With an expansive catalog of various cosplay outfits under her belt, artist Daniela Manzano has an impressive following and talent when it comes to her craft. Recently, she has created an incredibly realistic cosplay of X-Men's Kitty Pryde. In the comics, Kitty Pryde’s first original costume in X-Men was the same, generic suit that everyone else was forced to wear. Yet, Pryde as a character was also an inner rebel and had ideas of her own in terms of her aesthetic throughout the series.
This first suit that Manzano replicated was before Pryde and the rest of the X-Men had the option to choose and establish individual identities through their look. This original costume consisted mostly of black and yellow, passed down from the X-Men generation that came before them. Even though everyone was technically wearing the exact same suit, Pryde somehow wearing it made it iconic. Manzano had a similar effect with her X-Men cosplay of Pryde in the sense that although it’s very accurate, she also managed to make it her own.
The first two major differences between Pryde’s original look and Manzano’s take is the absence of the ski mask. Manzano chose not to incorporate it and that may be for the better. Pryde's original look featured a black, ski mask with holes cut out solely for his eyes and mouth. After Pryde was able to have autonomy over her look, the X-Men character chose to never wear a mask that took up the majority of her face.
From that point on, she had a mask that was only covering her eyes, accumulating much more confidence and pride as she continued to evolve throughout the X-Men series. The mask was anything but heroic, it was similar to a robber’s mask. The mask in some ways can be distracting or ominous, but the absence of it in her cosplay makes the rest of her costume take center stage. All the nuances of it are suddenly easier to spot, such as the classic black and red X belt on her waist.
Manzano was able to pull off the texture of Pryde’s bodysuit as well. The texture of rubbery, black elastic, that is. The colors in some of Manzano’s cosplay in certain lights appear more gold than highlighter yellow. Once again, a tiny nuance of Manzano. Just as Pryde was able to bring something different to a suit that every X-Men had as part of a dress code, Manzano brings a subtle wash of her own self to match.
The X-Men films are now available on Disney Plus Canada.
Source: Daniela Manzano/Instagram