Favorite/Recommended Links
These are some of my favorite places to shop, attend, and otherwise support
Conventions:
Nickel City Con
Niagara Falls Comic Con
Buffalo Comicon
Places I Shop/Support:
Creative Zenith (Artist)
Under the Hood Artists
Dracula Clothing (Awesome and reasonably priced steampunk and goth wear)
Ultrasabers (Where I bought my lightsabres from)
Stumptown Kilts (My favorite Kilt place – POCKET IN THE FRONT)
Queen City Bookstore
Personal:
Bob Hubbard Photography
Costuming Resources
Buying ready made:
Amazon and eBay are good sources for cheap clothes and accessories. EBay has a lot of overseas sellers and if you have the patience to wait on shipping, you can get amazing savings.
Sometimes it takes a little digging to find what you’re looking for, so be persistent. Also be sure to match up your size. The Asian clothing scale is NOT the same as US. Many shops carry the same items/design styles. I don’t know if they’re connected or share patterns, but shop around and compare!
XCoser.com is a shop I have frequented. I have 3 full costumes, 2 masks, 1 belt, and 5 wigs from them and have been very happy with them. They also have two variants sites x-costume.com and x-cosplay.com where pricing is different and Ive seen a few different costumes. Also check resellers on Amazon for price savings
Cosmanles is another costume shop. They are overall a bit pricey, but their Star Trek costumes are ridiculously cheap. Sizing and service have been hit and miss.
Procosplay has a fantastic selection with great quality. I have a number of costumes from them.
Cosplaysky is not one I have bought from, but I know people who have that were very happy with them
Miccostumes Sizing seemed a bit off, although it looks like it they updated the chart since I made my purchase
Herostime if you are looking for a zentai suit THIS is the one you want to go to. Great quality and prices. Bob was very happy with his Red Lantern and my Mera is on point.
SimCosplay I have 3 costumes from them, two of which I have won. The quality and customer service is FANTASTIC
Angel Secret I just got 2 Elsa costumes from them and it too only NINE days from order to delivery the detail is awesome. They have many variations for Elsa so you can mix and match to your preference. I love that they will make the top thicker to hide tattoos
Hot Topic has really jumped onto the cosplay train. Not only do they get decent costume pieces in, but they are hooked up with Her Universe which has a lot of cute clothing inspired by pop culture – great if you want to be geeky without being in a costume. They also have a number of rockabilly and vintage inspired items. Check at their site, the selection is bigger and they’re always running specials. Shipping is only $2 if you’re part of their reward club. I have a lot of stuff from there.
Spirit Halloween has a surprising amount of decently made items. They almost always have a 20% discount or some other type of sale. They seasonally have stores in the fall and if you have patience, everything is 50% off after Halloween. Catch is, there is no guarantee the item you want will still be there.
I haven’t been to Phase ID at the Eastern Hills mall in ages, but they at least at one point had some cute pin up/gothabilly inspired clothes
Thrift stores are great for finding clothes to modify and if you luck out, good vintage clothing.
Making your own:
Joann Fabrics overall has the best selection for fabrics and patterns locally. They also offer classes on a variety of crafting. The sewing for beginners at the McKinley location was very helpful to me. Download their app for coupons.
Hobby Lobby has the best accessories. Their jewelry section is quite varied. I used them for most of my non-gear steampunk bits
Etsy has some nice patterns and a few things already made.
Don’t be afraid to mix patterns together or modify them to get the look you want.
If there are any questions about anything I have specifically let me know and I can let you know where I got it or how I made it. 🙂
-SAH