I hope this isn't inappropriate to ask, but do you have any tips for someone who doesn't have a lot of money, but still wants to cosplay?
It is absolutely not innappropriate!
Using some of these tips here I´ve made several cosplays that only cost me a few bucks, so I hope it´s helpful!This might be really messy and all over the place, but here we go.Firstly - BudgetsLearn how to make a budget for your cosplay so you know where your money is going. I´m not good at this, so I´ll link a video to someone who explains it a lot better than I could.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j84WlzZb7doSecondly - Make, Thrift, Buy?Go to thrift stores for anything that you think you could get there. No need to sew a white button-up when there are a million of them around, you know?
You can find a whole lot of stuff in thrift shops, and if you learn how to Frankenstein pieces together to get the look you want, you´re well on track. If you need help figuring out how to modify items like this, I suggest you look at Annika Victoria on youTube: (https://www.youtube.com/user/AnnikaVictoria24) She has a series called “Make, Thrift, Buy” and I´ve found it really interesting and useful.
Thrift shops also sometimes have a box of fabric somewhere, that might be helpful to check out if you need some nice fabric for smaller pieces of your cosplay.Honestly, some of my very first cosplays where sewn from fancy-looking sheets i found in thrift shops. The fabric wasnt very thick, but it worked out just fine.
I´ve made several cosplays just from this teqnique alone, and spent very little money on them.
Thirdly - eBay is your friend. I have a lot of friends who are afraid of using eBay because they think it´s untrustworthy, but let me tell you a thing. eBay has what´s called a Money Back Guarantee. If you do not receive your item, you can write to eBay and they will refund you, even if the seller is not replying to your messages or are refusing. And you can always send back items and ask for a refund if it did not live up to your expectations. But most of the time, if you choose a seller with good reviews, you´re not going to get into this sort of trouble. Never trust a seller with below 98% good reviews, and things should be alright. Also, if something looks too good to be true, message the seller and ask if you can see some pictures that are not stock-images, since stock images can just be taken from the internet. If they refuse to show other pictures, find someone else. The stock images might not actually be theirs.
I buy all of my wigs from eBay and 98% of the time, they´re good quality! I´ve even bought lacefront wigs very cheap on eBay which are the most stunning wigs I´ve ever had in my own two hands.
Also things like LED lights or random plastic shapes you might need. eBay has an endless sea of things
Clothes as well, especially if you´re a small person (like me) cosplaying men. Because Asian men´s sizes fit me perfectly, whereas European men´s sizes make me look like a toddler in his fathers clothes. If you need button-ups or blazers in small sizes, eBay is great.
Fourthly? Fourthsomething - Other resourcesUse all the resources you can get your hands on. I save cereal boxes so I can use the cardbord, save old jewelry cus i might use the stones, save old clothing that has nice fabric.
My mother´s a house painter, so I get paint and sealer through her. My father was once a technician, and through him I can get access to tools and expertise that I wouldn´t get otherwise. I have friends who I trade cosplays or wigs with when we can no longer use those things ourselves, and the other might be able to somehow cut up the fabric and find a use for it. Or you could trade materials!
Connections like that are great - They might also have a sewing club somewhere in your area where you could go use the embroidery machine and not have to pay a ton for your own? Your Grandma might have some fancy tablecloths she no longer wants? I don´t know, figure out what other resources you have, you´ll be surprised.
And the last thing i can think of right now: Prioritise. Only spend money on cosplays you know you are really burning to do. In my early years of cosplaying I did a lot of characters were, looking back, I realise I only did them because I could, and because it would be easy and then I would have a new cosplay for that con, and I wouldn´t have to wear one of the old cosplays that I also wasn´t burning for making or wearing.
Working harder and spending more money on one cosplay that you´ll love and wear for a long time ends up being worth much more than making a bunch of small, cheap cosplays that you´ll only touch once.
It took me way too long to learn this, so I hope that´s helpful as well.
theartofmadeline
andulkaphoto
vaporwave
tangentwithtanner
kaledo-art
