Honesty and Cosplay!
Cosplay is Costume Play, bringing a fictional character or portraying a real life one. For anyone interested in the hobby, I fully support you and I would love to introduce you to this amazing world! It truly is an unbelievable experience stepping into one of these conventions for the first time. However, purchasing a costume from party city does not mean that you automatically become a cosplayer. Those of us that love this hobby spend alot of hours, time, and money into the costumes and mentally becoming these characters. It is inevitable, that if you go to a con in costume, photos will be taken! You will most likely be mobbed by fans of whoever or whatever you are dressed as. It is awesome to experience that love and support you get from people. Appreciate every moment of that but does this mean you are suddenly a professional cosplayer? NO!
I am by no means a professional. I am by no means an expert. But what you do not realize, is that literally over 20 hours of work went into the IVY costume that was brought to BCC. Close to 3 hours on make-up alone! and people noticed. Heck, some people spend half a year on one costume! And to me, those are the people that deserve the respect and attention because you can tell they have a passion for it. Otherwise, they wouldn't have dedicated so much of their time to it! I have only been doing this for a year. I am truly a noob at this but I know that there is a huge difference in grabbing a costume of a rack and throwing it on...and actually using your own hands to make something and taking time to research and understand your character! The show "Heros of Cosplay" on SyFy is starting to mainstream this art form and perhaps not in a good way because everyone is starting to think they can become a cosplayer to. Which, once again...I fully support, if and only if you put passion into it as opposed to doing it for the attention. Sorry for the honesty...
