Cosplay Cosplay (コスプレ kosupure?), short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and Sci-Fi. Favorite sources include manga, anime, tokusatsu, comic books, graphic novels, video games, hentai and fantasy movies. Any entity from the real or virtual world that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject. The object of cosplay is interpretation: one attempts to become one's character much as a stage actor inhabits a role. Cosplayers may purchase or create costumes through fan labor. Cosplayers often educate themselves in crafting specialities such as sculpture, face paint, fiberglasswork, fashion design and the like in the effort to render the look and texture of a costume accurately. Western cosplay's origins are based primarily on science fiction and historical fantasy as opposed to animation. It is more common for Western cosplayers to recreate characters from live-action series such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter than it is for Japanese cosplayers. In North America trick or treating is a popular children's activity. While traditionally Halloween costumes consisted of dressing as spirits or monsters, Halloween has increasingly become a day in which cosplay is encouraged by people of all ages and is widely accepted - including in the workplace and schools. Differences in taste still exist across cultures. Some costumes that are worn without hesitation by Japanese cosplayers tend to be avoided by Western cosplayers, such as outfits that evoke Nazi-era uniforms. The appearance of cosplayers at manga events makes such events a popular draw for photographers. As this became apparent in the late 1980s a new variant of cosplay developed in which cosplayers attended events mainly for the purpose of modeling their characters for still photography rather than engaging in continuous role play. Most cosplayers engage in some combination of methods to obtain all the items necessary for their costume; for example they may commission a prop weapon, sew their own clothing, buy character jewelry from a cosplay accessory manufacturer, and buy a pair of off-the-rack shoes and modify them to match the desired look. In addition to making items specifically for use by cosplayers, the fashion industry has taken inspiration from the world of cosplay in popularizing looks such as the Gothic Lolita, based on clothing worn by popular period characters. Sexual roleplay In Japanese slang the term cosplay is also used as a euphemism for sexual play involving costumes.[citation needed] It describes aspects of sexual role play and fetishism. Wearing a schoolgirl uniform before or during sex, for example, is known as seifuku cosplay Shop: Liberty Thrift store (1$ Thrift store) 2692 Sandy Plains Road Marietta, GA 30062 Value Village (Last wednesday of the month 1/2 day) 119 Cobb Pkwy N # D Marietta, GA 30062 Online(BUY): Etsy Ebay Party City http://www.blaspheminascloset.com/ www.cosplaymagic.com Sites (DIY): www.threadbanger.com www.instructables.com http://www.pixieinpumps.com/2011/01/diy-glitter-shoes-tutorial.html www.craftstylish.com http://yourstylerocks.com/patterns/ http://www.leethal.net/tutorials.html http://ohsocrafty.blogspot.com/ http://www.mistyillusions.org/marysew/ http://www.craftster.org/