Francesca Dani

COSPLAY UNDERGROUNDINTERVIEWS 10

OCTOBER 2004

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FILE 10: FRANCESCA DANI

Cosplay Underground

ince our last interview on Co-splay Underground in 2003, we have noticed a cosplay explo-sion within last year.

More and more people around the world are getting into the hobby and some have gone even further to de-velop a business around it. In this latest interview of “Cosplay Underground”, we go to Italy to learn about a cosplayer who has made a business from her cosplay, as well as opened plenty of eyes through her photos on her Web site, www.frances-cadani.com. Francesca Dani is perhaps one of the well known “sexy cosplayers” in the world and recently we had the op-portunity to interview her as our tenth cosplayer to be featured on Cosplay Underground. Before we talk about cosplaying, let’s get to know a little bit about you. Where were you born and raised?FRANCESCA: OK, let’s talk about this because I’m a very proud of my origin! I was born in Italy, Firenze (Florence) is one of the most beauti-ful Italian cities. Well... I think it’s the most beautiful! I’m proud about that! Giotto and Dante Alighieri are my only two famous citizens from the area. As for my life, during the week, I live only to work. I return back to my hometown only on the weekend. It’s very sad because I love walking through the “Old Bridge” ever since I was a high school student. I used to spend all of my days in the old city. I love arts and archeology and Firenze. The city is full of the things I enjoy. By the way, I’m not full blooded Italian, because my origins are Ger-man. The family of my mum is from Germany.

If a friend traveled to your area to

spend several hours with you, where would you take them or what would you do for fun? FRANCESCA: I would take them to visit my city and the nearest hills that are really wonderfull. The Tus-cany landscape are very well known all around the world for it being a beautiful place and for its good wine. By the way, I’m addicted to the night life, so I would take them on a trip to a cool night club that I usually attend. There are a lot of nice night clubs here.

You live in a country known for it’s food. What is your favorite food that you love to eat?FRANCESCA: Oh! Mediterranean

is the best food of the world! I have spent so much time travelling to Europe in the past three years but Italian food is really good! But... I don’t like pasta and pizza! I know...I’m a bit weird! My favorite food are vegetables and meat. I don’t like fish, I don’t like pasta and I don’t like cakes. So, my options in food are very limited to meat and veg-etables.

If someone rode in the passen-ger seat of your car, what kind of music would they expect to be listening to?FRANCESCA: Oh, cool question! I have recently got a new car! The choices are three: Bruce Springs-

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Francesca Dani cosplaying Namcoʼs “Soul Calibur II” character, Cassandra. Photo courtesy of FrancescaDani.com

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J!-ENT | OCTOBER 04

teen, U2, ambient lounge music or chillout music. Something like Cafè Del Mar, Barfly, Thievery Corpora-tions or Leidback Luke. But prob-ably I’ll take the first option, Bruce, he’s my favorite singer since I was very young. I love him!

What kind of student were you back in high school? The cheer-leader, jock, computer person, li-brary person, band person, stoner, etc?FRANCESCA: Definitely not the library person! I wasn’t good in studying in high school, I spent a good part of my academic year out of school with my best friend Sara, shopping and searching for guys (laughing). I was and I still am a free spirit! I didn’t like spending hours and hours in a classroom. At the end of my last year of high school, I was in trouble with exam admissions

because of my poor attendance. Now, I’m a University student with good grades. People do change during the course of their life. (laughing)

So, how did you get involved with cosplaying?FRANCESCA: I have started doing cosplay in October 1998 but during the previous year, I made patterns for a friend of mine who had fun co-splaying for two to three years. She had convinced me to do a cosplay three days before a con. It was terribly funny doing my first cosplay which was Super Sailormoon in a short amount of time! At first, I was very shy and embarassed! Now, am I still shy? Well, look at my Web site! (www.francescadani.com) Things have definitely changed! (laughing)

How is the cosplay scene in Italy?

