She-Ra cosplays that put the 'power' in Princesses of Power

Netflix’s She-Ra and The Princesses of Power have long left our screens for good after the fifth and final season in 2020. However, the admiration and love for the epic adventures of these strong and brave characters have not left our hearts nor our cos-plans. If you don’t know the show, you may be wondering why a “kids” animated television program is so popular amongst adults. In our opinion, it’s because the She-ra creators not only made a storyline focusing on powerful characters with flaws who wear sparkling outfits but because it’s set in a world where gender norms have no bounds.

In the She-Ra universe, gender isn’t constricted, heteronormativity doesn’t exist, and queer people are just as likely to marry each other as anyone else. Princesses rule together on an LGBTQ-inclusive planet where even villains don’t have problems using the correct pronouns. This is as things should be, minus an evil empire trying to take over the world.

Most of you know, the month of June is Pride Month, and we couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate some of the best animated LGBTQIA+ characters than through highlighting people who cosplay them. Several cosplayers continue to bring new ideas to these beloved characters, and we are so grateful to share their magic for the honor of Grayskull.

Marmgie

Marmgie truly sparkles as our favorite glitter princess, Glimmer! Her cosplay was made by her close friend Ariana, robo_wan. There are “3 layers” to wearing this cosplay: A purple romper, a piece that goes over that, and a cape that has to be attached after everything else is on. Because of Ariana, Marmgie has picked up sewing for her own cosplay endeavors.

The wig she wears here is a commission from xheeheex. Glimmer was one of the first cosplays Marmgie ever did. At the time, she considered herself a novice in the cosplay crafting world and decided to enlist help from people who inspired her, and by doing that, she knew she could do the job.

Her Glimmer cosplay was so well received by the cosplay community that she plans on making a Glimmer 2.0 version in the future. According to Marmgie, Glimmer is a character she holds very close to her heart. She didn’t relate to the character until season 1, episode 8 (Princess Prom), when her view of Glimmer changed and thus solidified her appreciation.

In that episode, Glimmer expresses insecurity which is much different from being just the epic and strong “superhero-type.” Those very human moments Glimmer has with her family, and herself are also something that Marmgie says she relates to. Here is a direct quote from the cosplayer, “maybe I project way too hard onto this character (Glimmer), and we aren’t as similar as I think we are, but I’d like to think that if she was a real person, we would be friends.”

_Amazing_David_

For not being an actual princess, _amazing_david_ as Bow looks mighty enough to be one! Though, there is speculation that Bow may have a runestone as his chest piece lights up during the season finale. So maybe he is a princess! _amazing_david_ made their cosplay like so many others he has done in the past. He pinned down the fabric at least five times before actually accepting it was as straight as the fabric could be for the shirt outlines. It’s such a clean-cut, so we approve of the many layers of tailoring.

The boots were originally all-white rubber rain boots before _amazing_david_ tapped the sides to spray paint a red line down the center and gold detailing on the tips of the shoe and at the base. At East Coast Comic Convention, _amazing_david_ received an honorable mention in the cosplay contest for this cosplay.

_Amazing_david_ is known for their cosplay vs. animation posts which have gained much adoration and praise from the She-Ra community. As quoted from an Instagram caption, he considers this cosplay “one of his favorites as it’s one of the only characters that matches his go-lucky personality and simultaneously shows off his midsection.”

Some other incredibly built cosplays _amazing_david_ has done include Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy, Prince Ali from Aladdin, and a gender-bent Buttercup AKA Butch from The Powerpuff Girls. When he isn’t cosplaying, this cosplayer illustrates some of the cutest art pieces we have ever seen! Check out their saved stories titled Marvel Halloween to see.

Cjmorarocks

Cjmorarocks cosplay as Entrapta is everything we needed in our lives and more! This brilliant cosplayer came up with a design for Entrapta’s hair that was not only functional but displays how the character has used it in the show. She built this cosplay entirely on her own and created pants that matched her hair’s fabric to create the illusion that she is sitting on her hair. It’s brilliant. We know we already said that, but we wanted to repeat it. Hand Sewing all that fabric is out of this world!

