Today we’d like to introduce you to Cassian Crouch.
Hi Cassian, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started cosplaying when I was about 10-11 years old back in 2013. It started out with a dress that my mom and I spray painted and lots of really bad grey face paint from the dollar store as I wanted to be a Weeping Angel from “Doctor Who” for Halloween. I didn’t realize it was something you could do, dress up outside of Halloween, for a good time. Until my first Fanboy Expo. I begged to dress up as something, and so, despite having never seen Star Wars, we found a white sheet and some safety pins the morning of and dressed me up as Princess Leia. The love of dressing up only spiraled. I asked for wigs for Christmas. Pieces of costumes for my Birthday. I spent hours watching Youtube and seeing people also do this thing that I loved. I knew it was something I wanted to continue. I dreamed of making my own costumes, and longing to even compete in the cosplay contests I heard so much about. I sewed patches onto thrifted items and taught myself how to cross-stitch and how to craft, very minimally albeit. Most of my time being spent watching people construct these incredible garments and apply this stunning makeup. It was a hobby, one that I love deeply, but nothing more than that at first. I never thought I could continue it as a got older, I still did it through high school but I had toned it down ‘grown out of it’ for a few years.
Yet, not long after my 20th birthday I think it finally occurred to me that I had adult money, and that love of cosplay came back with a vengeance. I went to my first renaissance fair and began to work on my first cosplay back into the scene. Technoblade, a minecraft youtuber, had just passed away. In my attempt to honor his legacy, I made him an outfit. I sat there in my apartment relearning skills I had taught myself years ago. Hand sewing a belt and crafting amor made out of a lightweight foam. I hadn’t worked with my hands on a project in a while so getting to do that again, was intoxicating almost.
From there it only pushed me to do more. The age old dream of competing in cosplay contests was back in my life. For the first time since I was probably 12-13 years old it seemed that dream was in reach. I made my first cosplay to compete and fell in love with making hats. I competed at Connooga back in 2023 and won Judge’s choice. It was a character named Taako Taaco from the Adventure Zone, and his hat was 3ft wide and 2.5 ft tall. I felt genuinely happy and proud so I continued to make cosplays. Hours spent fussing over seams and learning more and more about making things. I pushed myself.
I continued to compete and learn. I fell in love with millinery and spent as long as I could learning how to make hats both in this new age of cosplay and how they traditionally would have. I put myself out there and asked about events. I hosted my own lip-sync contest in September 2023 at South Press. I guested at my first convention back in 2024 at Chattanooga Comic Con. I began taking hat commissions. All of it culminating to my next big cosplay contest build. So after Yamacon 2024, and over 230 hours worth of work, I won my first placement award. I won 1st place Journeyman.
Now, I’m working on my next cosplays. I’m making art and selling prints and hats at local markets when I can. Pushing myself for that next project that I can foster my creativity. The next thing that I can make myself proud of when competing in.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No, there were a lot of personal struggles. I battle with anxiety and depression and being in a post-covid world it was difficult. I often would push myself too hard for the finished project. I would tell myself that if I just worked a little harder it would be worth it. Even going so far as to not take care of myself because I distracted myself with sewing and working on cosplays to ignore my personal struggles. It was something to keep me from sitting in my bed and doing nothing. If I was out of bed at all at least I could do something with my hands. It almost brought out this sort of perfectionism in me. If it wasn’t perfect I didn’t want to wear it. I had to learn that it was okay to not finish everything all the time, that a janky seam would still be wearable. A single visible stitch amongst a giant hand sewn hat would be okay.
It’s okay for it to be imperfect because what I was loosing sight of was that the first step of cosplay is to have fun with it. If you’re not having fun with cosplay, if you’re chasing that social media high, that awarded joy, it isn’t worth the detriment.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I specialize in millinery, which is hat making. I’m known for making hats completely from scratch. Most of them being completely hand sewn. I’ve gained a lot of opportunities for my work on Taako. his hat was easily over 35 hours worth of work. All hand sewn and is just a massive piece of art I keep on my wall due to it’s size(3ft wide and 2.5 ft tall). I do custom commissions so I’ve made full witch hats to sun hats. One of the pieces I had the opportunity to make was for a dancer. She asked for a top hat for Lucifer from Hazbin Hotel. I had previously made my own version of the hat and she enjoyed it. Since then my hat has traveled to Finland and Panama and will also be attending Dragon Con where she will be performing.
At conventions I see a lot of unstructured hats, we see a lot of crochet hats or beanies and not a lot of the different unique types of head wear: Robin Hood hats, witch hats, jester hats, etc. We also see, unfortunately, a lot of drop shippers, who will order a bunch of the wire brimmed fabric witch hats and mark up the prices. Not a lot of the handmade things like my hats. I always aim to make everything I do unique. I mix traditional techniques with modern or unconventional ones. I decorate them all different.
The hat I’m most proud of is actually the hat I use for my Vex’ahlia cosplay. It’s a really simple hat. It’s just a witch hat. But I made it really clean and it perfect fits my head. It’s a very diverse use sort of hat that I can wear for a lot more than just the cosplay I originally made. Though, also, my Lucifer hat from Hazbin hotel has over 800 rhinestones on it.
Cosplay wise, the piece I’m most proud of is my Labrador cosplay from 07-ghost. The cape itself has over 16k glass beads and weights about 3lbs. The entire cosplay is nothing but a passion project of a childhood anime I fell in love with and years later finally am able to cosplay from it.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
The industry as a whole is growing. We see the rise of people across several different platforms, albeit not exactly from the crafting side. Buying cosplays is a whole niche market now so cosplaying between those websites and Amazon has elevated the industry and overall made it more accessible than ever. I hope to see the rise of more diverse advertising(more plus sizes available, models of varying ethnicities, etc) as well as options for buying used. It’s grown a long way since the days of the Syfy show “Heroes of Cosplay” featuring Yaya Han. The industry as a whole is a fast-fashion paradise as it stands. People buy cosplays to be trendy, to keep in with all the upcoming shows. These companies that sell them are then pressured into releasing cosplays in quick turn around time to the release of the media they come from.
I hope cosplay will bring back dying arts and help foster the desire to learn these crafting techniques and how we can apply them and continue to use them so that way they won’t die out. I don’t think we will unfortunately be able to have making cosplays be a trend with how much time and funds that sort of thing takes, so instead I hope that people will commission small artists: wig makers, sewists, prop makers, etc.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/castriancosplays
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/castrian_cosplays/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/castrianamorearts
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Castrian_Cosplays
