#not really cosplay

[themichigami]

Ancient Cosplay

so, my mom was actually the first cosplayer i ever knew, not that we knew what cosplay was or that she knew she was doing it back then. she had a thing for the Highlander movies (and much later the tv series) when i was a kid, and one day found long coats of the proper kind while we were out shopping, and she circled that rack like a confused shark several times even going from one end of the store to the other and then back to it before finally talking herself into buying one.

This was the late 80's in deep mountain Appalachia, the idea of buying an article of clothing just because it looked like something your favorite movie character wore was not an accepted idea to most people yet. even halloween costumes were horrible plastic masks and a printed plastic bag bib thing at the time, so casual cosplay and closet nerdery as we know them today did not exist. The first few times she wore it, she almost acted like she was sneaking around in it, all super awkward, which confused me at the time. i've since seen the same behavior in cosplayers who wear something to dress like their favorite thing in public for the first time and finally realized what it was. After that, the confidence she gained, she loved that coat and loved knowing why she bought that coat, and that it was like getting away with something in plain sight. Also, it was and still is a really nice coat And yes, I still have the coat, I wore it to college for a long while before i got my blue winter coat, i only stopped wearing it because the blue coat was bought to shut up the person who kept calling me Gambit to make fun of me because of the brown coat and bike gloves thing i had going on for a long while at the time. (also they had heard me not using my "city voice" a couple times and made fun of my accent, i was a bit touchy about it at the time.)

Found the coat again while cleaning through some things I hadn't touched since college, and decided to pull it and some other things out of the box and dress up as late 90's miche for halloween this year. I still haven't had the chance to get those pictures up, but someone recently got me thinking asking stuff about cosplay in the old days, by which they meant 20 years ago when i started doing conventions, but I immediately thought of mom and her ridiculous longcoat that became my ridiculous longcoat, and how expressing fandom changes over time.

Considering its from the late 80's and has been in a box since 2005, it's in pretty good shape. Someday my dumb ass will get the halloween photoshoot pictures posted, but until then, enjoy some weird old geek's nostalgia.

[petterwass]

Traveling to a Halloween party when you don't have a car presents some unique challenges for sure.

Thankfully my wings fit perfectly on the side of the train luggage rack!

[heartorbit]

figure skating set right now please. thanks

[messandahalf10]

Orcrist tattoo. Thorin Oakenshield surcoat. Real arming sword. All I need now is that leather armour I keep putting off making 🙈😅

[xitsensunmoon]

My first ever comic con! And first cosplay too. Of course it's gonna be my boy :] Ramblings about the process are under the cut(Let me know if?? You would want me to elaborate with process images for any of the steps?)

The costume took me forever to make, as I've never done any machine sewing, sculpting, fabric dying or spray painting before but learning all of these was so fucking fun!! I never realised just how many different skills go into making a cosplay but it was so worth it!!!

Almost all of the clothes(except the hat) were purchased first as bases, but all of the detailing was added by me. All of the fabric used was originally just scraps that I was given for free so I needed to learn how to dye and dye all of the stars, they were originally white.

The sewing machine was its own beast that brought me tons of frustration from the lack of skill and knowledge (it was devastating to find out that 95% of fuck ups were my fault and not the machine's lmao). But as a result, a hat sewn from scratch, all of the fur trims, embroidery on the corset, stars and the collar(which is very hard to see on the pictures unfortunately) was all added manually. The stars and the stripes(on the back of the cape) were attached using heat-and-bond adhesive (I WISH I knew about such thing just when I started working on this. It would save me so much time and nerves.)

Then I found out about polymorph(mouldable plastic) and it has become the next thing I wanted to learn, to sculpt the claws and the fangs(yes, they're handmade jfksjs). The claws I then primed and painted in trillion coats because I wasn't satisfied with the colour of the spray paint. The fangs I moulded to my own teeth and then stained with tea to match the colour of my teeth :)c

As for makeup, I used Mehron Paradise water activated paints. At first I wanted to try to save money and bought myself Snazaroo instead, which unfortunately turned out to be a waste. Snazaroo didn't hold on my face for longer than 2 hours, cracking and peeling awfully. Mehron on the other hand survived 11 hours of me smiling, talking, emoting and such and didn't even crease at the smile lines(I'm actually shocked about that). It obviously works like any other makeup which means your skin texture and wrinkles won't go anywhere but Mehron's elasticity pleasantly surprised me. It did obviously smear from sweat and saliva(if you're eating and licking your lips) but if you don't touch the skin it just dries again, self setting. But if it's dry it's fully smear-proof. Highly recommend!

And last but not least, I've decided against painting my hands as it was very risky that I will stain everything I touch at the smallest hint of sweat. So instead I got myself gloves-tights(? Not sure how they're called but it's made from the same fabric as tights) and painted them with normal acrylic paint(did you know you could dye fabric with acrylic paint? I personally didn't), then heat set with an iron and voilà, they're reusable, my hands are not stained after an exhausting day and I don't stain everything I touch. It worked wonderfully which honestly was a surprise as I was really sceptical that acrylic paint will somehow stay in place.

