When you go to a convention, you see tons of cosplays. But there are those cosplayers that go beyond just dressing up like a character. They make a costume that’s not canon but often times is prettier or more interesting than a characters normal costume. These cosplays can be a little hard to describe so we’ve categorized them for you. Heres 5 types of cosplay you are likely to see at a convention:
Genderbent
A common form of cosplay, this is when an individual dresses up as a character if that character were the opposite gender. This does not mean a female cosplayer dressed up as a male character or vice-versa, that is Crossplay (crossdressing + cosplay). Many comics or shows have gender-bent characters in canon. Dressing up as them is not genderbending either. Genderbents are original takes on what the character would look like if they were the opposite gender.
Humanized
When a cosplayer takes an object or creature and dresses up as a human version of it, that is a humanized cosplay. The character can be anything from an inanimate object to an anthropomorphic creature. This is often done with Pokemon and characters from My Little Pony.
Fanart Inspired
Many cosplayers have a character they love so much that they have cosplayed every outfit the character has worn in canon. So what do they do now? Turn to fan art. They create cosplays based on a beautiful piece of art and translate that into reality. These are often very, very pretty.
Mash-Ups
Everyone has various favorite characters, but what happens when you want to cosplay two at the same time? Mash-ups happen. Cosplayers combine color palettes and costume pieces to get a new character that retains elements from both of its inspirations. Often done with Deadpool, Disney Princesses, and Star Wars characters, this is a very creative type of cosplay.
AU
An alternative universe (or AU) is a universe where everything is the same as canon but one thing is different (Ex: The Disney princesses universe but they go to school at Hogwarts). These have inspired a number of fanfics, fan art, and many, many cosplays. This alternate take on a character is inspiring to those that never thought of the character that way.
Were there any types of cosplay that we missed? Let us know down below!