This cosplay debuted at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, where Cjmorarocks met one of the creators of She-Ra, Noelle Stevenson, and said in an Instagram Caption that meeting Noelle “totally made her entire trip to CC that year”! Aside from cosplay, Cjmorarocks is a model, voiceover actress, and production designer who enjoys gaming. According to her Facebook bio, Cjmorarocks calls herself an optimistic, hardworking, and genuine person who completely parallels Entrapta, in our opinion.

Kseniya_kanda_cosplay

Flower gleam and glow has Kseniya Kanda truly shining as Perfuma! She ultimately made her Perfuma costume by sewing the dress and cape from chiffon fabric, weaving a tiara and shoes from wire and artificial flowers, and adding that glorious accessory with glued flower hairpins. It was surprisingly her first time working with floral decorations within a cosplay, but she executed it like a professional. She came about cosplaying Perfuma because of a friend asking her to join a group project in cosplay She-Ra.

Kseniya Kanda saw the physical resemblances of herself in the character immediately, but she saw Perfuma as an atypical character for herself to cosplay. She typically gravitates towards strong fighting heroines, whereas Perfuma is more feminine and delicate. Plus, there was a lot of pink in her outfit, and Kseniya Kanda says she hates that color. But what’s life without testing the waters? After being convinced to do this cosplay, Kseniya Kanda found herself enjoying the perks of being a floral princess with such a strong connection with nature. She mentioned that she really hopes that she managed to convey Perfuma’s beauty, and we definitely think so.

Punkrat.cos

Brrrrr Punkrat.cos cosplaying as the ice princess Frosta couldn’t get any cooler. With two versions of Frosta under his belt, including the ball gown and her casual outfit, Punkrat.cos knows a thing or two about being ice cold or how to make his own patterns. His ball gown look includes a built-in corset top, a separate skirt, a cape, and a crown. A few details include icicle-like gems on the crown, an underskirt with hand-sewn pearl-like beads, and an overskirt with fur trim, as well as a cape with a large hook and eye closure in the front that’s hidden by more icicle-like gems.

As for his casual Frosta cosplay, Punkrat.cos utilized some of the fabric from the ball gown version. The thrifted khaki pants have fur leg warmers attached onto the bottoms made from the leftover fur from the ball gown. And the belt is made out of the remaining satin.

We asked Punkrat.cos why he relates to the character Frosta and what the character means to him, this was his response: “As a Trans man, I don’t often cosplay girl characters, but I really connected to Frosta as I watched the show. Frosta’s just a kid with a lot of pressure on her shoulders, being the princess of her kingdom. But beyond that, she’s nerdy, stubborn, wants to fit in, and wants to be strong. She reminds me of who I was as a kid. I was very nerdy, having a deep love for RPG games or anything fantasy, and I was very stubborn, with a bad habit of rambling. On a deeper note, I always wanted to fit in as a kid. My father is from Laos, making me half Lao. I grew up being one of the few Asian kids in the area other than my own family. Fitting in is hard for a lot of mixed kids, and it was something I struggled with a lot when I was younger.”

Feelsbender

We all wanted to be mermaids growing up, but Feelsbender as Mermista really did it, and we may be super jealous of how incredible she looks, but that’s what Mermista would want. Feelsbender, aka Sarah, made the entire cosplay from scratch. She drafted both the top and leggings with three different iterations of the leggings before she was finally satisfied with the color blocking of the two different blues. Her Mermista, in total, consists of five different shades of blue, three of which are on the shoes.

Speaking of the shoes, they are a pair of hidden wedge sneaker high-top shoes that Sarah says she’s ridiculously proud of. Her armor pieces are a shatter holo gold spandex since Sarah couldn’t find a scale foil fabric she was personally happy with. We think the gold she picked makes the cosplay truly pop!

When Sarah watched She-Ra and Mermista was introduced, she instantly fell for the character. Sarah told us more about why Mermista is her favorite, and she said, “She’s not only brown, but she’s also powerful, independent, and sassy fun too. She makes me feel confident when I wear Mermista. And she makes me feel seen, as I see a lot of myself in her, especially because she’s brown like me. Representation is important, friends. Plus, my fiancé also latched onto Sea Hawk, so it gave us a very wonderful opportunity to cosplay a canon couple who also share similar personality traits that we have. Also, fun fact, Mermista’s birthday is the day before mine, so I think it’s fate, haha” We think it’s fate too!

