Having a blast with other people’s looks
In a lonely quirk of fate, Benjaphorn “Sine” Jessadakan set out to advertise the women’s dresses she makes and ended up being more famous than her online store.
That’s because she dresses up as celebrities for the photos posted on Facebook and the resemblance is often amazing.
The second-year student at Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University uploaded her first “celebrity dress-alike” picture two months ago and she now has more than 30,000 followers on Facebook and thousands more on Instagram.
The initial post was a shot of Chloe Grace Moretz in shorts and a spaghetti-strap shirt side by side with one of Sine in the same outfit. “I dress just like her, so why do I look like Co?” she said in the caption, punning on Thai slang for “cow” that rhymes (sort of) with Chloe.
Sine’s friends thought it was adorable and urged her to post it on the “LowcostCosplay” Facebook page, home to amateur fantasists in low-budget costumes. There she earned her first ovations, along with encouragement to keep being creative.
“I picked Chloe because she looked so good in shorts and the top and they were easy to find,” Sine says. “Once it hit the social networks, people said they’d love to see more funny DIY celebrity look-alike dress-ups. Whatever’s trending on the social media, if it suits my style, I’ll work on it.”
By “working on it”, she means trying to build an outfit out of whatever’s lying around. “I used my pyjamas, mesh netting from my car park and plastic bags to create a mermaid costume. And my boyfriend handles the settings and photography.”
Sine’s greatest hits have involved superstars Davika “Mai” Hoorne and Treechada “Poy” Petcharat and beauty queen Panadda “Boom” Wongphudee.
Mai looked so elegant in a black off-the-shoulder dress and pearl necklace that Sine contrived a matching gown and made do with a necklace of round sausage links. Poy looked like a princess in a Ralph Lauren satin gown and long glossy-black hair. Sine managed to replicate the look with seaweed, aluminium foil and a wire pot-scrubber.
Boom proved even more of a challenge, topped by a tiara and funnelled into a sleek black number with plunging cleavage. Sine pulled it all together and then stuck it out front, padding up with, what else, a pair of milk cartons.
Sine’s efforts got a big boost in popularity when Internet star Noo Noi Bon Yod Khao Un Nao Neb (Little Girl on Top of Cold Mountain) – a humorous fashion plate herself – shared Sine’s bosomy Boom with her multitudes of followers.
Naturally it came to the attention of Boom, who re-posted it on her Instagram, saying, “I don’t know who you are, but you’re so funny and I love it!” Boom even supplied a phone number that Sine could call to receive an undisclosed gift.
Now nicknamed the Low-cost Cosplay Queen, Sine has been booked up with TV and newspaper interviews, and one channel even offered her a job.
So, her fans asked, what was the gift from Boom? “The biggest gift Khun Boom gave me was the opportunity to be seen on her Instagram. It’s opened a lot of windows of opportunity for me and my shop.”
