Cosplay, LARP, SCA For Dummies

So my shop references these strange words and letters that to the average person may mean absolutely nothing. These are specific genres of our diverse culture that are very important to the participants.

Cosplay - To the layman this is effectively dress up like your favorite anime, comic book, or fantasy character and attend functions with other enthusiasts. ComiCon is one of the biggest compilations of cosplay enthusiasts. To the people involved in cosplay, there are a lot more genres that your characters come from, but the non geek community doesn't get it.

LARP - (Live Action Role-Playing) this is where you may dress like your favorite video game character and act out the game. Dungeons and Dragons is one of the first big LARP style games, but there are a lot of them out there, and the characters are as varied as you can imagine.

SCA  - (Society for Creative Anachronism) again to a layman this is really close to LARP, only SCA is more in depth. LARP people choose a character and act it out. SCA creates a character and develops it.

Here is a really good article to explain the difference. These three really unique groups work tirelessly to find suppliers for their attire. I hate to use the word costume as it is similar to the period attire we don't want it to seem too kitschy. I love working with these individuals to create looks that fully represent both the wearer and the character.

One of our favorite cosplay items is the Dalek Dress made for the year long Dalek Project. They can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Formspring. This project is so expansive! She is making some type of Dalek inspired item and posting a new one daily.. FOR A YEAR!!!!

My favorite LARP item is the Renaissance dress. This item I actually made when the girls were little (4 & 2 maybe) as Christmas dresses. They had matching ones and I wore this one. It is so exquisite and I just love it! It has been loaned in the past for special functions and will remain in my archives for many years to come.

I would say that while I have made SCA items in the past I sadly don't have pictures. I made things for people for years and never got pictures because I never imagined myself having a store online. Heck the interwebz were still Weird Science dial-up slow back then. Okay just aged myself a little more, remember I am only 29!

I just think these genres of attire are fun to make and design and create. While I rarely actually dress up for events to this degree for myself, I love to do it for others. I am really good with being the person backstage while the next person shines!