I'm Tiffany E., also known as LadyKage. I'm a model and cosplayer from Iowa. I approach everything in life with a combination of my Midwestern sensibility and a love of making people smile, laugh, and feel good about themselves.
I started cosplaying in 2017 at Anime Iowa and fell in love with the idea of bringing beloved characters to life through costuming, modeling, and creative pursuits. Naturally, this gave me plenty of exposure to Japanese culture and fashion, and I delved into the subject to learn as much as I could so I could accurately portray the characters I modeled.
Prior to my focus on cosplay modeling, I was a surgical technologist. As anyone in health care knows, maintaining a sense of humor while simultaneously keeping things professional in a time-sensitive, highly detailed, and sometimes stressful situation is absolutely crucial to a good working environment and successful outcomes for everyone involved, especially patients. My experiences have shaped my methods when modeling. I like to stay flexible, open to ideas and direction, and capable of being professional at a moment's notice, all while putting others around me at ease with humor and a positive attitude.
Building others up is part of my philosophy because I am dyslexic and dyscalculic, and wasn't always treated very well in school because of that. I like to be encouraging of others who might be facing toxic attitudes from people around them, simply because their brains work a little differently than your typical brain. Many dyslexic people enjoy manga and/or comic books because they convey complex ideas via pictures as well as text, and I want to help bring the characters who have sparked their imaginations to life for them.
Since 2019, I have teamed up with Tangerine Mountain Imports and Designs at conventions across the United States to help show attendees at anime conventions the beauty of kimono and the awesomeness that is Japanese street fashion. Not only does this give me the chance to inspire others to incorporate kimono in their fashion lives, but it also means I've had the opportunity to model in everything from the latest fashions out of Harajuku to antique kimono and obi well over 130 years old. I've created my own looks incorporating designers like ACDC Rag and mixing them with vintage kimono to feed my creativity and hopefully encourage others to experiment with new looks, too.
In my spare time I enjoy reading (one of my favorites is a manga called Wotakoi, or Love is Difficult for an Otaku, and The Way of the House Husband), playing video games with my husband (Sims, Pokémon, lots of different JRPGs), and weight training at the gym.
I'm always open to new challenges and opportunities to model. Please drop me a line if you are interested in working with me!