Cosplay: Dressing And Forgetting

Sometimes, it's good to be someone else.

Cosplay is a very curious hobby, if you think about it. People - usually fans, though that's not a requirement - get up at the wee hours of the morning to start sewing, dying, and stitching together outfits of their favorite characters from film, television, and the interactive medium. Some even go as far as 3D printing their outfits piece by piece before painting them and donning them like armor. This is, of course, not to mention going to conventions in the first place that usually take place during the summer or winter which have extremes of temperature - not the best environment for a stuffy outfit or one that bares you to the forces of nature. It's a process that can get very complex very quickly, which usually means that only those dedicated enough to the craft are the same ones  that end up going all the way. This dedication, however, usually pays in dividends.

For one, it's a creative exercise much like writing or drawing (indeed, a knack for sketching may be necessary for outlining one's intended outfit) or any other act that requires ingenuity and forethought. I'm reminded of a character from a certain children's television series that I can't remember the name of at the moment. Regardless, this character is a bit of a fashionista, quite a literal clothes horse (heh). Instead of the usual archetypal "alpha bitch" role that this character might fill, instead she is portrayed as an artist and entrepreneur. She sketches clothes, hunts for the materials necessary to create them, and finally uses her magic powers to finely craft amazing dresses and suits. Likewise, she runs her own boutique, styled after a carousel, and sells these creations to the herds of individuals who love her work. A character like that is quite a rarity, if I do say so myself, and she's what I think of when I see cosplayers hard at work at their creations. Indeed, they may not be business owners, but they are creative types to be sure. They enjoy the hard work it takes to employ their skills, and some are very adept at doing them fast, challenging themselves. There have been more than one occasion of a character being revealed on the first day of a comic convention, then for that character to already have a person cosplaying as them on the second day of the convention. Needless to say, cosplayers can be ravenous in their pursuit of creation.

Others naturally gravitate to the more boudoir aspects of cosplay, which include endless photoshoots and such. This is kind of a given since a big part of cosplaying is, indeed, the whole "dressing up" business which - if you'd be so inclined - would unsurprisingly make people tilt towards taking pictures of themselves. This also feeds into the creativity point since you can do a whole lot with the image after the fact, as well. Post-processing, special effects, shifting lighting, modifying midtones and shadows - it's all part of the photoshoot process for cosplays, and more room for more art.

Still, the best part of cosplaying - at least in my limited experience - is the sense of freedom that it gives you. I remember going to New York Comic Con a few years ago, and the anonymity and otherness that a given cosplay gives you is an absolutely freeing feeling. You don't have to be you anymore; you can be someone else, you can be a person braver than you, funnier than you, smarter than you, has more fun than you. And you can be that person; the costume is an enabler, an enabler for positive emotions that one wouldn't normally be able to have in their day-to-day, grungy lives. I recall the rush I got as my friends and I paraded through town in our costumes; how much more fun it was to wear a ridiculous outfit while I had on temporary hair dye. We all looked totally ridiculous... and we loved it.

Another aspect, too, of going to these conventions in these outfits is the absolutely amazing sense of community it gives you. Everyone who goes to these conventions go for the same reason: because they love the same things you love. I remember, with my group, being greeted by people we didn't know because we happened to share cosplay from the same series. It was wonderful, and certainly something that everyone should experience.

Cosplay is great. Just plain and simple. Do it if you haven't done it before. There is vast beauty in it, both figuratively and literally.