I’m Lada (going by the moniker Etaru), and am Chicago-based cosplayer, starting in 2005 and increasingly making more elaborate and outlandish costumes of characters from anime, video games, and comics that I connect with. My first costume was Mireille Bouquet from the anime Noir, pulled together from my closet at at Nan Desu Kan 2005 in Denver, CO, and it was a snowball effect after that. My mother helped me with my first couple of costumes, but there rest was self taught trial-and-error, YouTube tutorials, and a little sewing background from my grandmother. I’ve made over 60 costumes in that time – between commissions for others or for myself – and it truly amazes me to this day the positive impact this geeky hobby has had on my life.

My costumes have been featured in a number of international publications like CosplayGen, CosMode, and OTACOOL2, and showcased across various media such as TV, online publications, and news sites. I’ve also been a cosplay guest of honor and judge in the United States, Norway, England, Netherlands and Denmark for preliminaries of World Cosplay Summit, MCM Expo’s Euro Cosplay Championship, and EuroCosplay Gathering. But more than the accolades, I’m absolutely humbled by the life-long friendships created through this hobby and memories made that I’ll cherish for years.

When not dressing up in silly costumes on the weekends, I’m a project manager based out of Chicago, IL, having been born in Russia (Soviet Union) and immigrating to the states when young, growing up largely in the mountain-Midwest and Pacific Northwest.