One of my hobbies is, i don't think it's fair to call it cosplay, because I'm not dressing up as any character in particular, but I like making costumes and modeling them. I just call this one "the mermaid", but her character is a moody princess who hates the "bubbly princess" stereotype. I thought this might upset some people in the mermaid fandom (which really exists) when I rolled it out, but the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
This is actually a functional mermaid costume, as in, all of this stuff is safe to wear in the water (for a sufficiently skilled swimmer). I actually much prefer swimming with the fin on to swimming without it, but because it's viewed as an insurance liability it's hard to find a pool or even a supervised beach that will let you take it in the water. That, plus the extreme difficulty and expense that comes with underwater photography, is why all of these are taken on dry land a considerable distance from the water.
Despite there being little to no overlap between the two, I consider the mermaids and the furries to be sister fandoms, because both rely so heavily on creating an OC (mersona/fursona, the language is largely the same) in the absence of a considerable amount of media. The Little Mermaid and Robin Hood are considered points of entry for their respective fandoms (and for the younger mers/furs, h2o and Zootopia) but there is no established "canon" that is required consumption to be able to enjoy yourself in the fandom.
I could go on here, and I probably will later, but I just wanted to share something I enjoy, and this is the website to do that. You can leave me asks if you're interested, there's actually a ton of oddities about the mermaid fandom, including the fact that their networking tool of choice in the year of our lord 2024 is an honest to god forum.
Photography is, as always, by @veyen
