Cosplay, short for “costume play”, is a type of performance art in which participants wear costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea.
Cosplay costumes vary greatly and can range from simple outfits to highly detailed “mecha” suit. Cosplay is generally considered different from Halloween and Madri Gras costume wear as the intention is to accurately replicate a specific character, rather than to reflect the culture and symbolism of a holiday event. As such, when in costume, cosplayers will often seek to adopt the affect, mannerisms and body language of the characters they portray. The characters chosen to be cosplayed may be sourced from any movie, TV series, book, comic book, video game or music band but the practice of cosplay is most often associated with replicating anime and manga characters.
Cospaly, the performance art of costumed role playing, often requires a wig for complete accuracy, especially for costumes that have very odd or very complex hairstyles or hair colors that are difficult to reproduce with real hair. The use of a wig can make it easier for the wearer of the cosplay costume to dress up without spending hours on their hair every time they want to wear a costume or to change hairstyle to their character’s costumes without changing their personal hairstyle preferences.
