#the lost boys cosplay

[silvermaplealder]

Wip as I've been redoing the collar. Still more to do. Gotta add the little watches back onto the jacket. Still going back and forth on if I want to re tailor it too. Lost the earring a little while ago so gotta make a new one. Been casually keeping an eye out for different boots but uncertain if I really want to switch. Con coming up soon so I gotta finish it in the few days I actually have time. I think between now and the con I have just one or maybe two days off if one of my coworkers decides to show up 🙄

[deakyghostcosplay]

Well someone pinch me...The second picture if you're wondering why it looks like I'm about to cry, its because I was. 😂

When I met Billy at the autograph table the first words out of his mouth was "Wow, look at you!" I was flabbergasted. Then he said how I look stylish! Wow. I also told him how much I loved the film when I was 10 then he laughed when I told him I probably shouldn't have watched it at 10. 😂 But he was genuinely the nicest person. And at our photo op he called me Star!!!!! 😭

Then at my photo op with Jamieson we had a good chat even though he wasn't supposed to, he stopped me to chat! He said after our picture "I recognised your costume at the signing." I again flabbergasted. Then he said "You look so cool, did you win the costume contest?" I had to tell him I didn't even enter but he looked gutted about it. 😭

If someone was to tell my 10 year old self she still "plays dress-up" & met two actors from The Lost Boys & they told her how cool & stylish she looked, her heart would stop, just like mine.

Thank you Comic Con, you literally made my childhood dreams come true.

[crustyraccoon]

For the record I have enough ear piercings that I could wear every one of the lost boys earrings. Including Michael and Stars

[191bunny]

THE LoSt BoYS

[marlequinncos]

the inherent irony of a vampire mirror selfie

I've got to hem the chaps, paint the boots, and actually cut + style the wig into a mullet, but here's a Marko costest!

95% of what you see here was thrifted and I made the jacket from scratch myself!

[canadianhottmess]

[hypocriticaltypwriter]

Coming from my break for a second to let yall know if you're going to be at any of the three days at Salt Lake Fan X starting tomorrow come say hi to me!! I'd love to see yall and I'll be in Cosplay for the first day as Star~ 👀 here's a lil sneak peek!

[abybweisse]

Killstar.com has a new clothing collaboration with The Lost Boys, and when I saw the fabric pattern for some of the items, I just went "gimme"... because it reminds me of Sebastian as an Eldritch Abomination.

So, I ended up buying leggings and a slip dress (with a separate black mesh overlay for layering). The image is a closeup of the pattern, taken from the slip dress. It's a stretchy knit jersey type of fabric.

I might actually incorporate this into my future demon Sebastian cosplay look... at least as an option to play with.

[helloitshaley]

I know there's a decent amount of Lost Boys fans on here so I thought I'd post this absolutely BONKERS AMAZING pic of me with Jason Patric

[heeheehoohoo8]

i’ve never really done this sort of thing before but here are all my lost boys cosplays that have never seen the light of day. also please ignore the fact that the chains on Paul’s jacket are on the wrong side i can’t believe i’ve never noticed that before but i’m not changing it now :p

[silvermaplealder]

Somehow these silly bathroom selfies were my favorite pictures from the con this weekend. This was the first con where I got to work a booth with my friend. It was a lot of fun! I really enjoy getting to see all the con goers having a good time.

I also met a guy who was showing me pics of his David cosplay and how his friends did the other boys and they even had a laddie 🥺 come on guys, I'm lonely, let's cosplay together 🥺

[misslavenderlady]

Shout-out to @silvermaplealder for being an amazing cosplay buddy. Happy Lost Boys anniversary!

[marlequinncos]

Cosplay Build Guide: Marko's Jacket from The Lost Boys (1987)

I am a lover of the horror genre; horror movies, books, games, you name it! And one of my favorite horror movies is the 1987 classic “The Lost Boys”, which focuses on a gang of motorcycle-riding vampires in the fictional California town of Santa Carla. I'm also a big fan of thrifting and modifying items for cosplay. I decided to combine those two things and make a garment that has lived rent-free in my head since I first saw the film: the colorful patchwork jacket worn by the vampire Marko.

I'm going to walk you through how I made Marko's jacket, breaking down the different parts that comprise the garment.

Marko’s outfit is made up of several components: a white cropped tank top, light wash denim jeans, leather chaps, custom painted leather moto boots, fingerless motorcycle gloves, a black skull earring, and of course, that iconic and extremely loud jacket. 

All four titular vampires have a signature jacket they wear in the movie, and Marko’s is by far the most elaborate and distinctive. It consists of three main parts: the base jacket, the Italian tapestries, and the patches. Because of the nature of this build, I had to do a ton of intensive research to determine the individual and highly specific parts of the jacket. My main references were photos from movie memorabilia auction sites whenever one of the original jackets went up for sale, since they photograph the jacket from all angles.

Part 1: The Base Jacket

Marko’s base jacket is, according to my research, a men’s black Levi’s denim jacket in a size 40, which I believe translates to a medium. Now, I’m a petite woman (5’3”, athletic but slim), so I knew that the exact jacket would be too big for my frame. Instead, I found a men’s black denim jacket in an extra small; it's very similar in style to the original, but a little better proportioned for me. It's still very much oversized though. The first things I did were remove the buttons and pockets, and I cut off the hem of the jacket and the sleeve cuffs. Then I tossed the jacket in the washing machine to fray the edges. 

