Oscar Francois de Jarjayes from The Rose of Versailles,

Created by Stephanie Piper, 2020-2022

Loan Courtesy of Stephanie Piper Cosplay

Photography Credit: Molly Doyle

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Cosplay illuminates the power and impact of pop culture and fashion, showing us how they borrow from one another. By developing new details and techniques—and repurposing existing ones to create one-of-a-kind costumes—cosplay puts the impact of fans front and center.  

With cosplays of 2D media, such as comics and animation, cosplayers are limited in their understanding of different angles, details, and depths of the costumes. Cosplayers face the unique challenge of extrapolating this information into their costumes and adding their own flair by interpreting the media’s themes in new and unique ways. Such interpretations of 2D media, like anime and manga, also entice us to see the different approaches cosplayers take to the same media, which is a true testament to their creativity.

We keep these fan communities in mind when curating at MOPOP.  While brainstorming ways to support the upcoming Asian Comics: Evolution of an Art Form exhibition, we wanted to showcase the creative techniques and importance of cosplays to Asian comics while engaging our local community. The MOPOP Curatorial team sent out an open call, receiving multiple impressive submissions from across Washington State. In our selection, we focused on cosplays based on anime and manga, tying our choices to the broader exhibition theme. Stephanie Piper’s cosplay stood out to us for the way it depicts Oscar’s gender identity through costume. Not only that, her use of intricate techniques and research into the French Revolution impressed us immensely as scholars and historians.  

The creator of this outstanding cosplay, Stephanie Piper, talked to MOPOP Curatorial Assistant Shuprima Guha about her creative process, as well as her interest in anime and manga.  

Created between August 2020 and December 2022, this cosplay merges themes from The Rose of Versailles with actual military regalia, creating a cosplay that is ground-breaking in its design. Stephanie Piper competed with this piece at the 2022 Los Angeles Comic Con, taking home first place in the Masters category. This piece was also recently displayed at the Rose City Comic Con in Portland, Oregon, and will be on display at MOPOP until January 2026.

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For those who may not be familiar, could you provide an explanation of who this character or person is? And what motivated you to bring them to life?

Oscar is a character from the 1979 anime "The Rose of Versailles". In the anime, Oscar's father, a general in the French military, decided to raise her as a man to fill his shoes, and over time she climbed the ranks while undergoing her own gender identity journey. At this point in the anime, she is acting as High Commander of the Royal Guard to Marie Antoinette. A big theme from the anime that I wanted to incorporate in this cosplay is the desire to explore gender identity amidst a very serious duty (protecting and serving the queen). As the French Revolution draws near, she must reconcile with her position in life and her morals clashing with her expected duties. Duty comes before all, and her thoughts of what it means to be masculine or feminine are tangled.

Often the motivation to create a cosplay is like a bit of a spark - a little moment when the "want" to bring a character to life becomes a "need". In this case, I remember watching the anime with my wife, and that spark hitting me like a brick wall. I couldn't stop thinking about this cosplay! While the spark is always a little mysterious, I want to say it was a combination of a few things: I was really enjoying the story, art, and character, the setting was interesting and the costume design fun, and the timing was also a little perfect. At that time, I was wrapping my mind around my own gender identity. Oscar's questions were my questions - what does femininity mean to me? What about masculinity? What is my relationship to gender? I felt a bit of a connection to Oscar that I can imagine helped light that little fire to cosplay her.

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Tell us a little about your introduction to Anime and Manga. What were some elements that really stuck out to you, and have changed the way you view content?

As a kid, I grew up with Sailor Moon and Pokémon, but I'm not sure when I realized they were anime! That being said, by the time I was a teenager, I was absolutely enamored - watching anime whenever I could and being so excited to visit Borders bookstores, they always had the best Manga selection. As an adult, I still love anime and manga - I think what sticks out to me most now is just how varied the medium is. So often, I see people talk about it as if it were a genre, but there are so many different stories that cover all genres and art styles! And those moments when the artists and animators really push the medium in a new direction or style is exhilarating.

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What inspired your design for this cosplay? Could you share some insights into the techniques, materials, or skills you used to create this cosplay?

I took a historically inspired approach to this design. By that, I mean that I did quite a bit of research and pulled influence from history, but didn't aim for historical accuracy. Heck, I even had a reference photo of a Michael Jackson costume that was a similar style! Once I had an idea for how military regalia like this had been created and replicated, I melded those elements with the original character design to create the final look.

I also tried to include themes from the story in my design. Throughout the cosplay, you'll see roses, a symbol of femininity entangled with oak leaves, a common motif in military jackets, symbolizing her duty and masculinity, or symbols that represent Marie Antoinette such as the fleur de lis. As an example, I found silver buttons on eBay that were reminiscent of Marie Antoinette’s House of Bourbon crest, so I created a mold of them and cast about a dozen of them with resin.

In creating the garment itself, I used so many techniques and materials - I'll highlight a few of my favorites! The base jacket is made with a wool brocade fabric that I acid-dyed red. This is another example of "historically inspired", wool was used for these military jackets, but I added a little flair by using a brocade. The most prominent technique here is the use of goldwork embroidery, which utilizes a range of real or imitation gold-plated threads - you'll see it on the front, collar, cuffs, and back of the jacket, as well as on top of the epaulets, which also utilize machine embroidery that I designed and digitized. One of the most time-intensive details are the two giant tassels on the waist sash - to match the sash as closely as possible, I chose to make them by pulling individual threads out of the leftover fabric.

Stepping away from sewing, the sword is made with worbla (a heat-activated moldable thermoplastic) and EVA foam, and the hilt was leafed with 24k gold leaf. And that's just a few of the fun techniques I got to work with! Overall, the cosplay took about 575 hours to complete, but I learned SO much and had such a great time throughout the entire process that the time flew.

I have been cosplaying since 2017 and love the medium as an artistic expression. I particularly enjoy doing large-scale competitive-grade builds, and love to share knowledge through being a panelist at cons. My favorite thing about cosplaying is the skills and techniques I've had the pleasure to learn over the years - from weaving fabric to specialty dye techniques to embroidery, there's always a few new things I learn with each cosplay I make. It helps me reflect on the hard work that has gone into garment making over human history and what we might see next.

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How has other forms of media shaped your cosplay practice? Does Anime and Manga play a role in how you create your cosplays style?

I absolutely love to cosplay across the spectrum of media, be it TV or movies or video games of all genres. When approaching designing and creating, television and movie costume designers have been a major influence on my work! I especially look to designer Michele Clapton, of Game of Thrones fame, for inspiration when approaching detail work. The way she tells you so much about a character and their relationship to their surroundings or other characters through design is just incredible. I really feel like we're in a costuming renaissance right now - there's so much good costuming and design in recent media, how can we as cosplayers NOT be constantly inspired? It's just wonderful. And of course, I'm always inspired by other cosplayers, creators, and designers! I've surrounded myself with really insightful artists both in-person and online and I cannot express how much I learn from them and how much they are constantly inspiring me.

Anime and manga definitely play a role in my work as a cosplayer, especially when it comes to design! I'm honestly really inspired by some of the fashion sense in manga and anime - how could you look at some of the outfits worn in Nana or Princess Jellyfish or Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and not want to create something equally stylish?

Check out MOPOP’s Special Exhibition Asian Comics: Evolution of an Art Form on view in the museum from March 7^th, 2025, until January 4^th 2026.

Originally curated by Paul Gravett with a team of more than twenty international advisors at the Barbican Centre in London, this unique exhibition is making its second North American stop at MOPOP.