This was the first photoshoot I ever did, back in November 2022, with my friend Stephanie modelling her Regency costume for me. I can see how far I’ve come since then, and while I can do better now, these photos turned out well despite my limitations at the time.
Here are my top shots from the Perth Amateur Photographers Group (PAPG) shoot at Rolloways rollerskating centre last month. It was extremely challenging, low lighting, fast movements, plus an unexpected children’s party being held at the same time!
I took a lot of bad photos, and these good ones have a lot of flaws, but they demonstrate how far I’ve improved in the three years I’ve been a part of this club. I have a stronger intuition for the manual settings and my lenses. I know about shooting and editing in RAW. Let’s see where I’m at in another three years.
Thanks to the models:
Lauren Miles
Misty Eligon
Kiara Roberts
Chenta Zaballos
From the archives, 2012
Costume and make-up by Courtney Coulson
Photography by Luke Milton
I made this costume to wear to the opening night screening of the Dark Knight Rises. 2012 was a wonderful year for movies, I have many happy memories going to opening nights in costumes with my mates, usually preceded by a pre-screening party; Batman, Avengers, Men in Black 3, Prometheus, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Dredd. I don’t know what it was about that year, but the blockbusters were big and fun and coming in rapid succession. I haven’t been that excited about modern cinema since then. Or maybe there’s just something special about that time of your life, being in your early 20’s, in university, particularly an arts university. We had the time and freedom to turn little things like going to the cinema into big events.
The bodysuit was made by me, the gloves and boots I already had. The mask was a fun challenge. It was made from leather that I engraved myself. The head mounted goggles were constructed from Lego pieces with the assistance of my father. It’s the one time he ever worked on a costume with me.
These photos are stunning, some of Luke’s best. They’re my mother’s favourites too, they’re still in her bookcase.
Here’s another shot of my MGSV Revolver Ocelot, always fascinating to see how different photographers interpret your costume. This one was shot by CK Imagery at Evolve Pop Culture Expo 2024. See this costume photographed by Snap Happy Ian here.
In 2021 the Monkey Collective held one of their immersive screening events at the wonderful Luna Palace Cinema in Leederville, Perth. It was for one of my favourite films, The Fifth Element, so, of course, I had to make a costume for their costume contest. I knew there were going to be plenty of Leeloos in the crowd, so I decided to pick someone more obscure; Zorg’s secretary. She didn’t receive much screen-time, nor did she ever get a name, but she had a costume that was another memorable Gaultier creation, it always appealed to me. Plus I already had a skirt of a similar colour. My favourite part of that character is the hair, she wears a wig made of feathers. Initially I tried to see if I could replicate it, but finding such fine feathers on such short notice without spending a fortune proved impossible. So I searched for a regular wig of similar colour, no dice. In desperation, I bought a grey “elderly” style Halloween wig, spray painted it teal to match the velvet and feathers I already had. It’s not at all an accurate shade of teal, but it’s the best I could find around here. The spray paint worked surprisingly well and helped to create a strange texture to the wig. Making costumes in Perth is challenging because we have a limited range of costuming and crafting materials. Honestly, even our range of consumer goods is often limited too. I usually have to order things online; out of the question when there’s a short deadline!
With all those challenges in mind, I am happy with the results, and evidently, others agreed. I had a great night, the audience loved me, and when my character came on screen, they applauded. As impressive as the modern cosplay industry has become, the real fun is had at costume events like this where we are just having fun, improvising and sharing our love of our favourite characters and stories.
Here’s an obscure one, this is based on Joan Chen’s character Kidda from the post-apocalyptic cult classic “Rise of the Juggers”. Though I didn’t worry too much about accuracy. I was invited to a post-apocalypse costume event, and had about two weeks to make something to wear. I gave myself a budget of $50 and spent 15 hours making this costume. It was a lot of fun to abandon the demand for accuracy. This reminded me of playing dress-ups as a kid, I just threw together whatever I could find and made it work.
The costume in the film was likely made from industrial scraps, they probably spent very little on materials. However, in order for me to use the exact light weight elastic sheets (not unlike the ones used as yoga bands), it would have cost me upwards of $100. Bugger that, instead I bought a big roll of EVA foam matting for $30. I tore it into rough pieces of armour. The rest of the costume was flannel, which already has a lovely weathered look to it, but I added even more weathering with sandpaper, powdered chalk and acrylic paint. Again, bringing me back to the child-like glee of throwing a costume together. Getting messy and not getting too precious about the results.