Are there many events where you can show off your costumes?FRANCESCA: Yes, there are many events and contests but the most important for the Italian cosplayers are the three to four contest and events per year. Unfortunately, here in Italy we don’t have good equip-ment for cosplay parades. The last con I took part it in was entirely under the rain. That was my worst experience so far as a cosplayer. My clothes were all wet and my hair and make-up became terrible.

Do you spend a lot of money on your costumes?FRANCESCA: I really spend a lot on my costumes because I don’t like to make them with poor material, like cotton fabric or lining. I prefer to use cool material like spandex, bro-cade tapestry fabric, pvc and latex. These materials are every expensive

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Cosplay Underground

but very cool in the final result.

Are you the kind of person who stresses out when a con nears, because you have to finish a cos-tume or a numerous amount of costumes quickly?FRANCESCA: Yes! I’m always stressed when the day to a con ap-proaches because I have to finish my costumes the day before or the night before. During the week I don’t have much time for sewing my costumes, so I work on them only on the week-end and most of the weekends, I prefer to go out with ,y friends and my boyfriend. But during the cons, many people take so many pictures of my costumes and it make me feel good to know they enjoy my cos-tumes.

How does your family feel about you cosplaying? FRANCESCA: I live alone with my mum and she is quite proud of my handmade costumes. She really loves them and enjoys watching me at work. And sometimes she follow me on the photo sets. Now, she has discovered how nice cosplaying is because a few years ago, she didn’t agree about me having a cosplay Web site. I have done interviews with an international magazine, an appear-ance in a TV program but she was re-ally protective of me. Now, so much has changed and she now under-stands my choices and she respects my decisions. When she accompanies me to the photo set, most of the time she screams out something like “Woah! You look like a doll! Cool!”.So, I think it’s cool that she is more understanding.

Do your co-workers or non-cosplay-ing friends know about your hob-by? Are they supportive?FRANCESCA: Yes, they do know about it. All of them are very curious

about cosplay and they ask me always for news about what I’m currently sewing, my new plans, where and what. One of my co-workers is very supportive. I work in a fashion-house as an assistant designer and every morning when I’m at work, she stands outside the door and always says the same sentence, every day: “I have found this fabric, pattern, buttons, tapes, zippers that are very nice, maybe you can create some costumes with them! Take them, it’s yours!”. She’s really nice and she has helped me so many times with accessories. She’s my personal Jesus for the automatic buttons! (laughing) I don’t have the automatic buttons machine at home!

When you make your costumes, do you make your own costumes or do you have them created by a professional?FRANCESCA: Yep! All of my cosplay costumes are proudly hand-made by me!

Do you use an expensive sewing machine or a basic machine?FRANCESCA: I use my mom’s sew-ing machine and it’s very old! It’s around 20 years old! (laughing) But I still love it! I have recently bought an overlock machine for making the-sewing point more clean and filled. It’s very cool but a bit expensive, it cost around $500.

When you create a costume, do you try to make it look as authen-tic as possible? Or do you add your own creativity to it? FRANCESCA: I normally try to make them as close as possible to the original but I love to add a bit of my own creativity to them. Just a bit, in a particular way on the fabric accessories like ribbons, tape, etc.

Are you a perfectionist when it comes to your costume? How thorough are you when it comes to researching for your costume?FRANCESCA: Yes, I’m really a per-fectionist. I spend hours and hours

Francesca Dani cosplaying as Jolyne Kujo from “JoJoʼs Bizzarre Adventures”. Photo courtesy of FrancescaDani.com

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Francesca Dani cosplaying Techmoʼs “Dead or Alive” character, Kasumi. Photo courtesy of FrancescaDani.com

Cosplay Underground

“I’m really a perfectionist. I

spend hours and hours around shops or surfing the net-shops in search of the best fabric. I kind of have anobsession with

fabric. I spend a lot of money on it.”

