Casual Cosplay (Or Dress-up for Adults)

Sometimes, you watch a show and you're like, "I love how [insert character here] dresses!"

Sometimes, you like it so much that you'd wear it, if given the option. Enter, casual cosplaying.


If you've never heard of casual cosplay (or closet cosplay), you're in for a treat. It's basically like covert dress-up for adults. Like, could anything be better?

(This video explains the concept really well, if you're more into listening than reading!)

For me, I don't even remember hearing about regular, full-on cosplay until I was probably about sixteen or seventeen. I didn't know that was a thing people did. What I did know, was that from the time I was six years old, I was doing basically the same thing in a much more lowkey way. I wanted to emulate my favorite characters, so I'd find clothes I already had that had similar shape, if not color, to who I was emulating and I'd wear it around the house and play pretend or I'd try to do my hair like theirs, and as I got older, it extended into playing around with makeup.

I started it back then, and kind of just never stopped.

As weird as it may sound, I can actually bookmark phases of my life by what fictional characters I was most interested in at the time, and how it shaped my style.

When I was a kid, it was all about the animated heroines; the girls from the Final Fantasy games I'd gotten the chance to play, the senshi from Sailor Moon, and Lara Croft. I was constantly pestering my mom to braid my hair as a kid just so it would look like Lara's.



In my early-mid teens, there were too many to count. I was delving into beauty in a big way around this time, and soaking it up like a sponge. I took bits and pieces of style from every character I liked, noticing any trends that popped up a lot—which at this time, apparently, was minimal makeup, effortless waves, and an easy, casual wardrobe that consisted of jeans, pretty tops, and florals.


More recently, especially around Autumn-time, it's been Sally Albright from When Harry Met Sally, and the girls from Sailor Moon... Again. (Hello, serious wardrobe envy!) I've been really into all things '90s, and these are kind of the epitome of that.



All of these things have shaped my overall fashion sense, and currently, most of the things on my fashion wishlist are because of a fictional character.

The appeal of it for me was that it was somehow like putting on armor. If I'm trying to emulate a character that I admire, I feel more confident.

I think my closet represents that; I don't know who I am or who I wanna be, so I flit from person to person. I still love playing pretend. I don't really have one defined style, but since I pull inspiration from everywhere, my closet is kind of whimsical, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

So, have you ever tried casual cosplay? Is it something you'd be interested in? Geek out with me over on tumblr or twitter, I'd love to hear from you!!