I had a good time at the party, rocking out to the band with my mates. Unfortunately, I am not a night owl, so I left long before the night was over. But I was overjoyed to awaken to find that I had won best costume of the night! All that hard work paid off.
The prize was a ticket to Pox Eclipse, a Burning Man-type event in the wheatbelt region of Western Australia. These photos were taken at that event. Credit to Deric for the photography.
I am often told I resemble Cillian Murphy, so I couldn’t resist jumping on the Barbenheimer trend. Back in 2023, the Barbie movie and Oppenheimer were released within the same week, so it became a meme to combine the two. I wore this for Vespa Photography’s annual pink themed photo event, raising money for breast cancer.
From the archives, July 2014:
Cosplay Couture interpretation of Frankenstein’s monster (Eve)
Costume by Courtney Coulson
Make-up by Lauren Payne
Photography by Luke Milton
Location: Carport
Here’s something we’ve been anticipating for around seven months now, having both become obsessed with the Frankenstein novel and all its various interpretations. Mary Shelley’s work differs massively from the classic Universal film which gets the Michael Bay treatment by comparison. Shelley’s monster is eloquent, emphatic, and pendulum swings between sadness and rage. This is the creature we have wanted to create. Huge thanks to the remarkable talents of Lauren from Lollilicious Make Up Artistry who helped make our plans possible through her wonderful work.
-Luke Milton
I’ve completely fallen in love with Frankenstein, the book has no equal and it’s become a great source of inspiration for me. Luke and I also saw the National Theatre play back in November and I was profoundly moved, it really captured the emotional core of Frankenstein and it was after this that the two of us began wondering if there was any way to give the Creature the Cosplay Couture treatment. After watching many, many adaptations seeing what worked and what didn’t, I ended up with a creature of my own. I call her Eve, as the original Creature is sometimes dubbed ‘Adam’, this isn’t intended to be the Bride, rather a genderswapped Creature as I wanted to channel his emotional journey. This was the most physical performance based shoot I have ever done and I loved it, I was also working on a concrete floor on a cold night in a tight costume and it made the experience feel more real, now I want to see what my next big challenge will be.
The costume was mostly inspired by the Creature’s birth, often depicted wrapped in bandages, it’s a stretch cotton bodysuit with something like twenty metres of bronze organza hand wrapped and stitched on top, and it laces up at the back. The Creature’s birth is never really explored in detail and it varies greatly when portrayed on screen, so my interpretation is of a creature suspended by leather harnesses within an artificial womb.
-Courtney Coulson
From the archives, July, 2014:
Cosplay Couture interpretation of Tintin and Haddock
Costumes and styling by Courtney Coulson
Haddock by Luke Milton
Photography by Sabatomic Photography
Location: Fremantle docks
For such a simple costume, I am most happy as Tintin, he’s a character I really identify with. And this time Tintin is joined by Haddock and Snowy! As we have already done a couture shoot with Tintin, I thought I would mix things up and go for a more accurate costume. So the styling is relatively understated, but my personal touches are still evident in the velveteen “plus-fours”, leather boots, and camera. Besides this shoot was about debuting Haddock’s costume.
How do you make Haddock look fashionable? It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, the general silhouette and colour pallet is unchanged, but I swapped out the anchor jumper with an anchor t-shirt, which I painted myself. Plus scarves are always a cool accessory.
And introducing Bailey as Snowy, conveniently I just happen to have a little white dog for the part. He wasn’t too difficult to work with, he was pretty anxious about being in a new environment, so he stayed close by, the only challenge was getting him to look at the camera for more than a second.
Courtney Coulson
It’s always a thrill to work with Sab- she is an amazing photographer who understands what we are trying to accomplish and make us look good, It’s also a thrill to be in front of the camera again and getting my Haddock on, thank you for indulging me.
-Luke Milton
It was really fun to get back to shooting. Courtney has amazing dynamic poses and Luke has a wonderfully expressive face.
-Sabrina
Travian Designs 