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Cosplay Underground

around shops or surfing the net-shops in search of the best fabric. I kind of have an obsession with fabric. I spend a lot of money on it. Usually I ask for stores to send me samples for viewing. Also, for wigs I spend a lot of time trying the best one, search for the best quality and the most closer color to the character.

Giving one example of your favor-ite costume. Tell us the history on the making of the costume. FRANCESCA: My favorite costume is Chun-Li! I really like how it came out. It’s my masterpiece. For fabric, I used a very rare gummed, stretch shiny fabric, this kind of fabric is very rare, you can find lurex or stretch shiny fabric but the gummed one is very hard to find. And it’s very expensive. I was so lucky because I found it close to Chistmas Eve, when shops are full of funny and strange fabrics. If I remember well, the price was

around $25 by mt. For the golden mandarin designs on the dress, I used a normal non-stretch golden lurex fabric. It was very hard to ma-nipulate it upon the body curves. As a matter of fact, I spent three months working on it! It was a difficult experience.

If you had all the time and money to make a costume, what would be your dream costume?FRANCESCA: Surely, Link from “The Legend Of Zelda”! Elf boys rock! And Link is my favorite character! I really love him and his costume is so nice. The dress is pretty easy but the shield, sword and other equipment are very difficoult to make. I have found a very good cosplayer of Link, he is “The_Real_Link” and he’s my favorite cosplayer! He’s so good in making Link equipment and he really looks like him! Another cool

costume of my dreams is Dawn. I re-ally love her sexy outfits. She’s great and probably I’ll make one of her costumes very soon.

When you cosplay as a character, do you act the character’s role? FRANCESCA: Sure, because in a way, cosplay is also acting. I love trying to pose like the video game characters of fighting video games and I love to act. Recently, I took part in a little role for a short-movie. It was nice and acting is a wonderful thing! So, I love to do it when I’m cosplaying.

Have you ever worn any of your costume in a public area that freaked people out? How was that experience?FRANCESCA: A few years ago, a Japanese TV show came to my city for an interview. I had a lot of fun

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Francesca Dani cosplaying Capcomʼs “Street Fighter” character Chun-Li. Photo courtesy of FrancescaDani.com

Cosplay Underground

“I love trying to pose like the video game

characters of fighting video games and I love to act. Recently, I took part in a little role for a

short-movie. It was nice and acting is a

wonderful thing! So, I love to do it when I’m

cosplaying.”

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Cosplay Underground

with them and they told me that they wanted some shots in the old town wearing my Jolyne Kujo costume. People were curi-ous about who I was and why I was there with strange costume on. Some of them asked me for authographs because they thought I was a movie star! It was so fun! (laughing) And I was so embarassed.

How many costumes do you own or have created?FRANCESCA: At the moment I have around 30 costumes hand made by me and I’m currently working on Yuna Gunner from “Final Fantasy X-2”, Dejiko from “DG Charat” and some original costumes. I’m very proud of my Yuna’s skirt, I really love how it came out and I can’t wait to take some photos with this costume on!

Let’s talk about your website, francescadani.com. I noticed that you have a section where people who are members, can pay to see more photos of you. Now, I know some of your photos are very sexy but how far do you actually go for your photos on your members-only section of your Web site?FRANCESCA: Yes, I am affiliated with one of the most important and well known non-nude net-works of the net. And so, my site is 50% free and a 50% paysite. I try to balance the updates with free photos and pay photos but it’s logical that I prefer to update the site more frequently because people pay for this service and it is important for me to guar-antee a major level of attention towards the pay section of my Web site.

