As someone who is starting cosplay or has been cosplaying for awhile you’ll notice that it can be an expensive hobby, even the cheapest cosplays can be up to $100 in supplies, but with this list you’ll be able to save a little money on your cosplays!
- Closet cosplays
Closet cosplays are cosplays consisting of clothes in your closet, they’re super easy and an interesting way to get into the mind of the character your cosplaying and seeing what they would wear casually, now it’s not as popular as normal cosplays, but if your cosplaying a character that has a lot of costume changes or dresses like you this can be your best bet, with closet cosplays you can add accessories that can tie into the character like colors or something that symbolizes them so people can recognizes you, this is honestly the cheapest way to cosplay and an easy start to cosplay too
2. Buy second-hand
There are many cosplayers that either scrap their cosplays or have old cosplays they would like to sell. You can find second-hand cosplays on etsy, facebook groups, and websites like lumikha, whose sole purpose is selling scrapped or old cosplays! Now I don’t have too much experience buying second-hand cosplays, but friends have told me it’s a great way to save money. Prices may vary depending on the seller and the make of the cosplay, whether that be handmade or bought previously, so I would keep that in mind.
3. Borrowing cosplays from friends
If you have friends who cosplay as well, you can ask them if it would be ok to borrow their cosplays. If they say yes, congrats, you have a cosplay! Just keep in mind that it’s borrowed, so it might not fit well and take good care of it.
4. Recycling old cosplays
Now if you have older cosplays that you don’t wear anymore you can totally recycle it into something else, if two characters have a similar style or have the same article of clothing like a shirt or pants, you can definitely reuse it, cosplay is about being crafty, so working with what you have is all apart of the craft.
5. Thrifting
Thrift stores are going to be your heaven as a cosplayer. I’ve thrifted so many pieces for my cosplays throughout my cosplay journey. As long as you have a photo of the character, you can find pretty much anything that your character needs, if your character has a specific piece that you can’t thrift you can diy a clothing item into it, for example if a character has a vest that has a specific pattern on it you can buy a vest thats the base color and paint on the details, almost every cosplayer does this for every cosplay.