Cosplay

Cosplay

How far would you go to play a game of “dress-up”? Dressing up today is also known as cosplay.

Reminiscing the childhood school plays or fancy dress competitions, where pinning a red cloth to the back or wearing underwear atop the pants was the ultimate idea of embodying your favorite superhero. But this is not child’s play anymore. It’s an expression.

What is Cosplay?

Cosplay is a sophisticated art form which delves into the extremes of creativity and the extent to which one would go to personify the fictional characters they venerate. If only the superpowers came along as well! 

Ideally this is something more prominently seen in the Japanese culture if we look at it a few years back. People generally misinterpret cosplay as region or country specific, but saying that it “only” belongs to one nation would not suffice the widespread phenomenon that it truly is. 

Finding the one that fits!

The interesting fact here is that it’s not just about the looks, it’s an intensive hobby that pays. With the ever increasing number of gigs happening the entire year and all around the world it is quite a decent source of income given you’d consider doing it as a hobby or just out of sheer love for the child in you. Professional cosplayers charge quite a handsome fee for their art. 

Models or cosplayers don’t just dress up and attend exciting events, a serious amount of work goes into creating the costumes. An elaborate costume can take up-to 2-3 months if the cosplayers are making their own costumes and props with an investment ranging from $100- $700. They in-turn sell these costumes to some of the crazy fans out there or to another potential model. 

Hire a Photographer

You don’t want the months of preparation and efforts to go in vain.

It is imperative to get professional photographers to get the pictures done. Not just any of your friends because if you want to pursue cosplay modeling as a career, you cannot leave any room for errors.  With the costs of making the costume and the props, the makeup and the photo-shoot, it all adds up to a considerable amount.

Where to Promote

Professional cosplayers act as an imperative marketing tool. It’s an amalgamation of modelling and costuming, an innovative confluence to bring out something exclusive. Dressing up as a character of a video game and promoting the booth at the comic cons, boosting the sales of merchandise or getting pictures with hysterical fans who’d go to any lengths just to get clicked, for each of these activities they get a hefty amount. The more sales they help turning in, the higher is their profit margin. International cosplay models making anywhere from $50,000 – $100,000 is quite plausible. 

Social media presence:

This mostly applies to the top cosplayers of the world who hold a celebrity status and the responsibilities alike. Some being in the career for over a decade. Their success largely depends on their heavy social media presence. They need to be highly proactive in uploading unique content regularly. Social media is a massive tool when it comes to promotions, these professional cosplayers have millions of followers all across their social media. Where they do brand endorsements or put up pictures of their characters. It is a haven to see what all has been done and what more can be done.

Audience and Scope for growth

Cosplay has an ever growing audience. Earning for dressing up in fancy costumes would have had been a ludicrous idea a decade ago, but today it is a new career field. And that too one where you are getting paid to do what you love.

In fact, Cosplay competitions are organized at a huge level where cosplayers from all over the world come up to compete and prove who the best is. The jury includes models who are pros at the work and have been doing it for decades. These conventions witness people from all ages. And it is not just the game characters, you can play your favorite superhero or movie characters. Comics come alive and take you to a whole different surreal world where everything is possible.

On an ending note!

From masquerade balls, to costuming to cosplay, transcending to a whole new and competitive level, this industry is only progressing. An impeccable costume, becoming the character you impersonate and a social media stronghold, is all you need to not only delve into the magical world of cosplay but also to make a career out of it. Traveling the world, attending gigs and getting paid for it, that is a pretty sweet deal.