On this, the first day of October, it's time to take a moment and consider a hobby I came into only as an adult but one that has become an industry for so many: cosplay. What is cosplay? Cosplay is the act of dressing up as a character from a movie, TV show, video game or comic, most often associated with Japanese manga and anime. Many misunderstand cosplay, thinking it for nerds or geeks; stuff kids throw together in the basement like ghetto Halloween costumes, dancing around playing at being a character. So I felt it important to take a moment to talk about cosplay, show it a little bit more in depth, and tell what it means to me.
Ever since I was a child, I have loved dressing up. I would frequently sit on the bed in my parent's bedroom, looking at all the dresses my mom had in her closet and imagine what it would be like to wear them. Halloween was my favorite time of year because I could dress up in a costume and no one would look at me funny. My first attempt at cosplay was in the 90's, at a convention called Baka-con (later renamed Sakura-con). I dressed up as a character named Lime from an anime called Saber Marionette J. Her trademark was a squeak when she walked. To replicate that, I gutted a dog toy and pulled out the squeaker, carried it around in my hand and squeezed it whenever I took a step. There was one other girl there dressed as Lime, and she asked me how I managed to avoid squeaking all the time. I told her, and she said she'd wished she'd thought of that before building the squeakers into her shoes, as the sound got annoying after a while.
Back then, cosplay was still in its infancy, and it was considered a fringe thing. Even now people don't take cosplay seriously. Finally, though, that perception is starting to change. Big names like Yaya Han and Firefly Path have taken what started as a hobby and transformed it into full-fledged careers with pattern and fabric contracts with companies like Simplicity and McCalls. Individual cosplayers like Kamui Cosplay, Pretzl Cosplay, and Kinpatsu Cosplay have taken their hobbies and grown them into teaching industries with books and video tutorials teaching others around the world what they have learned while perfecting their craft. Photographers like DTJAAAAM have turned cosplay photos into a career leading to credits from Kotaku all the way to the Wall Street Journal. The world of cosplay is edging into mainstream as more and more people pick up the craft and learn what they can do with it.
One of the biggest hurdles I had with getting into the field was the prohibitive costs associated with costuming. I am, at best, a novice seamstress. I can sew, but not with any kind of ease and I frequently have difficulty with sewing in a straight line. I'm still learning terms and techniques, and though I started doing counted cross-stitch when I was a young teen I still am terrible at hand-sewing. One of the key factors in costuming is fabric. Fabric is not cheap, unless it's poor quality, at which point it's a waste to use it to do anything serious. The last thing I wanted to do was spend hundreds on high-quality fabric only to mess up and ruin it. One day, while shopping at my local Goodwill for clothes for my kids, I wandered into the linens section. There were some plain white bed sheets on sale for $1. I had planned to make a satin cape as a wedding gift for a friend of mine, but was terrified of messing up the fabric by messing up the pattern. I saw those sheets and it hit me: I could get three of them for $1 each and use them to practice the pattern. I could see what worked and what wouldn't, where I would have the most difficulty, and what I would have to change to fit her. And I could do it all for about $4 after tax.
After that, I went a bit insane. I started stockpiling patterns, researching fabrics, and pulling out excuses to make things. The ease with which I could get cheap sheets and practice with them, or use old, leftover fabric I inherited from my grandmother, made me want to actually do things. I'm still not that good, even with several years of intermittent practice. What I have done, however, is set aside the notion that I could never make costumes like I see on TV or in games. Instead, I say "I can't do that yet." It has boosted my confidence and given me the motivation I needed to start actually sewing instead of just letting my machine collect dust. It has also given me the opportunity to start looking into things besides sewing.
That was years ago, and while I am still not regular with my sewing, I am no longer quite so afraid of my machine. This year I chose to start experimenting with EVA foam to make armor, as my Halloween costume for this year is "Evil Warrior Queen". I have made my own costumes the last couple of years, and while I'm not fantastic I do see definite improvement in my skills. The biggest thing I can say the exploding world of cosplay has done is give me some perspective. I won't lie; I have self-esteem and body issues. I'm a size and shape where modern fashion considers me too fat and plus-size fashion considers me too skinny. Finding clothes that fit is a chore. Finding clothes that make me feel good and look good is even harder. Particularly difficult for me? I love goth fashion. I have naturally pale skin and dark hair, so dark colors look fantastic on me. Black and dark purple are favorites, and the cold-shoulder look is my favorite. Dressing goth, though, gets as many odd looks as dressing up in costumes.
Watching grown adults with a similar size and shape to me have the confidence to dress up as She-Ra, Wonder Woman, or Sailor Moon gave me hope. Seeing the overwhelming positive and supportive response from a community given to those people gave me the confidence to embrace myself and try more. I still work out, I still pay attention to what I eat and how much, and I still do what I can to improve my body even as I know it will never be "enough". But seeing all these wonderful people going out there, dressing up, and just being a part of it shows me what's possible. The public perception of cosplay is changing. No longer is it some nerd fringe thing, but a true career path for people with the desire and determination to take part. Intricate costume design is no longer in the hands of Hollywood or the Halloween costume industries, but has been taken over by DIY-ers developing skills they happily pass on to the masses. As more and more people learn that making intricate costumes isn't as hard as they thought, cosplay becomes a more acceptable thing. It becomes a gateway into self-employment, fashion design, and media careers for people like Ms. Han, who would have been ridiculed for thinking their hobby could possibly make money twenty years ago.
As the world grows more accepting of cosplay and what it can do, so, too, do I grow more accepting of myself.