This may sound stupid and incredibly basic, but I continually surprised by would-be cosplayers who don’t know how to ask for help. Beyond the sort of vague cospositive slogans, I haven’t found a great guide for the actual nuts and bolts of how to cosplay, and how to ask for help when you’re stuck.
Now, I will put the disclaimer on this that there are many reasons that people cosplay, so your end goals may be different than mine. My goals (and the goals of this tutorial) are to help you decide on and create a reference accurate cosplay of a specific costume. You may decide that you don’t need to get every detail right, and that’s fine too. Enjoy where this process takes you.
Step One: Decide on a character (and costume).
Have a specific character and costume in mind from the beginning. For example, Batman from the Adam West TV show looks very different from the Batman who appears in the Christopher Nolan movies. Many characters have multiple costumes, so having one specific design in mind will allow you to focus on the details of the costume.
Step Two: Find images for reference.
Even once you’ve found one costume, you may find that certain art depicts details a little differently, and unfortunately, most artists are not also costume designers. They may stick a seam where a seam can’t exist, or they may change the length of a character’s hair as it suits the scene. Pick three or four images, preferably ones that show different angles of the costume, and stick with those. You can drive yourself crazy if you try to incorporate all of the details from all of the art.
Hint: if you pick a live action media, you can look at pictures of actual costumes on actual humans! This helps with making garments that can work in real life.
It is also important that you save these images so if you need to ask for help later, you can show other people what you’re trying to accomplish. I like to make Pinterest boards, but you can keep them on your phone, computer, or print them out and stick them up in your house.
Step Three: Break down the costume.
I think this is the part that loses most people. This takes some practice, but it is the most important part of costuming.
To stick with a theme, I’m going to use Harley Quinn as my example. I’ve already decided I want to use Harley from Batman: The Animated Series, and I’ve grabbed an image from the official show art as my reference.
I’ll start with the obvious things we need to buy.
Harley wears a black and red body suit with diamonds on the legs and arms. She has black gloves with white ruffles, a harlequin hood, and a white collar on the suit. Her shoes seem to match her body suit. Her face has white clown make-up and a black domino mask. Harley doesn’t have any hair showing in this image, so we don’t need a wig, but she does have blue eyes, which I don’t have. So in my potential list of things I need to buy, I’ll put down body suit, gloves, hood, collar, shoes, white make-up, black mask, and blue contacts.
I’ll move on to the things that are probably a little less obvious.
Harley has a pretty hourglass figure, so some shape-wear is probably a good idea. At the very least, you’ll need seamless undergarments that won’t show under the skin tight body suit.
Her hair doesn’t show under her hood, so it will probably be a good idea to get a hair net or figure out some other way to fasten your hair down flat.
Harley wasn’t that hard, right? Let’s try something less straightforward.
This time, I’ve chosen Poison Ivy from the Arkham City video game. This costume is great because the art is from 3D models, but it sucks because, well, what kind of stuff is she wearing? How do you do that?
Simple stuff first. Ivy’s got red hair, green eyes, and a red cardigan or blouse with blue piping. I’ll put down red wig, green contacts, and red sweater.
Now it gets a little trickier. She’s wearing underwear covered in leaves, and she’s got vines creeping through her skin. Definitely not going to be able to order that from Amazon. Brainstorming a little, I think I might be able to make her undies with craft store leaves and some paint. I’ll research it some more later. I’ll add to my list undies, leaves, paint. The vines and green skin will definitely be some kind of make-up or special FX. I put down make-up and look it up later.
Other details which aren’t vital but will make your costume better: Ivy runs around barefooted. Most conventions won’t let you do that, so you’ll have determine what you’ll put on your feet. Sandals seem like a good place to start, but we’ll research more later.
Now you’ve got your list of supplies for two costumes. But you’re still not ready to buy stuff yet.
Step Four: Determine your time, skill level, and budget
I‘ve said it before, there are two ways to do a costume. You can do it quick and expensive, or more slowly and cheaper. I have yet to figure out how to do it quickly and cheaply. What I mean is that you can pay high prices for items that are ready made or shipped quickly to you, or you can spend time looking for coupons, sales, or other deals.
Usually, as soon as I know I’m going to a convention, I’ll start planning what I’m wearing and making. I’ll usually start the leg work of buying things between 2-4 months a head of time (although I’ve finished projects in as little as 5 days). I like to give myself plenty of time to buy or make items, to make mistakes, and to give up on a project and come back to it. You should decide for yourself how quickly you can finish a project. If you’re inexperienced, you should give yourself lots of time. The time it takes you to do projects will decrease over time, but in the beginning everything will take much longer than you think. Plan accordingly.
Everyone comes to cosplaying with different skill sets. Some of my friends were already intermediate seamstresses, so sewing costumes wasn’t a big deal to them. I had some experience with face and body painting, so I had some idea of how to do make-up. Your skill level will determine how you do your cosplay, whether you make or buy your costume, props, and accessories. Its perfectly fine to choose a costume that you might not have the skill for, but you have to then give yourself more time to learn.
