Costuming Cosplay

Cosplay, short for "costume play", has grown from its origins in a handful of Japanese manga and anime fan conventions into a billion-dollar global dress phenomenon. Costuming Cosplay takes us from elaborately crafted superhero costumes to online fandoms, examining how the practice of portraying fictional characters from popular culture through dress and performance has become a means of expressing and playing with different identities.

With a thematic approach that ranges from obsession and role-play to gender performance and sexual fetish, this is the first scholarly study to fully examine the subculture and costume of the Cosplay phenomenon. Drawing on extensive first-hand ethnographic research at conventions across North America and Asia, from Comic Con to Gen Con, Theresa Winge invites us to explore how Cosplay functions as a means of escapism and disguise, and offers a creative realm in which fantasy and new forms of socializing feature as much as costume.

Illustrated with color photographs of both celebrity and amateur Cosplayers in action, it is essential reading for students and scholars of fashion and costume, popular culture, anthropology, gender, and media studies, as well as global players and fans of Cosplay.

About the Author

Theresa M. Winge is Assistant Professor of Fashion Design and Theory in the Department of Art and Art History, Michigan State University. In recent years, Winge's research has focused on the socio-cultural aspects of Modern Primitive body modifications and Japanese Lolitas.