One of the cool things about francescadani.com are the pho-tos! Are you very selective about working with certain pho-tographers?FRANCESCA: Yep! I prefer work-ing with photographers with experience. When my Web site was just starting out, I have fea-tured photos with only the help of friends and the photos were taken at the cons. My site was not updated frequently and the photos were in low resolution. When my site became a bit more professional, I started to feature more super high res images, updates and costumes. I was in search of cool photographers, not so much professional because I

can’t pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars, but someone very cool, experienced and had good equipment. Now, I’m very satis-fied with my photos. I love work-ing with my current photographer because he’s so comfortable to work with and he makes me feel like a Queen! (laughing)

Living in Italy, what are the differences that you see from cosplayers compared to those living in the U.S. and Japan?FRANCESCA: I’ve never been to the US or Japan for cosplaying, so I have never seen these cosplay-ers in real life but I have seen so many photos in magazines and on the Internet. Japanese

Francesca Dani cosplaying in an original costume titled “Gothic Lolita Pixie Princess”. Photo courtesy of FrancescaDani.com

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BUYor

PERISH!

Cosplay UndergroundFILE 10: FRANCESCA DANI

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cosplayers have very well made costumes and accessories and I think they are the best cosplay-ers because their bodies help so much. Their bodies are so much closer to the character’s fi gure! Also, I feel that American cosplay-ers are very good, there are many cosplayers I admire in the U.S. and my fi rst cosplay dream was to become like them. Most of the Italian cosplayers are good too, we do have nice costumes and nice accessories which are always self-made because we don’t have any cosplay shops here.

Do you feel competitive when it comes to cosplaying?FRANCESCA: Yes and no. In one way, I’m really competitive because I want to always do my best and make perfect costumes. Make them better than others.

But I’m not competitive in an other sense, because I don’t like Italian cosplay contests because most of them always have poli-tics with arguing between some cosplayers regarding the who won and why they won. The last time I had participated in a cosplay contest was several years ago. I will not participate in any cosplay contests anymore. So, I hope the experience of cosplay contests are much better at American cons.

When you are done cosplay-ing, what do you do with your costumes? Do you continue to wear them or do you pack them away in your closet?FRANCESCA: Well, some of my costumes are always active, like Chun-Li or Kasumi. When I have time, I like to wear it again for new photoshoots or wear it to

some events. But most of my costumes are currenctly inactive and I have a full wardrobe only for them. Probably in the near future I will sell them on Ebay, so the money earned from them can help me with my web hosting plan which is very expensive!

You have done anime and video game cosplay. Do you have a certain preference of what you prefer to cosplay the most?FRANCESCA: Although I en-joy both, I prefer cosplaying as videogames characters, because they are more closer to what I enjoy. When I have time, I spend a few hours playing a game on the GameCube! Actually, I play “Animal Crossing” and I think it would be so cute to make a cosplay costume inspired by one of these characters.

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Pictured (Clockwise): Francesca Dani cosplaying as “Star Wars Episode I” character Queen Amidala (Senate Version), Francoise Arnou 003 of Cyborg 009 and Namcoʼs

“Soul Calibur II” character, Cassandra. Photos courtesy of FrancescaDani.com

Have you ever experienced any embarrasing moments while cosplaying?FRANCESCA: (laughing) Yes! Sev-eral years ago, during my perfor-mance with the Chun-Li costume, in front of the judge, I was trying to do a few fighting poses. I fell down from the stairs and it was so embarassing.

How much longer do you want to cosplay? Or is this something you see yourself doing for a very long time? FRANCESCA: I have been co-splaying since 1998 and now it has been seven years. It’s a very long time! During my debut, I have thought it was a a similar experience like many others, just a hobby of small importance. I think I will continue to cosplay for two or maybe three years. After that, I really hope to create costumes for my children!

If there is one cosplay moment you will always remember, what would that moment be?FRANCESCA: It was definitely the first time I took part in a cosplay contest. It was also the first time I have done any cosplay and it is my most memorable moment.

What final words would you like to say to those who support your cosplay work.FRANCESCA: Thanks so much for supporting me through my seven years of cosplaying! I hope you will do the same until the end of my “cosplay-career”! Ciao!

DENNIS A. AMITH is a nt2099/J!-ENT entertainment writer who has a fascina-tion with people who cosplay and why they do it as featured on the “Cosplay Underground” Web site (www.nt2099.com/cosplay/)

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