Cosplay?

"What's the fun when there's no visible textures, seaming, fabric, etc?)"

actually, designing textures and trying to think what kind of textures a character would wear is one of the most fun things about costuming to me

but yah, having no textures really sucks- it decreases the quality of your work

i really dont like the term cosplay

 

Personally, I don't have a problem with the word "cosplay." A costumer by any other name still smells like a nerd. And some of the most skillful costumers I have met considered themselves "cosplayers."

"Costume" + "play" = "cosplay" which is a term reportedly created by Japanese journalist Nobuyuki (Nov) Takahashi in 1984. At that time, there were media conventions in japan, but it was uncommon for attendees to dress in costumes at these conventions. This was not the case in the US, where Takahashi encountered many science fiction fans dressed as their favorite characters at the 1984 Los Angeles SF Worldcon. Enchanted by this hobby and attempting to spread the word about it back at home, he coined the term "cosplay" (or its Japanese equivalent, which sounds sort of like "kosu-pureh") in an attempt to come up with a term more whimsical and fun-sounding than "masquerade." Whatever its name, cosplaying became very popular in Japan where fans dressed as characters from animation, videogames, and movies, as well as popular music stars and other celebrities. With the increasing importation of Japanese popular culture, such as anime, manga, and videogames, came the inevitable cultural influence. The Japanese hobby of cosplaying invigorated the costuming hobby in the US, which is one reason why so many cosplayers do costumes based on anime and manga characters.

The term "cosplay" is the Anglicization of a Japanese term, which is a contraction of the Japanized versions of the English words "costume" and "play." Get it? The Japanese commonly create informal terms which are contractions formed by combining fragments of two or more words. The most famous such Japanese contraction is probably "Pokemon," which is a contraction of the words "poketto monsutaa," a phrase which is the Japanization of the English phrase "pocket monster."
Here's the math:
"pocket" = "poketto"
"monster" = "monsutaa"
"POKEtto" + "MONsutaa" = "Pokemon"

Just like with anything else, there are a few great cosplayers and a bunch of mediocre ones.

Some people define cosplay as costuming Japanese anime and videogame characters only. Some people define cosplay as dressing as a character AND acting like them. Eye of the beholder. Ultimately, the term was originally created to describe those costumed Trekkies and other fans.

 

why cant you just call it costuming? its not like their was no name for it before cosplaying came about

 

Let just say it's because Cosplaying is spreading like wild fire these days, just as Japanese Fandom which bring in lots and lots of money. Even locally, hardly do the mass media report about Costuming (What? Once in 3 years and always with SW, other than it's a line or 2 in a 2 page article and the ones they featured have crappy costumes? I was shocked when I heard from my former seamstress's friend that her son do a Klingon Costume as ST Costuming is even more unheard in Singapore) but Cosplaying, the no. of articles & tv segments and even episode is increasing, thus promoting it further. Unfortunately, not all are that pleasent. And I'm hearing Collage students doing their school projects on Cosplaying just because it's the latest craze.

Cosplaying also seems more appealing to teen as it's easier to do, is the latest crazy and there is not much commitment needed compared to costuming. Price and color is always the predeterminer while for costumers, we go crazy hunting for TheOne based on texture, drape, material and 1001 other factors, and we choose to make a clothes rather than a costume that'll last for that 1 event/outing. How many cosplayers are doing like we did? Only a very small percentage of the total population.

I have great respect for Cosplayers from Japan as they valued quality but only a little for those outside.