Most people, at one point or another, have bought a $20 Halloween costume off the shelf and been disappointed with the inevitable lacklustre result.
But for avid cosplayers like Cheryl Cottrell-Smith, who goes by Miss Chezza in cosplay circles, that's never a concern. In the two years she's been involved with the hobby, she's poured hundreds of hours into building a collection of more than a dozen costumes.
"For me, cosplay is a time-consuming and expensive hobby that I absolutely adore," she said. "The sense of community you get from going to things like Eek! Fest, and meeting people with the same interests."
Cosplay, a portmanteau of the words costume and play, combines wearing spectacular costumes often based on characters from comics, movies and video games, and also to a certain degree portraying that character.
"A lot of cosplay is the performance aspect of it, especially when you meet people who recognize you," she said. "They want to see you acting in the role."
Cottrell-Smith, along with fellow veteran cosplayers Natasha May and Allison Lynn (Kitnip in cosplay circles), were in St. Albert over the weekend to judge the costume competitions at Eek! Fest, the annual local pop culture festival.
But for all three of them, the passion for this hobby is about much more than winning contests. Rather, it's about the sense of community both online and on the comic convention circuit.
"It's just a really great feeling," she said. "I guess with any hobby, all you want is the satisfaction of doing something well. That's mainly what I get out of it."
Lynn said the sense of creating something, and creating it well, is the main appeal of making intricate costumes and playing the roles.
"Obviously you don't make any money – it's a very expensive hobby – but you get recognized for your art," she said. "It's not art hanging on the wall, it's art that you wear."
Having an artistic outlet undoubtedly motivates many cosplayers, and it's no surprise when you see some of the costumes people are able to create.
"I'm artistic and crafty, and just need an outlet," May said. "I have to have something to do."
A passion for the fantasy and sci-fi characters found throughout pop culture is what helps guide that artistic outlet in the direction of cosplay.
Costumes and materials
If you ask most cosplayers to describe their hobby, the words "expensive" and "time-consuming" will undoubtedly come up near the top of the list.
May was no stranger to costume creation when she got involved with cosplay five years ago, having spent the Halloweens of her youth putting together home-made costumes with her grandmother.
For the kinds of costumes she focuses on, many of which include large armour pieces and even wings, those sewing skills have had to supplemented with some hardware know-how and shopping trips to the Home Depot.
Combining sewing with unique materials is fairly typical in the cosplay community. The armour she was wearing for Eek! Fest, inspired by the video game Skyrim, had more foam material than fabric, was spray-painted rather than dyed, and employed the creative use of googly eyes in place of metal rivets.
"The armour ones are definitely not for people who don't have time, energy and the ability to have mental breakdowns sometimes if you might not finish by the time a convention comes around," she said.
The 30 hours that went into her Skyrim armour, however, is nothing compared to the 250 hours that went into her costume of Kayle from League of Legends – completed with a harness to bear the weight of the eight-foot foam wings that don't easily fit through a typical door.
Lynn's first foray into a costuming, shortly before Halloween in 2012, was with an Assassin's Creed costume she found a pattern for online. She loved the game, and decided to go all out for Halloween that year.
With the costume completed and Halloween still weeks away, she decided to wear it to the Edmonton comic book expo and was immediately hooked and looked to do something bigger and better.
She chose Samus from Metroid, a costume that involved large foam armour with lights running throughout. She chose the character because it would be a great-looking costume, but also because she identified with the character.
"She's a really strong female lead, which you don't see as much in video games," she said. "That's starting to change, but (Samus) is still a badass."
And as that costume has begun to wear out, she turned its flaws into feature. A few rips, some fake blood sprayed and altered makeup, and it became a zombie Samus costume that was fairly popular in the online community.
Cottrell-Smith explained that in the two short years she's been involved with the hobby, she's put together an impressive array of 15 home-made costumes above and beyond the ones she bought when she was first starting out – a collection that represents untold hours at the sewing machine.
"A costume that I'm making from scratch could take anything from a couple weeks to months," she explained. "It's very hard to turn out a costume overnight – one that looks good, anyway."
Negativity overcome
As with any hobby associated with "geek culture," cosplay is subject to more than its fair share of derision and ridicule – but that's something die-hard participants just take in stride.
Cottrell-Smith said in her experience, people in person and at conventions are enthusiastic and positive. It's the jerks online who cause the most problems, especially when it comes to misogynistic comments.
"Online bullying, and body shaming is a big issue with cosplay," she said. "A lot of women cosplayers, especially ones who do it for a living, sometimes get objectified as sex symbols. It's not their fault, by any means, but it can cast a shadow over the cosplay community."
Within the tight-knit cosplay community, however, there is a concerted effort to push back against that kind of negativity. She suggested it goes hand-in-hand with the broader social movement around body positivity, which has helped many more cosplayers overcome their initial self-consciousness and dive right in.
"It doesn't matter what your body type is, you should be free to cosplay what you want," Cottrell-Smith said.
May said she has only experienced one particularly nasty online commenter, but regardless doesn't think too much about the haters.
"I personally haven't dealt with it, and I'm glad," she said. "It's not a challenge for me, and I've just grown up being taught not to care what those people think."
Lynn said she does see online harassment as a problem, and notes some women involved are subject to nasty comments because, for better or worse, costumes for women in comic books and pop culture can tend to be revealing and some online trolls may react poorly to that.
"I try to focus more on a different aspect of it, and I think because of that I don't get the kind of hateful comments some girls do," she said. "I guess it is a problem, but you kind of have to get by it and not think about it. Cosplay is for yourself, and who cares what other people think?"
