I love cosplay. As a relative newcomer to the hobby (I’ve only done about 4 of them so far), I’d like to give my own account of my experiences, and who knows, maybe through this article I can inspire some of the borderline cosplayers out there to finally join in the fun.
First of all, I’ll tell you my motivation. At my first con, I was simply in awe of all the creativity and skill on display. There were all kinds of nerd culture being represented, from movies, to anime, to video games. What’s more, everyone seemed to be having fun taking pictures and posing for the crowds. It 
was very hard to find anyone without a smile on their face, and having been to the other side of that, having done a cosplay and had people ask me for photos and poses, I can tell you exactly why they were smiling.
The first real cosplay I ever did was Rinoa from Final Fantasy 8. I wore it to Arcade Con back in 2013. I’d done one or two previous to this, but honestly, I’d be stretching to call them cosplays as much as outfits that resembled the same colors as some of my favorite characters, my Téa from Yu-Gi-Oh for Nom-Con the previous year was basically just a green blouse and shorts I’d bought the week before the con. I’d spent months worrying about my Rinoa. I was lucky enough that my mam was in a knitting craze at the time and agreed to knit me a full length blue duster, which i then painted wings on to look like Rinoa’s. I had literally no sewing experience, so again, very thankful to my mam for helping me figure out how to use the sewing machine without sewing my finger to the jeans I’d cannibalized to make her shorts.
Those items thrown together with a black tank top, blue arm warmers and the clunkiest pair of Doc Martens I’ve ever worn made up the full costume, however I still didn’t feel like it was enough. With that in mind I made my first ever prop, which was probably my favorite part of the cosplay, Rinoa’s ultimate weapon, the Shooting Star (pictured right). I’d put it together with Pritt stick, cardboard, craft foam and 4 gems for the centre piece. Unfortunately, it was falling apart the second I stepped into the sun to wait in line for the con. The sun was so hot that day, it was melting the glue holding the thing together. The wings were holding on by a thread, not even resembling the flat disc style of the weapon, and I’m fairly sure more than a few foam feathers were scattered around the floor of the con by the end of the weekend. It was a nightmare! But none of that mattered, because not 10 minutes after I’d collected my pass and gotten into the con, I was stopped by an overexcited Final Fantasy fan, with requests for pictures and tips so that she could make her own Rinoa.
That feeling you get when someone not only recognises your costume but compliments it and wants visual proof it existed is an exhilarating one, intoxicating even. It’s the recognition that, whether you bought your costume or made every little itsy bitsy detail, you did something good, you look great, and trust me, you’ll almost definitely want to cosplay again.
Thankfully, I haven’t encountered any rude or offensive behaviour for a costume. All the cosplayers I’ve met, online or offline, have been completely supportive and friendly, and I’m sure that I’m not the only one who can say that.
As an example, I once read a post from a girl in a League Of Legends cosplay group. She wanted to do a cosplay of a character called Nidalee, who for those of you who don’t play, is based off of Amazonian jungle warriors, and reveals her stomach in her costume. Now this girl had no problem showing her body. In her words, she was a little on the chubby side, but it didn’t bother her. The problem she had was she was worried her weight would make other people uncomfortable, and was debating making a fully covered up version of her costume. Not one single reply to her post told her to cover up or flamed her for her weight. Every single one of them was supportive, telling her that if she was comfortable, and she loved her costume, that’s all that mattered.
I can only speculate as to each individual commenter’s reason, but I’m gonna say its close enough to this: Cosplay is meant to be enjoyed and celebrated, whatever the character, whatever the style. Anyone who spends months slaving away at a sewing machine just for one dress that they’ll wear maybe two or three times a year at most, has incredible dedication. It’s so much work for relatively little payback, but do they care, nope! They do it all because they simply love what they’re doing. That’s dedication, and passion, and talent to top it all off!
So whether you want to cosplay to learn a skill like sewing or prop making, or you want to show off in photos, or you just love your character and want to spend a few hours acting as crazy as they do, I say go for it! Throw your heart into your outfit and strut your stuff at your next convention. You deserve it!
Even more so, it’s a great way to mingle. Whether people recognise your character and want to talk about the media they’re from, or they just recognise hard work and exquisite detailing, your costume is the perfect ice breaker. Don’t get me wrong, I know full well the dark side of cosplay. I’ve seen plenty of stories about girls and guys who cosplay outside of their race or body type, or do a slightly revealing cosplay, and get nothing but hate for it. However, I do think the community can get a bit bogged down on the negatives, and a lot of them stop seeing the positive side of cosplaying.
[Words By: Laura Kelly]
