Today I am portraying Judy from Zootopia, heading to the first floor of Jilin Fortune Plaza to attend the opening event of MINISO. For this roleplay, I prepared quite a bit of gear in advance. The gray rabbit-ear headband on top is the key focal point; to match the long hair styling, I selected a silver-gray center-part wig and deliberately braided two small braids at the tips. Maintaining the wig required a lot of patience, combing it neatly with hairspray to ensure the hair would maintain wonderful dynamic flow during jumps or poses rather than tangling into a mess. Makeup took nearly an hour; to capture the character's features, I wore purple contact lenses, intensified the layering of the eye makeup, and specially applied highlighter to the bridge of the nose. The top is a light blue long-sleeve shirt layered under a black cropped vest, with a carrot decoration pinned to the collar, a yellow shield badge printed with 'POLICE' hung on the chest, and black sleeve covers featuring white stripes on the arms. The lower half is paired with dark blue skinny jeans, silver knee pads strapped around the knees, and a pair of black chunky platform Martin boots. The entire outfit feels extremely sharp when worn; the skinny cut of the jeans paired with Martin boots visually elongates leg proportions, making it ideal for executing dynamic actions.
This MINISO branch on the first floor of Jilin Fortune Plaza is said to be the largest in Northeast China, and the Zootopia collaboration atmosphere inside is intensely vibrant. Stepping into the store, your eyes are greeted by plush toys and merchandise everywhere, with shelves packed with various sizes of rabbit and fox plushies, alongside bath towels and backpacks printed with character motifs. The bright store lighting is exceptionally suited for photography. In my hand, I held an orange plastic carrot prop, while purposely bringing along a gray plush rabbit for pairing. The shelves feature a vast variety of plush toys, including some rabbit dolls wearing yellow glasses and green dinosaur dolls with rich colors that serve as fantastic foreground or background props.
During shooting, the store shelves and collaborative display zones served as primary backdrops. To showcase the character's playfulness, I experimented with several different postures: a smiling standing pose hugging a plush toy, as well as a single-leg standing jump action. Among them, jumps and crouching stances tested facial expression and movement coordination the most. Jumps require pointing the toes tightly and leveraging the visual extension of the chunky Martin boots to elongate leg lines. Crouching requires maintaining a stable center of gravity, holding props close to the face, and gazing directly into the lens. While capturing the jump action, to snap that one flawless mid-air photo, I jumped repeatedly over a dozen times, utilizing the camera's burst mode to select a single satisfying frame. Although the pairing of jeans and Martin boots looks remarkably cool, continuous posing for several hours is genuinely exhausting, especially the silver knee pads which felt slightly restrictive when squatting down; yet for the sake of visual payoff, such efforts are entirely acceptable.
Today marks the grand opening day, bringing massive foot traffic to the site; numerous customers browsing collaborative merchandise naturally cast many glances my way. Passersby would occasionally stop for a double take or whisper quietly with friends, while children would point at my ears and exclaim how cute they were. As a cosplayer, being able to showcase a meticulously prepared character within such a fairytale-infused commercial space is an intensely rewarding feeling. The store's newly released blind boxes and figurines were lined up neatly, complementing the brown-and-white balloon decorations to infuse the whole scene with incredible vitality. In the center stood a pillar marked with grand opening blessings, bound with balloons, which I also utilized as a backdrop for a few frames. Visiting Jilin Fortune Plaza on this store tour not only allowed me to experience Northeast China's largest MINISO store but also completed on-site shooting for this styling—making it a deeply fulfilling itinerary. The entire process from makeup and styling to shooting went smoothly, with the store's venue and collaborative elements providing fantastic support for the photos, sealing an unforgettable roleplaying experience.