Introducing Twyla Boogeyman… I am so proud of this one! Sitting somewhere between bounding and true cosplay, it feels like the essence of her, and the only thing I’d add is face & body paint, I think.
How I decided on Twyla
I hadn’t made an actual decision on my cosplay for Invasion Colchester this year, other than it would probably be a doll character of some description because my hyperfocus is still very much in doll mode.
And then I got my hair done, as I do every year to 18 months by the brilliant Kitti at the Art House, who also has some Monster High stuff in her salon…
… and then I got home and realised my hair was PERFECT for Twyla from Monster High, who’s also one of my favourite characters.
Daughter of the Boogeyman, often found in the library, openly ND and with her nose in a book, she was my ideal choice for this year!
At the time I had one Twyla doll, the G3 Fearbook edition, and I went down a wonderful research rabbithole to figure out her look and accessories and what I could do in under three weeks to make a reasonably good costume. Found some sketches of Twyla, photos of her various doll versions, a YouTube music video of her song (Out of the Shadows – it’s also on Spotify and now I can’t stop singing it) and of course it was the best excuse to rewatch a bunch of Monster High episodes and check out her outfits!
Here’s the YT video so you can have the earworm too 🙂
I have a series of posts covering the making in more detail on their way (linked at bottom of this one once they’re live) rather than one stupidly long one, but here’s how I broke down what I needed:
- Main colours: purple, mint, turquoise
- Outfit foundations: tiered ra ra skirt, top with spider & web patterns, turquoise/mint/light blue belt, chunky Mary Jane type shoes (I wasn’t going anywhere near the mad heels in the Fearbook version of her!)
- Features & makeup: lilac skin with patterns on legs (and arms on some versions), deep purple lipstick, purple/glowing eyes
- Key accessories: D20 dice, purple rabbit plushie, bunny bag, Book of Talismans and/or Fearbook, iCoffin phone
I often do this for any character I’m creating, but find it helps especially with cosplay to know what colours, shapes & general vibes I’m going for in detail before I start the hunt.
I’ve since managed to get my sticky mitts on the G3 Creepover version of her too, which is exciting, and definitely helped the process of this blog.
A hunt through my wardrobe & costume collection, visits to several charity shops, an order from Snag Tights and one panicked purchase from the Next sale later, I had the base of my outfit. I try not to spend too much but my priority is comfort, especially for an event like Invasion where there is a lot of walking and moving around, so will happily buy things like tights from places like Snag where they actually fit!
Time for accessories!
Honestly my favourite part of cosplay is choosing which accessories to recreate and how. For Twyla I figured I didn’t need the iCoffin phone as I’d have my own phone with me, but really wanted to make her Book of Talismans and also somehow incorporate her D20 dice, her and her bunny/bunny bag.
There are more detailed posts about making the book bag and the other accessories, but here’s what I came up with:
While I didn’t end up wearing it for Invasion, I did also find a Tangle fidget toy I already owned, which seemed perfect for her fidget toy she wears on her wrist:
And then I hunted high and low for shoes, and with under a week to go decided my safest bet was to re-lace my favourite DMs with coloured netting, so it was Twyla-appropriate and also wouldn’t give me blisters. I’m keeping my eyes peeled for suitable shoes for a future wear, but these are so pretty I might keep them like this all the time!
Putting it all together
Until I tried it all on at the same time I wasn’t totally sure it was going to come together, but it did, and I couldn’t be happier!
What I would add/change for next time is definitely body paint, I ran out of time to find & test any this time. I’d also like to find more accurate shoes, an actual bunny and to paint patterns on either my legs or the tights. In a perfect world I’d also have glowing contact lenses, but my eyes are too sensitive for contacts at the moment, so glasses it is.
But it made me ridiculously happy, and was a hit at Invasion too!
I’ll update here with links to the making of posts when they go live 🙂