Part 2: The Tapestries

The hardest part of the jacket by far was finding the tapestries, for two reasons. The first is that the tapestries were all from the 1960’s and 1970’s, meaning I had to scour vintage stores and websites to find the right ones. The second is the variation. Six jackets were made for each Lost Boy in the movie; this is standard for a film, since some jackets would be used for closeups (the”hero” jackets) while others were used for stunts, and a few even have intentional holes in them for harness rigging. Because of that and the thrifted nature of the jacket, the Marko jackets for the film all differ slightly in the placement of the tapestries and patches.

There are five tapestries in total. Three are velvet: the matador, the peacock, and the leopard with the messed up face. These are impossible to dupe via Spoonflower or Contrado (custom fabric printing websites) due to the fact that these three are essentially small rugs. The other two, chariot lady and cat lady, are dupable via Spoonflower or Contrado printing since they aren’t the same fabric as the others.

The two pin-up tapestries are nearly impossible to find, more so than the velvet ones. In my months of searching, I never found either pin-up tapestry, so I had them printed by Contrado, along with the collar trim.

If you go searching for the velvet tapestries, you'll notice that there are several different versions of each one, with slight changes in color and placement of things in the art. How accurate you want to be is up to you. My peacock and matador are accurate to the tapestries on one of the stunt jackets, whereas my leopard is the correct color but wrong direction. That's doesn't bother me much, personally, especially since the leopard is the hardest of the velvet tapestries to find by far.

Once the tapestries were acquired, I measured different sections based on the dimensions of the jacket, mapped it out using washi tape on the tapestries, and then cut them all out. There was a decent amount of math involved here, specifically regarding scaling the sections of tapestry down by a few inches since my jacket is smaller than the original. I then arranged them all onto the denim jacket and pinned them in place before hand sewing them (yes, you read that right; I hand sewed this whole thing) on in the correct overlap. I also added the rhinestones to the cat lady.

I recommend using embroidery needles and upholstery thread to attach the tapestries to the jacket, due to the thickness and the weight. I also sewed along the designs in the tapestries themselves to better hide the stitching within the image.

Part 3: The Patches

Marko’s jacket has a total of 26 different patches on it, most of which are motorcycle or punk themed. For these, I found a seller on Etsy who makes 24 of them, and I used Contrado to print the remaining two (the anarchy symbol and the large skull) on canvas and added the stitching. You could thrift and find the patches as well, but here's the thing: while some of these patches are pretty easy to find, others seem to be nonexistent, to the point that I wonder if some were made exclusively for the movie. That's why I went and purchased my patches instead of hunting them down. My personal favorite is the “Screw U” one. One fun fact about the patches is that the large winged skull on the back is a leftover from the movie “The Warriors”.

I once again hand sewed these all on as per the references from the movie. You might think that ironing the patches on is an easier method, but there's a few reasons why that won't work: 1) the patches in the movie are sewn on; if you zoom in, you can see the stitching 2) I'm not sure the patches would even adhere to the velvet and velour of the tapestries and 3) if you decide you don't like the placement of a patch that you sewed on, you can just seam rip the stitching and adjust it, which you can't really do as cleanly with an ironed-on patch.

Part 4: The Tassels

The tassels on the jacket’s shoulder are not tassels at all; they’re squid skirts (a type of fishing lure), which is something I never knew existed until I started researching for this build. For these, I found a fishing tackle website that had the closest match to the colors I needed, a blue-grey/orange and a yellow/green. Both squids also have glitter and little eyes painted on.

Part 5: Weathering and Finishing Touches

Lastly, I weathered the jacket to give it that lived-in look. For the dirt/dust on the patches, I used powder eyeshadow. I also picked at the edges of the tapestries to fray them a bit. And to make the patches less stiff, I just broke the jacket in by wearing it around my house. The great thing about this jacket is that the more I wear it and the more it weathers, the better it'll look.

FAQ

How heavy and warm is the jacket?

The jacket is made of denim and rugs, so its pretty warm and heavy. It honestly feels like wearing a weighted blanket, which is a nice bonus if you're anxiety made flesh like I am. It makes a lot of sense for the jacket to be on the heavier side, because if you’ve been to Northern California, you know how cold it can get on the coast, especially at night (not sure if vampires can feel cold, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

How long did it take you to make the jacket?

I don’t time my cosplay builds, but I can guess based on the amount of TV/movies/podcasts/playlists consumed as I was working on it. I'm also pretty fast when it comes to hand sewing. By my estimation, the jacket took me about 45-50 hours of work, and that’s not counting the time I spent searching for the tapestries.

Can you make me one?

Sorry friend, I don't take commissions. Even if I did, there's no guarantee I could find the exact tapestries again. I appreciate the interest though!

One of the most useful resources for making this jacket is the Replica Prop Forum! There's a ton of information there, as well as discussions and troubleshooting about the construction of the jacket.

I hope you enjoyed this walkthrough of Marko's jacket! This was a fun build and I'm really proud of the finished product. I'm going to make the rest of Marko's outfit + wig to complete the cosplay, so stay tuned for that!

If you have any other questions, feel free to plop them in my inbox! In addition to tumblr, you can also find my cosplay work on instagram and bluesky @/marlequinncos

[deakyghostcosplay]

SO COOL

[barbara-on-myspace]

Costume Designers for movies/tv: We wanted to make sure the character’s personality was shown though their clothing, so we decided to create this super detailed, one of a kind, outfit just for them.

Artists and Cosplayers: