Cosplay is not an isolated phenomenon. No longer confined to Japan and other Asian countries, the art of costumed play has taken hold globally. No where is that more evident than Cosplay.com, which attracts cosplayers from around the world, and lets them show off photos of their costumes. That's where I found the Russian cosplay group, Imperia.

Imperia is composed of Nadejda Zhuenko (aka Brytt Crow), Diana Tokubaeva (aka Lilith), Svetlana Ylyinich, Natalia Voroninsky (aka Alix Alberti), Maria Berkutova (aka Zlaya Panda), Ekaterina Efremova (aka LGKit), and Elena Vinogradova (aka Lenochka). Together, they created masterful cosplay costumes, and show them off at photoshoots and conventions in Russia.

I recently had a chance to interview the group, with Natalia Voroninsky acting as their spokeswoman. If you've ever had an interest in cosplay group dynamics, or wanted to learn more about the cosplay scene in Russia, then I definitely recommend taking a look!

Alltern8: When and how did Imperia form?

Natalia Voroninsky: It all began in 2006 when we decided to stop just watching and admiring Japanese cosplay of Thores Sibamoto’s illustrations of (Yoshida Sunao)’s novels “Trinity Blood”. The title “Imperia” and the idea of creating under it appeared in December, 2006. We completed our first fotosession with Empress Seth Nightlord’s and Ion Fortuna’s costumes. Next year we started performing on stage as a cosband and the number of participants increased. The title “Imperia” appeared because our first cosplays were from True Human Empire and we had Empire Zaibach from “The vision of Escaflowne” in plans. So from the historic point of view it ended that way.