Alexdrastal

Alex Drastal may not be a princess of power, but he’s got the ability to break into song at any moment because he is the actual real-life Sea Hawk, and you can’t tell us otherwise. Alex knows a thing or two about thrifting and doing cosplay on a budget. For this particular cosplay, he thrifted his boots and sewed extra material to give them a thigh-high look and foam to create the fold-over cuff.

The coat is an old Beauty and the Beast jacket he repurposed for this costume by crafting gold bits of foam covered in stretch fabric as detail. The bracers are also foam-covered in stretch suede (adhesive used is contact cement). Eyelids were then added so they could be laced up. The belt was cut and riveted together from old leather belts from thrift stores.

Alex made the gold buckle out of more foam, sealed with a quick seal, painted with gold acrylic, and then given a black wash for depth. His shirt was made from a stretch-type material with the opening on the chest reinforced by using fabric tape on his chest, so it didn’t move. At the time, the mustache and hair were his own, and the pants were women’s yoga pants.

Being as boisterous as Sea Hawk is a tough job, but Alex said, “When I watched the show, and Sea Hawk came on, I instantly said I need to cosplay this man!! He’s fun, silly, and outgoing, very much like myself. And he sings!! Probably my favorite memory of this cosplay was wearing him to AOA and running around the con yelling ADVENTURE!! To everyone (especially other She-Ra cosplayers) and of course, I learned and memorized his sea shanty and sang it on many occasions at the con. I love cosplaying characters I can have fun with and be silly and interact with others because, in my mind, that’s what cosplay is about.”

Recklingturtle

Recklingturtle is making dreams come true with how gorgeous her cosplay of Spinerella is! We’d love to see her in the live-action film if there ever is one. She’s got the acting chops for it too, just check out her Tiktok!

This cosplay was completely handmade. Starting off with the appliques made by using 4-way stretch fabric and stitching the pink swirls on individually, the same was done for her shoe covers. Recklingturtle didn’t want the pink swirls at the top to just lay flat, so she used some 2mm craft foam on the inside of her applique to give it structure and have something for the cape to hold on to as well.

Speaking of the cape, it’s made from chiffon fabric and clips onto the pink swirls with ease. Her shoulder pieces are attached with velcro in a couple of areas, so she still has movement. Recklingturtle’s wig has been styled about five different ways to get it how it looks now, which is currently her favorite version. She took inspiration from Belle’s hair from the animated Beauty and the Beast.

When asked about Recklingturtle’s reason for cosplaying as Spinerella, she told us that “This cosplay has really helped me with my self-confidence. As a plus-size cosplayer, I used to feel insecure about what costumes I felt like I could wear. But as I made Spinnerella’s costume, the more comfortable I felt like myself. It’s incredibly validating to dress as someone who shares my body type in canon. And the amount of support I’ve gotten and the friends I’ve made from being here have been amazing. I feel incredibly blessed by all of it”. Recklingturtle is also part of a She-ra cosplay group, thanks to her dear friend courtneylouisecosplays.

Erelecosplay

A net from Erlecosplay as Netossa is a net we’d surely be happy to be caught in. For her cosplay of Netossa, Erelecosplay made a wig for the first time. A huge task to accomplish, and she did it so well. After cosplaying Netossa, she plans on eventually making a Mermista and joining a She-Ra group for conventions. On Erelecosplay’s Tik Tok, several of her videos have gone viral for her Netossa cosplays and her duets with Spinnerella cosplayer, Recklingturtle.

One of her most viral videos is when she replicated the scene from season 5, episode 13, where Netossa pulls out a book illustrating Spinnerella’s weakness. Erelecosplay printed out those pages for her Tik Tok, and can we say that was canon content. When out of costume, Erelecosplay takes to drawing and becoming a real-life mermaid.

Her art Instagram, ereleillustrations, is full of fantastic fan art, pop culture, and original character drawings. And her Mermaid Instagram account, erelemermaid, is packed with stunning images of the cosplayer as a beautiful mermaid and plenty of references to where she purchases her mermaid accessories from.

