"Good" cosplay vs. "Bad" Cosplay?
So, I've come to a point where I'm tired of people ragging on others' work and calling it "Bad cosplay". Sure, I can see it being called that if the person ordered their costume and it is horribly inaccurate. -coughsandraiseshand- (But I have learned from my mistake and corrected the error... mostly) But a lot of people pour their heart and soul into making the outfit and people wave it off as bad cosplay because maybe the person can't sew (or modify patterns) amazingly well. Those are two skills that people with "Good cosplays" have. The ability to sew and the ability to modify patterns (because a lot of characters have outfits that there would be no patterns for, so we kind of have to do our own thing at times or lengthen/ shorten it.) Now I keep putting good and bad cosplay in between ' " ' because it is merely some of the cosplay community (although quite a large portion of it)'s view on those cosplays. Now, being a cosplayer/ costume maker myself, I have looked at costumes and dismissed them as "Bad Cosplay" myself but I regret doing so and I certainly wouldn't not make friends with someone just because their costume wasn't sewn very well (Ie: too many puckers, bad material, extremely sloppy hems... etc.) or wasn't as accurate as it could potentially have been.
Now, to further discuss the topic of "Bad cosplays" we should probably break down the word itself. The word "Cosplay" (as most of you know) is derived from "Costume" and "play" combined together to for the word “cosplay”.
Costume: unusual or period attire not characteristic of or appropriate to the time and place; Something you wear to make you look different.
This accounts or the character and dressing up part
Play: be engaged in playful activity; amuse oneself in a way characteristic of children
This is the part where people are having fun dressing up as a character.
In no sense of the word do the words “Must be able to sew well” appear. If they have spent time on it and they are comfortable/ having fun in it. Then the word cosplay is justified and no one can ever say that it is a “bad cosplay”. Nothing at all says that it has to be an "Omg-you-could-be-the-real-character-wtfbbq" cosplay to be deemed a cosplay.
I believe I’m done. Sorry for my rant but it was bugging me and I had to get it off my chest.
Arrancar Loly · Sat Sep 27, 2008 @ 08:03am · 0 Comments |