For those who enjoy cosplaying as a hobby, we can agree that most of us started out with a badly cut wig, smudged eyeliner, foundation that did not match our skin tone, too-tight shoes and a costume that fit in all the wrong ways.
Many of us looked up things like “how to cosplay” or scrolled through hours of videos on YouTube and TikTok, trying to rifle through makeup tutorials, haircutting tricks and tips, sewing patterns, or how to attach a bobbin the right way.
All of which worked on the video but not on us.
Then for those who didn’t know how to sew or couldn’t afford costumes online, we’d dig through the depths of our closets or thrift shops, hoping to find clothes and accessories that closely resembled the character we wanted to cosplay.
Yes, all of this was painful. But what if I told you that there’s a school where you can learn everything about how to cosplay?
Introducing Hardanger Folkehøgskule, a school where you can learn how to cosplay
Meet Eivind Mortensen, known among the cosplay community as The Friendly Viking, who has cosplayed for over a decade.
After completing his master’s degree in Arts and Crafts, he now has his dream job – teaching others how to cosplay in a folk school tucked away in the town of Hardanger, Norway, home to jaw-dropping summits, fjords, and glaciers.
“I started out in drama and theatre, and I really liked getting creative with my hands,” says Mortensen. “Even before I started cosplaying, I had always been interested in the effect a stage costume had, especially with props like wigs and accessories. I then planned to become an arts and crafts teacher, thinking I could use my interest in cosplay for it – but that turned out to be my job right from the start, and I’ve been loving it!”
Mortensen now runs the cosplay course at Hardanger Folkehøgskule with two other teachers – one of them being his fiancée. As a folk school, academics aren’t the focus here. Things are more hands-on and geared towards personal enrichment within a small, non-competitive community.
It’s a full-time boarding school, too.
“Folk high schools or folk universities are very particular school types in Scandinavia, and we have one year where you can really focus on one theme,” says Eivind. “It came about from a need to find a new niche – to really understand what the interest for students is nowadays, and what we could do to fill those needs.”
Mortensen explains that some other courses – sometimes called “lines” – are available. There are lines like a dog sport course, where you could live with your dog and work with certified trainers at the school. Then there are the sports lines, which cover various outdoor activities and are led by talented professionals.
“We’re in Hardanger, which is known as the most beautiful place in Norway,” says Mortensen, beaming. “There are tours into the mountains, skiing in winter, survival skills, and other traditional sports as well, like football, volleyball – basically anything you want.”
I was most interested in the cosplay course. Online courses like sewing, wig styling, makeup processes and more existed, but this was the first time I heard about a school course catered entirely towards the hobby and teaching students how to cosplay.
“We already had a line for fashion styles of both dressmaking and more like avant-garde fashion, but one year, that didn’t necessarily drag in too many students,” says Mortensen. “And so we made an attempt to change that into something adjacent, and that turned out to be cosplay.”
The response was immediate. The course exploded in popularity and has been going strong for the past 10 years.
“We’ve just kept growing, and we had to double up the amount of classes,” adds Mortensen. “Now we’re about 24 to 26 students, which is double the size of what a usual folk university line usually has.”
It’s not just for locals, either. People come from the US, Poland, and more. The typical age range of the students is 18 to 23, so everyone is close enough in age to get along.
“It’s easy to get them into the course because even if we’re Norwegian, the common language is oftentimes English, so they can communicate easily with everyone,” he says. “Of course, we recommend having some basic instruction in Norwegian, but the school also offers classes for those.”
What happens in a cosplay class?
Here’s what a typical day-to-day looks like for a student in the cosplay course.
Every morning starts with an assembly and roll call before morning classes. There is leatherworking or woodworking with Mortensen, or learning things like wigstyling, sewing, makeup and SFX — everything that anyone would need to learn how to cosplay at a beginning to intermediate level.
Sometimes, there’ll be performance workshops to prepare for professional competitions, or even photoshoot sessions held around the school or its surroundings.
After lunch, it’s pretty much the same thing until dinner around 3 p.m. – yes, it’s a Norwegian thing – and then students will be free to do their own activities until supper at 7:30 p.m. Then at 11 p.m., it’s lights out for everyone.
“The students are free to use the classrooms or the workshop during their free time, so all the wood, leather, foam, and other materials are available to them,” says Mortensen. “The tools too, of course – within reason!”
Some days are dedicated to activities aside from learning how to cosplay. There are swordfighting, Dungeons and Dragons, wood and leatherworking, street art, and more.
“One thing about these classes is that we tailor them to what our students need,” says Mortensen. “For example, if you wanted to cosplay as Link from ‘The Legend of Zelda,’ we wouldn’t exactly teach them to make the costume or the sword right away – we’d teach them how to work with different fabrics, how to use a paintbrush, how to heat Worbla the right way and so on. Then they get to transfer these skills to their other cosplays as well.”
There are trips too, like taking a three-hour drive down the mountain to the local fabric shop to buy everything needed for a cosplay, or going to Japan for a cultural experience.
“It’s pretty crazy to have to arrange a trip for so many students and teachers every year, but we pull it off!” says Mortensen. “We stay in Japan for around two weeks, and visit cities like Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and lots of places in between.”
Visiting cultural sites like museums, temples, or other fun tourist spots is part and parcel of these trips. But this is a cosplay course so there’s still an element of learning how to cosplay while in Japan.
“As cosplayers, we go to places like Sunshine City and Harajuku in Shibuya,” he says. “We get fabrics or materials we can’t get in Norway, or even go to Akihabara to find figurines of what they want to cosplay – these then serve as physical references for their crafting processes, which is useful for them to figure out how certain things attach to parts of the body.”
Who can join this cosplay class?
Now here comes the big question. Who would want to learn how to cosplay, and why should they?
After all, it’s a hobby that has been ridiculed for years, and being mocked and bullied by the public is practically part and parcel of the experience.
Many cosplayers can probably empathise with what I’ve just said, and Mortensen agrees.
“Oh yeah, we’re a bunch of weirdos,” he says breezily. “A lot of what we do often gets not-so-nice comments, and there is the stigma that we are cringe, of course. But the people that seek cosplay out actually get the appeal of it – they get the nerdiness of it all.”
Mortensen compares the hobby to sports – it’s one of the nerdiest things out there, with people obsessed with it globally, backed by vast amounts of money. But it doesn’t get a bad rep; at least, not as bad as cosplay.
“I’ve seen people trashing whole cities after a football match,” he says dryly. “I’d much rather be in a safe convention hall, with other nerds dressed up as anime characters.”
The cosplay community is a very accepting place. “We’re very open to people exploring their identities, and we welcome them to learn more about themselves as they’re living with us,” he adds. “A lot of them have this shared experience of being bullied or talked down to, and it creates a community of people who know exactly what you’re struggling with.”
Make realistic props and costumes, put on styled wigs, and learn everything about makeup and SFX. Source: Hardanger Folkehøgskule
Most of all, it doesn’t matter what your skill level is. You could join as long as you’re passionate.
“Take it from me – I’ve made a cosplay that costs way, way, way too much and took me six years to make,” says Mortensen, referring to his Ned Stark cosplay from “Game of Thrones” which costed 100,000 Norwegian Krone (US$9,922.50) to make.
“I made everything from scratch, with an insane amount of detail, but I’m still the same cosplayer as the one that just reached into their closet, pulled out a sweater, and cosplayed Max Caulfield from ‘Life is Strange,’ he says. “There’s no boundary – no barrier – to this hobby, especially if you put your heart and soul into making something you’re proud of.”