Czestterfield

It’s everyone's favorite huggable scorpion, Czestterfield as Scorpia! Czestterfield told us her main goal in creating this cosplay was to make her upper body bigger to match Scorpia’s physique. This meant constructing a muscle suit. She designed a full bodysuit centered on a long sleeve base with cushions made from upholstery foam in the arms.

The costume itself consists of three pieces: body, leggings with boots, and the corset. For the corset, she wanted to give it more dimension than a regular corset, so she sewed some foam to the lining. The armor/carapace is made from Eva foam (except for the pincers) and covered in worbla to keep it durable.

A new obstacle for Czestterfield was using magnets to attach her pincers to the rest of the suit. This was necessary to take them on and off to clean her suit after cons and photoshoots. Plus, it gives options to wear certain parts or to take them off during a con and still look good.

Czestterfield revealed to us why she made this cosplay and why she was drawn to Scorpia in the first place by saying that, “this costume was more for fun and to test myself to see if I can do these types of characters, so it was more for aesthetic purposes. As for the more ‘psychological’ aspect, the cosplay didn’t really change anything in me- I’m over 30, and I’m very comfortable with who I am and my goals, so subjects in the new She-Ra are something natural and totally normal to me. But what made me really happy, were the amount of kids and teenagers who wrote to me, left me comments about how perfect I look, and absolutely can’t wait to meet me at some conventions and give me a hug- because we all know, Scorpia gives the best hugs in the whole universe”.

Sanet.cosplay

If it isn’t Catra Applesauce Meowmeow or, better yet, cosplayer Sanet.cosplay looking marvelous as our loving anti-hero, anti-villain, straight-up-villain cat. Sanet.cosplay typically purchases her costumes from Amazon, AliExpress, eBay, or actual cosplay stores like Uwowo cosplay.

She has completely made some of the costumes from scratch: her cosplays of Katarina from League of Legends, Miruko from My Hero Academia, Korra from Legend of Korra, and Fire Nation Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender. With cosplays she purchases, Sanet.cosplay always likes to add a bit of her own flair, whether that means adding lace/gold trim or weathering the clothes to make it look more interesting or battle-damaged like her Attack on Titan jacket. She prides herself on makeup transformations and prop crafting.

We asked Sanet.cosplay why she is attracted to cosplaying Catra’s characters, and she responded saying, “Cosplaying as Catra means a lot to me since I relate to her a lot. We actually share really similar personalities, and I enjoy cosplaying her more than most of my other characters. She is also one of those rare characters that I feel really confident in, and with how supportive the She-Ra fandom is, I always get excited to cosplay her”. Aside from the accurate animated portrayal of the cosplay that Sanet.cosplay does, she also likes to create alternate universe cosplays of her Catra with friend and cosplayer Phia.cos.

Phia.cos

For the Honor of Grayskull, this is one badass She-Ra cosplay! Phia.cos handmade her cosplay by altering a corset and creating a dazzling crown. It’s the most requested piece people ask her about, and she told us the details on how to make her glorious crown. She purchased a few laser-cut gold metal masks off of eBay for the base and proceeded to cut them up. Phia.cos then threaded a thin gold wire to connect them into a structure that would sit well on her head. With the addition of some real feathers and a red gem, Phia.cos calls it a day. She said it was a reasonably easy crown to make and only took her an afternoon to build.

Because of her generosity in the community, she has shared her construction technique of the crown with many of her mutuals and followers. Those people have now created their own version of this She-Ra headpiece. With dozens of metal mask designs to choose from, Phia.cos noted to us that no two She-ra crowns are the same using this technique, so you will create your own unique variant!

According to Phia.cos, “cosplaying as She-Ra is the closest I’ve come to just being myself in a fancy crown. For many people, including me, it’s easy to relate to Adora and her story arc. Cosplaying as her means that I get to highlight the parts of her personality that shine through mine, and it feels as though I have gone on her emotional journey of growth with her. The final stage in her story is acceptance of who she is, and it’s a wonderful feeling to be right there in step with a character who has gone through so many struggles and still managed to triumph in the end through self-love and acceptance. I think a lot of She-Ra cosplayers can relate to that”. We hope to see more She-Ra magic from Phia.cos and her team up with Sanet.cosplay in the future.

She-ra is streaming on Netflix.