

Ashe Rogue can be found at the following links:

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Store

Manda Cowled can be found at the following links:

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Store