The art of cosplay: Getting in touch with your inner geek

A couple of wacky cosplayers at Toronto’s 2011 Fanexpo. From left: Michelle Kusen-Hathway (Little Sister – Bioshock), Daniel Hurter (Master Chief – Halo), Danielle Himbeault (Rogue – XMen).

Children love to dress up. Pretending to be someone else for a while is an integral part of growing up, allowing us to cultivate our imaginations and helping us learn to think outside the box for a little while. But as we get older, the allure of running around with a sheet tied around our neck, saving the city from the evil Mom-monster wanes. Or does it?

Halloween is a perfect example of how much we still love to dress-up. The adult costume industry is a lucrative one; Halloween shops pop up in empty buildings for the month of October and then vanish as quickly as they appeared, all so that we can satisfy our desire to be someone else for one night.

The problem is that we can’t really justify a costume at any other time of year. We’re adults. We’re supposed to have out-grown all of this child’s play. Enter cosplay.

Cosplay is the geek-world’s answer to the problem. Cosplay, a portmanteau of costume and play, is becoming more and more popular in geek culture, and it involves so much more than just dressing up. Cosplay originated in Japan (of course), at anime conventions, but it has branched out to include all genres of fandom. It is more a hobby than it is just a wearing a costume for a night. Most cosplayers labour meticulously over their costumes, trying to get every detail just right. There are even professional cosplayers, like Jessica Nigri, who make a living out of creating and showing off amazing outfits.

Cosplay has started to make its way into the limelight. There are costume contests at practically every comics convention, some with cash prizes for winners. The Sy-Fy channel airs a show called Heroes of Cosplay, that follows a group of multi-level cosplayers around the U.S., as they compete in contests and attempt to make new costumes on tight deadlines.

Miles Herrington cross-plays as Mad Moxxi for Halloween, 2013.

Miles Herrington is a local amateur cosplayer. He uses his artistic talents to create intricate video-game inspired costumes. He is unique in his preference for cross play – he prefers to dress up as characters of the opposite sex.

“Female game characters are just so much cooler than male characters,” he said. “The women have such intricate and unique outfits. They’re usually really flamboyant. Men just wear regular clothes or some drab armour. My most recent cross-play (Mad Moxxi from the Borderlands series) was really fun to wear, and even more fun to make.”

Cosplay is about so much more than dressing up. There is a huge amount of work that goes into many of these costumes and they are a labour of love for many cosplayers.

Even though Herrington spends a lot of his free time working on new costumes and masks, he admits it is difficult finding appropriate circumstances for wearing the costumes.

“Halloween is great, because nobody gives you strange looks for dressing up really interestingly. And when FanExpo is in town, you bet I’ll be out there in a great new costume,” he says.