A hero's tailor : creating cosplay for larger-than-life characters

Cosplay has become a worldwide phenomenon. Cosplayers take 2 dimensional character and replicate their looks in real life. These Cosplays are astounding feats of ingenuity and engineering. Seen as mostly as a weekend hobby, Cosplayers are creating a commercialized world of makers and models. Many studies have been done on play theory, gender identity, and sexualization in Cosplay. A Hero’s Tailor seeks to focus on the creation of Cosplay through a case study and an autoethnography study. Through a case study in the form of interviews with Cosplayers of various skill levels. They will be asked why they Cosplay and their methods of creation. The results of these interviews will help describe the process of how Cosplayers develop their Cosplay from inception to finished product. This study will also explore the reasons Cosplayers create. Finally, the study concludes with the creation of a Cosplayer for myself. In the build of the Cosplay, I will use skills as a Costume Technician combined with what I learned from the Cosplay community. Across this thesis I want to bring the creation process to the forefront.