Cosplay Girls Daily

People about cosplay...

Pick your favorite character, or one you would have the most interest in creating, and start looking for items that can be turned into props. Go to the thrift stores and find clothing that can be altered, or may even work as it. Figure out how to do an ‘adaptation’ of a character – for instance, I have a Rarity (My Little Pony) costume that is a purple skirt, purple and white blouse, large white hat and purple wig. I have either white or purple heels to go with it, but I forget which. Everything except the wig was repurposed out of my own closet.

If you haven’t done any costuming at all before, pick a character that usually wears ‘street clothes’. There are also a ton of eBay sellers out there that offer custom made cosplays, but you have to be careful and read reviews about their sizing – a lot of them tend to run small. I’ve also bought stand alone pieces like corsets, boots, purses, etc., from eBay and Etsy. This one store on eBay sold cheap corsets for ten bucks each – they didn’t stand up to long term use, but they did work for about a year of conventions, each, and held up pretty good for the per-wear price. Anything you buy from a China eBay seller, plan to give it a month lead time. I usually get wigs and whatnot within 2-3 weeks, but the sellers usually say to allow for 30 days. And there are a lot of good inexpensive wigs on eBay too!

If you don’t sew, there are a lot of ways to get started, even if you aren’t crafty at all! those are skills you can pick up later on if you have a desire to.

Good luck!

I actually role play as well. Role play and cosplay are almost the same thing. The only really different thing is that we not only act like the characters but we dress like them as well. The definition I give people when they ask what cosplay is, is this; cosplay means costume role play. We find a character that like/love and use cosplay as a way to bring them into the real world as best we can.

The appeal of cosplay for me is being able to create these amazing things using my skills that I have cultivated over the years. I guess it’s the same for people that like to cook. Cooking is fun and fine but I don’t think I’d really want to try my hand at making something worthy of a 5 star restaurant. That would just be way out of my skill level and I wouldn’t enjoy myself at all.

So yes, cosplay is kind of almost like that 5 star thing that people put a lot of time and effort into because they are passionate about it. Cosplay has also made it so that I have something to connect to people with. A lot of my family viewed it the same way as you do. Just adults and older teens that are dressing up on days other than Halloween. But after they saw just how much time and effort I put into these cosplays that I make they have gained a bit of a more ‘healthy’ respect for it.

If you get to know a cosplayer you will probably find that they are pretty passionate about their so called ‘hobby’. You could meet a cosplayer that may not have all of the resources that more ‘experienced’ cosplayers have. They may just sew everything by hand because they don’t have a sewing machine and work on cosplays in the corner of their shared bedroom because there’s just not enough space. Or you could meet a cosplayer that has years of experience and has won awards for their cosplays. They know exactly what kind of fabric to use for which kind of cosplay pieces. They have an entire workshop just for cosplay crafting.

But in the end we are all just a bunch of passionate nerds trying to bring our waifus and bishi boys into the real world. You don’t have to get the appeal of cosplay, just maybe respect those that do. I hope that helped you. :)

Putting aside for the moment that the tone of the question doesn’t imply the most open of minds, cosplay is – simply – acting. Do you consider Mel Gibson, Ken Branagh, David Tennant, Cumberbatch, et. al. immature for wanting to dress up and act as Hamlet? Cosplay is a similar – if not identical – mindset: people, inspired by characters, possessing the right combination of talent, bravery and self-awareness, performing as said character for an audience. Whether it’s a convention stage or a Broadway stage makes no difference. The person who portrays Deadpool or Master Chief is very much spiritual kin to the person who plays King Lear or Hamlet. It’s wrong to praise one and denigrate the other based on the source of their inspiration, for to declare which works are “great” and which are not is subjective or worse. Still, even if most consider it blasphemy to compare Marvel to Shakespeare, the motivation to portray characters from either realm is identical and the healthy mindset WON’T criticize this, realizing that whatever it doesn’t “get” is not automatically inferior or invalid.

PS: Ironically you will find, if you but ask, that most cosplayers as children were very successful Trick or Treaters, as Halloween is quite often the “bug” that bites them for their subsequent motivation.