Cosplay, short for “costume play,” isn’t just about playing dress-up, though, as Frenchy Lunning wrote in last year’s book Cosplay: The Fictional Mode of Existence (via JSTOR Daily):“The goal in cosplay is not to produce and perform a character to take part in a theatrical narrative designed for an audience to view, but for an individual fan subject to embody and identify with an adored character whose persona is real for the fan, actor, and/or creator of the cosplay costume. The creation of the costume is as much a part of the loving and community-based aspect of fandom as the actual performance.
