Cosplay

[speakerofthedead]

Just being curious, who here has cosplayed, and who as? And does getting the hair completely right really matter? (Every idea I've had my friend has turned down on the basis that we don't have the right hair.)

I'm currently planning to cosplay as Kira from Gundam SEED in November at Ayacon. ^_^

[Lamasu]

cosplayed as MadHatter/ Belial twice.

the first time was because I messed up my Rose Bride costume and needed to make a costume in two days for a masquarade - my wardrobe totaly matches the Mad Hatter so all I had to do was dye my hair red and buy some face paints.

I improved the costume for another convention - ie - I had a pair of butterfly wings and a better hat [img]tongue.gif[/img]

my Rose Bride costume is ready for the next con and I am also working on the Kurai bridal dress for a really huge Angel sanctuary cosplay group (we have 20 people - i guess its not too small). this is also an out of the closet costume (heh - I supose my gothic and lolita tendencies are showing [img]tongue.gif[/img] )

its nice to have the right hair but I don't think its absolutely essencial - you can get a good wig for resonable prices anyway. I will be relying on wigs for this coming con as I will be in the process of looking for a job and going to an interview for a librarian position with purple hair is probably not a good tactic [img]tongue.gif[/img]

the most important thing is enjoyment - accuracy comes second as far as I am concerned - just feel like you are the character for one night - its great (aparently , though I made a very bouncy and hyper Mad Hatter) I think I got a picture for me somewher on one site or another I'll try and fish them out... [img]smile.gif[/img]

[jadey]

ive never cosplayed cuz there isnt any place arond here to do so...and im not traveling anywhere to do so. but for last halloween i got my inspiration for a costume from madhatter. i think madhetter just has the coolest costume. I even colored my hair bright brilliant red (it was washable) and a cut it so that it looked like her haircut. i wore my brothers suit from when he was a kid and put on sexy type clothes underneath and i had a cane and a hate and it was cool...;_; i wanna do it again for this halloween but oh well cant do it twice.

[Reikou Hitakana]

I've cosplayed as Tetsuo from Akira and Seishirou from X.

-Karrde-

[Risu-chan]

^_^;;;; I'm part of a nearly-professional cosplay group that gives presentations on how-tos at conventions. We're called the Not Ready for Bandai Players.

There's basically two philosophies out there: there's the insanely expensive "it has to be perfect and cost $500" version, and then there's our philosophy, which I call "guerilla costuming." It involves extensive use of every cheap or free resource you can lay hands on...

We've kind of hit a point-of-pride balance point. We do cheaper costumes than the people who get the professionally-tailored Utena costumes, but we also do things better than the "cut off a ragged piece of fraying satin and safety-pin it around the bottom edge of a white T-shirt over a pair of wrong-colored shorts that are sticking out the bottom and call yourself Sailor Moon" brigade (of which I've seen far too many. ^^;; [img]wink.gif[/img]

To answer the specific question -- from my personal philosophical point of view, it's good to take a *reasonable* stab at getting hair the right length and color, but it definitely doesn't have to be your OWN hair you do this with. (Halloween wigs are great for cosplay, come pretty cheaply in a wide range of colors, and there are a lot of shops online which sell them all year around.)

I wrote up a "guerilla costuming manifesto" a couple years ago for a presentation at a con in Michigan; it's in the Anime Central Yahoo group's Files folder if anyone wants to browse...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anime_...ay%20handouts/

(I don't know if you have to join to see it though...)

Ed: Oh yeah, you were wanting a character list too...

Let's see. Over the past six years, I've been... in approximate order...

Kenshin
Duo Maxwell
Noin Claude from Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne
Azusa from Ranma 1/2
Aburatsubo from Mahou Tsukai Tai
Yuki from Gravitation

Other notables from our group were much flashier than mine, including:

The Great Will of the Universe (a walking black disc with arms sticking out and electric-powered stars lighting up)

Daitokuji Hikaru in a tearaway business suit over B-ko's Battle Bikini (the suit tore-off onstage)

Half-Fujiko, Half-Sailor Moon (there was a nasty accident at a Jusenkyo spring in the skit and Kathleen did a 30-second onstage quick-change ^_^)

...yeah, those were our three big show-stoppers, although the year we did the half-and-halfs, EVERYONE had a half-and-half... whole lotta sewing. ^^;;;

<font color="#660033" size="1">[ August 20, 2003 12:03 PM: Message edited by: Risu-chan ]</font>

[speakerofthedead]

Ah, thank you! This is useful. ^_^ Now all I'm hoping is the charity shops in my area sell orange clothing. (Due to a minor 'disagreement', I changed characters.)

[Celstarion]

I think cosplaying is great. For most of my costumes, its mix and match from my wardrobe (in my first year of cosplaying it actually won me a prize but I wasn't there to collect it.)

Getting the hair right doesn't always matter. I actually tied my hair with the wrong coloured ribbon the first year but the point was I had fun. ^^ Then I did Fuuko Kirisawa and last year Belial. My hair was curly and short so all I had to do was dye it red.

If you want coloured hair you have two options. One being a wig and the other being to dye your hair. If you are going to use temporary dye though I would suggest you try it in advance to give you a rough gauge of how much you might need. And sometimes, its important to test it out a few days before to ensure that it actually works on your hair. Some dyes just won't stay on certain types of hair.

For styles just try it with strong hold hair gel. With a few hidden pins I do believe it may be possible to get the hairdo you want. ^^