Cosplay Advice: To Make or To Buy?

This is a question that I hear from new cosplayers a lot–“Is it okay if I buy my costume?” Well, of course its okay, but then why doesn’t everyone just buy their costume? Let’s go over the pros and cons here.

There are three types of costumes: homemade, bought, and assembled. Lots of costumes are a combination of the three, especially when you consider shoes as a part of the costume. Very few people actually make one hundred percent of their costume themselves. Things like shoes, gloves, and wigs are often store-bought and used as-is. Even if these items are not modified, a costume is still consider home made if all major elements were made from scratch or heavily modified, and if the store-bought elements are relatively insignificant to the costume. An example would be if you needed standard white gloves for a Maka Albarn costume, no modification needed. If you made all of the other major elements in your costume, then your costume is considered entirely home made even if the gloves and your socks came from a store! However, If you are cosplaying Chell from Portal, and you order her boots from a craftsman and use then as-is, then your costume is considered partially bought because her shoes are a major element of the costume.

Some costumes really never require any sewing and can be put together using fairly standard street cloths. These are what we call assembled costumes. Misty from Pokemon is a good example: her clothes can all be found in a store, and it is easier, cheaper, and more timely to buy the items than to make them. Denim, suspenders, sneakers, a yellow shirt. It makes way more sense to assemble this costume than to sew your own booty shorts when there are plenty of acceptable pairs available in stores.

Now, back to the question, it is okay to buy and to assemble? Well if by ‘okay’ you mean, will it look good?, then it depends on the costume. Assembled costumes are perfectly acceptable for costumes that utilize ‘normal’ clothing. If you can find the right size and color, then the costume will look correct. However costumes made from normal clothing don’t get a lot of attention at conventions or in competitions. If you are attending a con just to have a good time and dress up casually, then these costumes are a great option which will cause minimal headaches. However if you are looking to have your picture taken, compete in a contest, or earn serious fun points through cosplay alone, then I suggest you stay away from purely assembled cosplay.

Buying a costume from an online shop or another seamstress can be tough. Even if its “store-bought,” someone had to make it and the costume is only as good as the seamstress behind it. You have to be wary of scams and cosplay super-stores which throw together cheap and inaccurate costumes to pad their inventory. If you are going to buy your costume, I recommend commissioning it from a local artisan with a good portfolio of work rather than ordering it from an ebay shop in China. The biggest problem with ordering your cosplay (besides the occasional inaccuracy) is the fit. If your provider isn’t asking for extremely detailed measurements from you, then your costume is not going to fit. Even if it does ‘fit’ the proportions of the costume may be way off because it wasn’t constructed literally around your body. The trick to looking like your desired character isn’t being the same size as them, its keeping the same proportions as them. This means that all accessories need to be scaled up or down depending on your height and weight to make you look more like a different size. Many craftspeople aren’t going to be able to give you an accurate silhouette if you’re not standing right in front of them.

The other major draw-back to buying your costume is the cost. It gets really pricey, really quickly because you have to pay for expensive materials and extensive labor costs. You get what you pay for here, so if you’re on a budget you really may want to consider choosing a costume that you can handle making yourself. When you make the costume yourself, you’re only paying for materials obviously and not the labor. Store-bought costumes also cannot be entered into any craftsmanship competitions, though you can still enter into many masquerades and be judged by your performance alone.

So, why should you make your costume yourself? Well for me, this is where all the fun is! Making pretty things that you get to wear is always lots of fun if you’re not in over your head. It’s also cheaper, you can enter competitions, and you can be proud to say, “yes, I did make this myself” when people ask you about your awesome outfit. You are also assured to choose the right color fabric if you are not purchasing over a computer screen, and you can make it to fit your body like a glove instead of being limited to the standard dress sizes.

Making your costume yourself takes the most time and energy by far, and so if you don’t have many hours to devote to the craft then buying or assembling may be a good option for you. However making the costume assures that you will have no surprises come con-day. You can make everything just as you want it to be or get a friend to help you (making costumes with friends is always lots of fun too). Making your costume also means that what you are wearing is one-of-a-kind, and hence inherently special. Though it is perfectly acceptable to attend a convention in a costume that you didn’t make yourself, there are some cosplay purists who will say that true cosplayers make all of their own stuff. I too feel that if you want to be a part of the cosplay crafting community, it is best to have some crafting experience of your own. That being said, how you carry your costume is just as important as its construction, and having no sewing abilities does not disqualify you as a cosplayer.

Whether you make it, buy it, or find it, the point at the end of the day is to have fun playing dress-up. Whatever you do, don’t lie about where your costume came from just to impress someone! If you feel the need to lie about a costume’s construction, then you are taking this hobby way too seriously! It is okay to have help making your costume and it is okay if you didn’t make any of it at all! Just have fun and do whatever you need to in order to look and feel your best.