With the prosperity of the domestic market for anime and online games, many young people have become extremely fond of anime characters. There is also a growing number of young people imitating anime characters, known as cosplay, which has also led to a boom in the cosplay clothing market. However, anyone who knows anything about cosplay is well aware that it is a very expensive hobby, especially for young people (school students), who may need a month’s worth of living expenses for a full set of cosplay costumes alone. It was also said that cosplay is bad once you cut costs. So, are we able to keep the cost of cosplay down while maintaining quality? Let me provide you with a few tips.
Contents
Community
If you are a student, you can easily find like-minded people to hang out with. Generally speaking, schools encourage students to create a variety of clubs, and joining an anime club at school is the best way to do that. (Of course, there are also cosplay clubs outside of school.) Usually, clubs have some kind of financial support, and anime clubs are no exception. In addition to funding, the greater benefit of a club is the sharing of resources. You can have an experienced makeup artist, photographer, post-production artist, etc. at a lower price. Compared to cosplaying on your own, the cost of joining a club is much lower.
Partner
If you’re not in the right situation to join a club (because it takes a lot of time to join a club), there’s no need to rush. You can find like-minded people and buy cosplay props and clothes together to reduce the financial pressure. While this method may look good, it is not as easy to implement and requires active cooperation between you and your friends. If one of you is not satisfied, the plan may fail and you may risk losing one of your friends.
Used
Perhaps the easiest way to keep the cost of cosplaying down while maintaining quality is to buy used costumes. Most cosplayers basically don’t cosplay the same character image too often, and this is when they choose to post their trades on second-hand trading platforms. This is common, and if you’re so inclined, all you have to do now is search for your cosplay costume on second-hand marketplaces, so be careful whether you’re looking for money or something else. The second-hand trade of cosplay costumes can be a “barter” phenomenon, so be careful whether the publisher wants money or something else.
Transformation
If you are someone who has experience in making costumes and props, then you can choose to do it yourself, which will cost you much less than others. People who are handy are always envied. If you don’t want to spend a lot of time on making the costume, I suggest that you purchase similar items and make small modifications. This way the result is quite good, provided your workmanship is good.
Customize
Secretly, in real life you can find some private tailors and it may be cheaper to have your clothes made to order by them than it is to buy them online. Usually the tailor will charge a fee for the fabric, handwork, etc. You can also bargain with the tailor (within a reasonable price). Once you find such a tailor, you don’t have to worry about whether the clothes will fit you or not, because they are made to your size after all.
Photo
The above methods are all about “cutting costs”, now I’m going to talk about the “open source” methods. If your skills in makeup, photography, post-production image processing, etc. are great, then congratulations, you can try offering your services to others for a fee. Of course, most people have mediocre skills. Try posting some of your best photos on the Internet, where there are sites that will pay money for people to view your photos, which will also lower your costs.
That’s all for low-cost cosplaying. If you guys have any other tips and tricks, why not share them with us in the comments section? Finally, I’d like to introduce Cosplaylab to those of you who are on a budget and want to buy new cosplay costumes online, it’s a great place to buy cosplay costumes, the costumes on Cosplaylab are reasonably priced and the quality and workmanship are great. It’s perfect for those who are looking for value for money.