This is another huge barrier for entry for some people. Some items in your cosplay will be expensive. Sometimes there is just no way around that. But by giving yourself time to wait for sales or look for coupons, you can afford the more expensive pieces of your costume.
On the other hand, if you decide that the sky is the limit and you can spend all your money cosplaying, then you can pay someone else to do the work and spend your time reading comic books and watching anime instead.
Step Five: Research the shit out of everything
Personally, this is my favorite part. Now that you know how much time, skill, and money you have to work with, you get to figure out how to do everything.
If you’ve determined that you have the skills to make your cosplay (or parts of it) then you’re faced with the daunting task of getting patterns, picking fabric, finding materials, using tools and techniques you’re not familiar with, learning new skills on the fly…its exhausting. But it can also be frustrating if you hit a wall. Luckily, there are a vast amount of resources available to you if you get stuck. Here are some of my favorites:
Seriously, have you tried Googling it? Literally just type your dumb question into Google. You aren’t the first one to try to cosplay, and many people have the same kinds of questions.
Hopefully you’re not embarking on this quest alone, so ask your friends what they think. Even if they don’t know, you might be able to puzzle it out together.
If your friends or stumped, or you don’t have any cosplaying friends, look around online to see if other cosplayers have done the same costume. Many of them are happy to answer your dumb questions on tumblr, Facebook, or other social media.
3) Ask cosplay specific websites or message boards.
The internet is crawling with cosplayers, so if you know where to look, you can pick the brains of all kinds of people.
4) Ask skilled professionals.
This isn’t number 1 on the list because explaining cosplay to someone who’s never heard of it before can be kind of weird. But the people working in fabric stores, hardware stores, hobby stores, and specialty supply stores can have knowledge that you can use. Don’t know how to make your 5 foot long glowing store? The people at Home Depot might not know either, but they might be able to point you to tool to cut plastic sheeting. Not sure how to make a collar for Queen Elizabeth? Try ask at Joann Fabrics.
It is also very important to know how to ask questions. Experienced cosplayers and professionals will be able to help you better if you can ask specific questions, rather than “how do I do this whole thing?” Try to troubleshoot as much as you can on your own, then bring your solutions to the people you want help from.
For example: “I see that Harley Quinn has ruffles on her wrists. What’s the best way to sew ruffles? I’ve read something about a rufflefoot for my sewing machine, will that accomplish what I’m trying to do?” is a good question. It demonstrates that you’ve researched on your own, and you’re looking for guidance.
If you’re a begginer, your vocabulary for crafting or costuming may not be very developed. Things like “understitching” and “polystyrene” are very useful if you know what you’re talking about, but they might as well be another language if you don’t. To get good answers, ask good questions. If you can, show people pictures of what you’re trying to accomplish.
For example: “How would I get raised shapes with make-up?” is a perfectly phrased beginner question if you’re trying to do Poison Ivy.
Remember to be polite and courteous with the people who help you. Thank them for their help, even if you’re not sure you can do what they suggest.
Step Six: Source your supplies.
The internet has opened up a wide array of suppliers from all over the world who can ship many products right to your home. Amazon and Ebay are great places to look for costume parts. If you’re looking for premade costumes, Etsy is also a good place to look.
If you have the time, check out websites like Aliexpress and Taobao (Taobao is in Chinese, and will require a shopping service. Google to find out more). Both are based out of China, which can mean long shipping wait times, but products can be bought cheaply and you may find items that aren’t readily available near you.
Many specialty cosplays shops have popped up online that have wigs, fabrics, and other weird items, so take a look. Some include Arda, Epic Cosplay, and others.
Where ever you buy online, make sure you check the reviews. If something seems weird or shady, don’t buy it.
If you’re buying something online, make sure it will arrive in time for your event. Nothing is worse than your cosplay failing apart because something didn’t arrive in time.
Craft, hobby and fabric stores near you are great if you want to touch or examine items before you buy them. Joann Fabrics, Michael’s, and Hobby Lobby have coupons all the time that you can look up on your phone, so make sure you find them before you check out.
Sometimes you won’t need to start from scratch with a costume element. Sometimes you can modify an existing garment to suit your cosplaying needs. Get creative, and try to see how sewing or crafting can transform an item into a piece of your cosplay.
Step Seven: Buy your supplies.
If possible, try to wait to see if your items go on sale. In physical stores, make sure you’re not missing any coupons. Online, see if you can find codes for free shipping.
I like to space out my buying so I don’t have sticker shock all at once, but you can buy your supplies whenever is most convenient for you.
I like to have a box or corner somewhere in my house that I can stash my supplies when they arrive.
Hang onto your receipts until you’re sure your products work!
Step Eight: Make your costume.
Assuming you’ve done your research, this probably won’t be the hardest part. Make sure all the products you’ve bought are the right size, color, etc. that you need, and return them if you don’t. Make mock-ups, if its possible to to do so, with a cheaper material or on a smaller scale. Test of the paint and dyes you plan on using and make sure they work the way you think they do.
Don’t get discourage if something doesn’t work the way you expect. Set it aside, ask more questions, do more research, and try again..
You did it! Everything fits, everything you ordered arrived, you can try on your costume and bask in the glory of your completed costume.
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