The Art of Subtle Dress Up: Constructing a Casual Cosplay for Any Occasion

Written by Kya Wilson

Cover graphic by Sarah Nash

Halloween is rapidly approaching and with it comes the search for a creative costume. This spooky season, why restrict yourself to only dolling up on All Hallows Eve? There is a way that you can construct a costume look that can be worn either to class or a Halloween party. If you are still looking for your costume this year you might want to consider building yourself a casual cosplay.

If you haven’t heard of it before, cosplay is a form of dress up whose name is derived from the words costume play. It refers to costumes based on characters from anime or video games and originated in Japan. These costumes are frequently made from scratch — from the clothes to the props.

I got into cosplay about seven or eight years ago and have constructed several of my own complete ensembles from the ground up. I make everything from the garments to the carved foam weapons I use as props.

Although I do really enjoy cosplay, making a full outfit yourself is often a time-consuming process from start to finish. Due to this, I had begun to look for a form of cosplay that might be simpler and less time-consuming. That way I could intersperse them with my larger, more time-consuming projects. This is when I stumbled upon some concepts for “casual cosplays”. This form of cosplay does not necessarily require you to make the components yourself but can instead be put together from items you gather that can be purchased, thrifted, or pulled out of your closet at home. 

There are two general approaches to casual cosplay. The first sounds easy but may still require some personal garment construction. The second does not necessitate any sewing or construction but may require a higher level of creativity to bring it to life.

For the first approach, you can look through media you enjoy for a character whose look you can feasibly copy. This means that you are looking for either clothes that are simple to make or easy to find. The easiest form is a character who is always wearing the same color shirt and a pair of jeans. Add some recognizable accessories and a wig if necessary and you're done. A slightly more challenging version is to pick a specific look they wear and try to find something similar but the more specific item you're looking for, the harder it will be.

Another example would be a simple schoolgirl uniform from an anime. A pleated skirt and a button-up shirt will get you a long way. Depending on whether the skirt is patterned or not, you may be able to find and purchase something similar or if you can't find anything off the rack, a pleated skirt is fairly easy to construct. You can then add some simple items like a blazer or sweater vest followed by a pair of knee-high socks with boots and a ribbon tie at the neck and be all set. Depending on the character, you can even include a wig to round out the look.

Although this option is easier than a regular cosplay, it does come with its own set of problems. Depending on how accurate to the character you want to be, finding the patterns or accessories you're looking for may take some time and be a bit frustrating. If you're struggling to find the exact items for a particular character, you may want to consider the next style of casual cosplay.

For the second approach, instead of being a direct reproduction of the character’s design elements, use their character design as inspiration to pull together more casual garments and accessories reminiscent of the character you are cosplaying. This approach will require more creativity on your part because instead of just looking for the items you see on the character you will have to figure out what aspects of their outfit make them recognizable. This could be things such as a color palette, a style of dressing, or even a few key accessories. Because it is not a one-to-one match, you can use this technique with characters whose original looks may be too fantastical or complicated and would be impossible to make using the first technique. By using interpretation, you have a wider range of characters you could choose from.

For this type of casual cosplay, you should probably start by examining the character in question. You can note aspects you consider important or things you may want to search for. This will give you an idea of what you may be looking for when you begin hunting for the components of your look. You may want to note several different options for potential combinations of garments because looking for the pieces you want may end up being a bit of a challenge. The blessing/curse of this option is that you are only limited by what you can find. On the upside, you may get more creative with your design or find unexpected inspiration while looking. On the downside, you may struggle to find things that you think fit with the character. One additional perk of this form of cosplay is that since it’s an interpretation, your final result may look more like a regular outfit and you do not necessarily need to add a wig or apply specific makeup. You can do as much or as little as you want.

Casual cosplay has many different sub-varieties such as vintage-inspired looks where you take the character and re-imagine them in a historical time period or Disney Bounding, which are specifically looks inspired by Disney characters, but these will all fall into one of the two approaches listed above.

There is plenty of inspiration out there for you to look at if you are having a hard time getting started. So dive in and see what you can create.