Anime, TV show and video game enthusiasts are no strangers to cosplay — the art of dressing up as a beloved fictional character. But while countless fans dream of cosplaying at a fan convention or for a photoshoot, getting started, especially when in college, can be daunting and expensive.  

Comet Cosplay held its fall cosplay kickoff Aug. 26, welcoming both old and new cosplayers to the club. Comet Cosplay seeks to create a thriving cosplay community where members make friends and help each other with ideas, costumes, workshops and events. Lauren Mangu, physics senior and president of Comet Cosplay, and Vinh Mac, club secretary and animation and games junior, have found budget-friendly ways to help new members create their cosplays. 

“The thing is that like any other hobby, cosplay does cost money,” Mac said. “And while there is this whole thing around it about ‘Like, wow, this is really expensive,’ … it doesn’t have to be.”  

No matter how simple, thrown together, cheap or “scuffed,” as Mac said, the cosplays might be, the focus for Mac and Mangu is about how the cosplay makes its wearer feel.  

“My first cosplay was [at] my high school graduation because I was way too enthusiastic [about] cosplaying,” Mangu said. “So I cosplayed as Yumeko Jabami from ‘Kakegurui’ to graduation, and regardless of how official and formal the event was, I felt so comfortable and excited to be in cosplay of a character from a show that I really liked.”  

Early on in their cosplaying careers, both Mac and Mangu practiced one of the easiest and most accessible forms of cosplay: closet cosplay, which uses clothes already in the cosplayer’s closet or thrifted for cheap. Mac said that no matter how simple the clothes are. Portraying key features of a character is all that is necessary for people to recognize you. 

“There are certain patterns there, certain color schemes, you do your hair the right way, you wear the right clothes — people will still recognize you because everyone is insane about their favorite character,” Mac said.  

When adhering to a budget, Mangu said it’s better to stick to cosplaying characters with less detail and cautions against buying cheap costumes from Amazon or Halloween stores because they sacrifice important details of complex character designs.  

Mac said that cosplaying isn’t just clothes, you can also create a convincing costume using non-clothing items and cheap materials. Cardboard specifically can be used for almost anything and is easy to find. Making cheap and on-hand materials work is a valuable skill for constructing budget cosplays, although the process can be time consuming and difficult.  

“I have these pair of elf shoes, I call them the Santa’s Workshop 2000s,” Mac said. “It would have been way easier to glue it together, but it just wasn’t working and it was pissing me off, so I sewed the foam together. It’s two-millimeter thick foam sheets from Michael’s for 50 cents, and I cut them out in the shape of shoes and I sewed them together. It took me back-breaking hours, but they looked great and I didn’t have to go buy anything else for five bucks.” 

For many cosplayers, the joy of dressing up is being recognized and appreciated for their hard work. Even a budget cosplay can be instantly recognizable and loved, Mac said, just like his personal budget cosplay. With nothing but a Goodwill-sourced black trench coat and cardboard mask, he made W.D. Gaster from the indie video game, “Undertale.” 

“I mounted it on a chopstick using tape and people went fucking buck wild,” Mac said. “And it worked.” 

Mac said although a lack of tools, transportation, time and money can be restricting, as long as a cosplay is put together with effort, the creator’s passion will shine through.   

“The most important part of cosplay is genuinely enjoying what you’re doing,” Mangu said. “Because I know a lot of people will be sticklers on how good your cosplay looks and how well done it is, whether or not you made it yourself or just bought it from someone or had someone make it for you so you didn’t really put any effort into it. Overall, cosplay is supposed to be a fun hobby.”