Forum - View topicWhere can I find cosplay stuff?
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11293 Location: Frisco, TX |
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This wasn't a real big deal to me, and I thought it was kinda weird that people would actually dress up to go to conventions.
But recently, I've been wondering where could you get cosplay stuff? Is most of it homemade or is their a site that specializes in these? A couple of years ago, I dressed up as a Chinese swordsman for my friend's Halloween block party. A lot of people didn't know what the heck I was, and one lady called my "a scholar" because my hat looked like one of those graduation ones (eventhough the one I wore felt more like a chef's hat, only black  ).
Anyway, some year I'd like to dress up as someone from an anime, but I don't really have time to search or make things, and if I do have time, I'm too lazy to do it. I saw Alucard's and Vash's guns on Ebay once, but those seem pretty rare and I never saw them again. I also saw a pair of each of their sunglasses, but they seem a little expensive. I thought of dressing up like Saitou Hajime from Kenshin, but my hair was too short and I didn't have a wig, the uniform, or a katana. Ah well, right now, I'm thinking of dressing as Miroku, but I feel I'd look stupid in that monk outfit. My ethnicity is Asian (American), so I feel I won't look too akward. Any suggestions or comments? |
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BERSERK EVA
 Posts: 271 |
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A good amount is homemade, or customized by a store for people. The items for cosplay that are out their arent really costumes, just things to add to you custom costume. You want to be Alucard? So you go out and buy a black suit, a white dress shirt, a pair of boots, a red bow tie thing, a red trench coat, and a red hat, and say you are Alucard (im not sure if that is exactly what he wears, i haven't seen hellsing for a while). Then if you look around you might find expensive props, like his gloves with the signs on them, and his two guns, and his glasses. Then you have a really full custom costume, because you took the normal cloths you have or bought and fixed them up to look like Alucards cloths, and then you went out and got authentic props like his 2 guns, glasses, and a pair of gloves.
Thats how most coplayers do it. You'll only get a already made costume from a store if that anime was so popular a costume company picks up the rights to make such. Most of the cosplay items are just their to make your custom costume look more like the character your trying to be. The only full cosplay costume I've seen that was made buy a company was Misato's red outfit: the small red jacket, mini skirt, black t-shirt and her red beret hat thing (Misato from Evangelion). But those were limited to few, and most of the few were actually handed out to the people who made them if i remember correctly, making them very hard and expensive for the public to buy. But thats the only full cosplay costume I've seen that was produced to sell to the public. So the bottem line is...if you want to do cosplay, your on your own. There are a few items out there that will spruce up your costume, like Vash's gun and glasses. But no full costumes, just small add-ons. |
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Neardawg1979
 Posts: 44 Location: West Chester, PA |
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I would suggest you don't do it at all if you can't do it right. There's nothing worse than looking stupid in public. To be honest I don't think I've ever seen any good cosplay besides the paid models at conventions. If you were serious about it, maybe you could get someone with tailoring skills to make you a costume professionally.
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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I make my own costumes, causing my sewing skills to slowly improve. Usually cons only allow costumes you've created yourself for the cosplay/costume contests.
A warning to the wise though, cosplaying is an expensive hobby. Depending on your costume, you can spend anywhere from 40$ to 200$. Heck, I've known people to go over that. My biggest complaint on cosplaying are shoes, and wigs. Those are the hardest things to get to look like your character's original outfit, and you usually have to search all over the internet to get something relativly close to it. Like Berserk Eva said, a good amount of it is homemade. Heck, about 90% of it is, at least it is here in America. They Japanese take it to the next step by making items ment for cosplayers, like "official chii ears" and "naruto headbands". And they have countless companies where you can custom order comissions. Commissions are pretty much your only choice if you want to cosplay without making your own costume. For that you need to find a friend who can sew and make a deal with them, or find a seamstress online. You can find tons online that specialize in cosplay clothes. A cool site to check out is http://www.cosplaylab.com. You can do a search for a certian costume, and see what other people have done to make it. |
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phoelixian
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There's a company up in Newfoundland, Canada I believe that specializes in making clothes from film and video. My companies business magazine did a story on them and we featured a photo of a model wearing Vash's Duster coat! Unfortunately, they are very expensive and are all custom orders. If anyone is interested I can get a link for their contact info.
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BERSERK EVA
Posts: 271 |
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That is a good thought. I've seen many good coplayers though, guess it depends where you go and live. I live in CA and I go to the San Diego Comic Con and my friend goes to the Anime Expo and brings back pictures for me. I see great costumes at the Comic Con and the pictures from my friend shows have some great costumes. And I know which are homemade or are put together by the staff of the convention. Its true, if your gonna do cosplay, you should be able to make it well yourself or be ready to spend some bucks to get a tailor to do it.
Though I disagree with looking stupid in public. Cosplay is just for fun, if you feel stupid wearing the costume in public then you shouldnt do any cosplay. Cosplay is made to be fun and you should be proud to show off your costume, especially if you made it. |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11293 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Well actually, I wasn't planning on going to any conventions. I just wanted to dress up for Halloween, that's all.
I wouldn't dress up for any other occassion really. I just thought that since everyone else is dressing up around that time, it'd be nice to dress up as something those people might not know about, yet still appear impressive to them. Though I suppose, if any one them were anime fans, they'd probably recognize me and (hopefully) give a compliment or two. Oh well, maybe it's just a fad for me or something. Guess I'll have to try and develop something myself then. Thanks! |
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Hotaru
Posts: 481 Location: NY |
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you can probably be able to find someone who can commission a costume for you, but it may be expensive. if it's only for halloween, then you can get away with just buying stuff for alucard like someone mentioned.
but usually, cosplayers like perfection, so buying stuff that looks similar won't cut it unless it's impossible to make on your own. on this note, does anyone know where they sell last exile things? i've seen pictures of alex row's brooch, the silvana pin, and patches.......the link was here. damn, i was looking for that before! i guess no one knows where to get them. |
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uso_mitai_manga_ka
 Posts: 2 Location: Las Vegas, NV |
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try ebay, they have some good cheap stuff
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Shorty22
 Posts: 504 |
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I imagine some of it is just wandering around stores, looking at items until something jumps out at you. For example, I walked by the sandal section of Wal-mart recently and there were these extremely cheap sandals that look like the ones the samurais, monks, etc of old Japan wear in anime. For like $2! Everytime I see them, I can't help but think, "Man, that would go great with a cosplay for Miroku/Kenshin/etc." But as I can't get to any cons, it's just my mind wondering... ^-^;
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