I think this whole thing took me minimum of 6 months with big-big breaks for my school and life in general. But I'm really proud! This project taught me so many new skills and I couldn't have been happier about learning new knowledge, even if it sucked to fail in the meantime.

Everyone at the con was really nice and gave me a large confidence boost even tho it was my first time and I had no idea what I was doing. Taking photos with other people was really awkward/new for me as I hate cameras so I really had no idea how to pose/behave in front of one. But that's okay I think. This whole experience definitely made me want to do this again, so I think that will come with experience. Thank you for reading this far, hope you enjoyed this little summary :)

[crunchchute]

My Sam & Max cosplay I debuted at a local con during the weekend!

[setacin]

some new and improved photos of the bone mage xisuma cosplay!

now with a fresh coat of paint, a pauldron, AND the bone mage battleaxe :D

[mi-spark]

what’s up, party girl!!! 🪩🌈✨

[courfee]

...but that's not how the story goes

[turn on the audio for the full experience] / photo version

[nipuni]

Ten and Missy! Our Halloween costumes 🥰

[nokkiart]

As a long time httyd fan who has been heavily involved in the fandom since the first movie and who has spent years working in the animation industry, I’d like to share my thoughts on the new httyd movie. Keep in mind, this is just my personal opinion and it's completely fine if you disagree with me. I just want to say a little something about all this that really bothers me.

The core reason that Dreamworks and Universal made this film is that it’s a quick and easy cash grab for them. Thats it. They don’t care about telling a good story or making a “better” version of the original movie for fans or even having an accurate portrayal of the characters/story. It’s purely about money. They know that fans of the original film will go see this movie, whether it’s good or bad. And those guaranteed ticket sales are all that matter to the studios. And with Universal, it has the added bonus of being a cheap promotional and merchandising opportunity for the new HTTYD land in Orlando that opens around the same time that the film is premiering in theaters.

And to help the studios make even more money out of this, they are using non-unionized VFX companies around the world to make this film, so that they can get cheaper labor and push the artists to do more that would be against American union standards. The same thing has probably happened with the costuming and fabrication for the filming, hence why the costumes look un-weathered and the sets look cheap. They don’t want to pay for the extra time and effort that it would take to make the practical bits of the production look good.

On top of all this, Dreamworks has already announced that they’re shutting down all their in-house animation projects in favor of using AI and outsourcing projects to cheaper international non-union studios.

With all this in mind, I just can’t support this film and I will not be seeing it in theaters. And I hope that others will do the same.

The only way to stop all these horrible “live action” remakes (which are actually just realistically animated remakes) is to not buy tickets to see them. Money is all that matters to these studios, and if they don’t make any money off of it, then they will stop and try something different. Maybe they'll even go back to focusing on original stories!

That’s the power that we hold as audiences. Our wallets help drive the decisions that the executives make. So support unique storytelling and gorgeous cinematography in movies. Support indie films. Support animators as they're fighting for fair pay and better contracts. But don't support a mediocre shot-for-shot remake riding on the coattails of an already successful film.

And I just want to wrap all this up by saying I have absolutely no hate towards anyone that has worked on the new film. Toothless looks incredible and I know the artists and creatives involved in this project did the best they could with what they were given.

But I also know that those same artists have so many more brilliant ideas that they would’ve loved to be given the creative freedom to do. I just wish hollywood would be willing to take a chance and let them do it.

[inktho]

It’s not dungeon meshi without the meshi!!!!

Marcille and I had lobster mimic rolls 🥰

Thank you Justin (kitsuninja@ig) for running up to take the high angle shot!! 😭👌💖

Marcille: @shaburdies | twt Falin: @appledress | insta Izutsumi: queenofpuns@ig Chilchuck: me!!!!

[canisalbus]

Hello! I wanted to ask if you got any inspiration for Machete’s outfits? I would love to find an outfit similar to one of theirs for personal wear but I can never find anything that similar.

Most of his canon outfits are just slightly modified cardinal's cassocks.

Jehan Georges Vibert's paintings have been a recurring inspiration.

The buttoning on his shoes is visually reminescent to late 19th/early 20th century boots and spats.

[cat-of-starlight]

Ok!! Finally done!! Now with better pics!!

The Long Quiet cosplay be upon ye!! (Now including The Pristine Blade for the vibes!!)

I just HAD to attempt that one pose that The Opportunist pulls in “Princess and the Dragon” because vibes, ya know~ (was DEEPLY afraid of dropping the knife while doing it, but I did it~)

Bonus Note that can’t be seen in these pics: the rim around the eyes glows in the dark :)

EDIT: The glowing eyes in question- was a pain to take the pic in costume, so I had to get this pic later :,D

[min-play]

making a tv head cosplay tutorial is out!

[peachy-scars]

You ever wonder why Warriors just has costumes of the others ?