My love for Star Wars started in 2011, when my parents and I watched the first six Star Wars films. This was the earliest Star Wars memory I can recall. My dad did own a few vintage Star Wars toys, such as the Star Wars micro machines and even a few Star Tours merch from the 90s. It wasn’t until 2015 however, when my love for Star Wars grew even more.
In 2014, when Disney bought Lucasfilm, Disney announced that they will be making a continuation of the Skywalker Saga, which consisted of episodes 7, 8, and 9. When the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens dropped I knew my new favorite character would be Rey. It was very exciting at the time to see a new female, lead protagonist in the Star Wars franchise other than Leia, Padme, or Ahsoka.
Then came 2015 when The Force Awakens finally came out in the theaters. I didn’t see the movie until my birthday (which was December 28th), so I had to wait a little bit longer to see the movie. When I finally saw the movie that day I loved the character of Rey even more. Why? Because later on in the movie we find out that Rey is force sensitive, and was able to wield Anakins lightsaber. That was what made me love Rey even more.
It wasn’t until a year later in 2016 that I finally started to cosplay. Rey was actually my first real cosplay I’ve done. The reason why I finally wanted to cosplay Rey was because I was planning on going to Fan Expo Boston (then called Boston Comic Con) with my dad and brother.
That same year I noticed a Star Wars table at that con. The Star Wars table had fans that would dress up in screen accurate Star Wars costumes that looked like they came right out of the movie. These groups of people were a part of Star Wars costuming organizations recognized by Lucasfilm. One of the groups is known as The Rebel Legion. They would do events like Fan Expo Boston, Star Wars Night at Fenway Park in Boston, and even go to hospitals to visit sick children. I knew then that I would have to join the club one day, for the charity aspects. Of course I was too young at the time to even start working on a screen accurate Star Wars costume, so that had to wait a few years.
Then comes late 2018-early 2019, where I would finally start progress on my first Rebel Legion costume, Battle Rey from Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi!
It took me about a year to finish that costume because making a screen accurate Star Wars costume takes up a lot of time on research and actually making the costume pieces themselves. If it wasn’t for the Rey Cosplay Community on Facebook I would’ve never finished my Rey build that quickly.
I eventually got approved by the Rebel Legion in late 2019, and as I’m writing this I currently have four approved costumes in the Legion (three of them are Reys, the other one being Connix).
This has been my Star Wars cosplay journey, and I’m looking forward to what the future holds.
