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[Genesis_13]

Well, is it? I've gone to a lot of scifi/fantasy cons before, and they usually have a variety of originally-designed costumes, most of which are very good.

The only really original-design cosplaying I've seen are generic catgirls and schoolgirl uniforms, which are pretty good too, actually. Also amazing Gothic Lolita designs.

Even so, is this possible overall? What would you have to do to make an original costume, but have it be considered anime? Would it be appreciated?


For me, anime-style costumes are generally bright in color and sometimes simplified in design. I know this isn't a preset for everything, especially with all the wonderful new animes coming out, but in general, it's true.

The problem I forsee is that even if you designed one that looks like an anime costume, people will assume that it's from something, they just don't know of the series yet. People tend to gravitate towards costumes from series they know of/like, unless the costume is completely amazing anyway.

Just a question....

[Mesoian]

yes. I'm doing a "Sort of" original outfit right now. Basically, i'm making a shinigami outfit based on if I died and became a general for soul soceity. I started with a base of the shinigami uniform, then branched outward, making changes where I saw fit. The shinigami outfit is an accessory grab bag, so it's very possible to you to make a good outfit that not too many other people will be doing.

I'd start with an anime you like, take a faction you admire, and put your own spin on it. You'd still be cosplaying your favorite anime, but you get to put your own personal touch to what you look like.

[Michi]

I've seen people, even friends of mine, cosplay original characters and I've seen people assume that they were from some anime.. because they fit the style so well. Sometimes people can do it really well and sometimes it just looks too simple and generic that you can tell the person just made it up. ^_^; I dunno.

[Karisu-sama]

Of course you can make an Anime-style costume. I have a few of those costumes that people keep asking me "cool - what's it from?" Generally I am inspired by design themes in certain Anime or games, and then I make an original design based on the spirit and overall look of the source material, rather than a recreation of an existing design.

You can also do an original design modification to a standard character, such as "Gunner Lulu" at Anime LA this past weekend. It was really clever and well crafted, and earned her a Masquerade Workmanship award. ^^

[GreatSG]

Take one bad joke of an idea that you suggest to some friends, then add a labcoat, and a squid plushies violating Chi sitting on your shoulder with three of your friends dressed as nurses at a con; and viola! My original Dr. Hentai was born!

At first I was a bit reluctant to go through with the whole idea; i'm not a big fan of hentai shows and movies and I find most of them laughable and stupid (i've seen my share from various places) but after going through with it I found it to be a lot a fun as the Doctor of Hentai and how people responded to it.

Although I have revised the costume up a bit and actually added the name to the back of the jacket for identification purposes and such. So now i'm pretty sure a lot of folks at Nekocon are expecting the return of Dr. Hentai and his Tom Servo

[RainSquall]

Yeah! One good example would be FFX-2. The cgharacters have dresspheres which are basically these different costume thingies which they can change into. Well, something like that. I haven't actually played the game. And people are ALWAYS designing additional dresspheres for the game. So why not? Good luck!

[Wolverine]

Originally Posted by Genesis_13

Is It Possible to do Original-Design Cosplaying?
I've gone to a lot of sci-fi/fantasy cons before, and they usually have a variety of originally-designed costumes, most of which are very good.

The only really original-design cosplaying I've seen are generic catgirls and schoolgirl uniforms, which are pretty good too, actually. Also amazing Gothic Lolita designs.

Even so, is this possible overall? What would you have to do to make an original costume, but have it be considered anime? Would it be appreciated?

Oh, heck yeah. Indeed, you can. See here.




And I’m not really one who was a fan of the ‘real’ costumes from VR Troopers, Masked Rider, or (some of the) Big Bad Beetleborgs, so that’s saying something there.

[Sakurazuka-san]

^_^ Original character cosplays are major fun, dude. Especially if you're like me and you're a huge RP freak. o_O 'Cause I've planned so many cosplays of my own characters (including a rather nice swordfighting uniform. No, Utena didn't cross my mind at the moment.... >_>;; ). ^_^; I may even just design some of my own for MTAC, who knows? But I think the only stipulation is that you can't compete in any cosplay competitions/masquerades. o.0 Other than that...

[Moonlit Child]

One of the side-projects I'm working on right now is actually an original cosplay from the novel I've been working on. It's gonna be a medievil-ish armor type deal. I've also cosplayed as a few of my RP characters too. Fun stuff.

[ShannonX]

I've seen a lot of people do custom characters, in fact I was going to do one of my own because of my lack of materials for others. Someone won best craftmanship award for a custom character and it was pretty impressive. Moonlit Child, yes I would love to do a character from something that I wrote, especially a medieval character.I love that time period (except for the plague and all of the other problems associated).

[BeforeCrisis]

It is called "Cosplay" thus Costume + Play. heh play. ANyways! As long as you're in a costume and...playing....it's technically still cosplay, right? Right.

[HackerEd]

Original designes allow for more flexibility. My 2nd cosplay was an original design since the character was Nyaa, a cat from PitaTen. Have fun!

[lilacwire]

I think that once you've started making original design costumes you've branched out of cosplay into "costuming" in general, which I think is awesome. The convention Costume-Con actually encourages original ideas and draws many people out to create character costumes from books & other media sources that have never had specific costumes. I'd check that out a little bit (a search on google will get you many results).

A lot of "original" anime costumes are definitely based on already created designs. I don't know how original you want to be, but it is definitely possible to do something no one has done before. ^^ Good luck.

I think it's entirely possible, but the fact of the matter seems to be that even out original ideas seem to stem from somewhere, which is why even as original characters, we can be seen as something that's already been done...

My wife put together something she calls CATMAID3000, and it's pretty original to me...

[starlet_flower]

i think it's possible. i made a costume based on a manga i was attempting to draw. the costume looks sorta like Chun-Li's from Street Fighter, only mine is dark red with a black flower pattern and shorter. and i'm adding wings to it.