Silicon Valley Comic Con 2017 - Over 30 Cosplay

Over 30 Cosplay is an advocacy group for Cosplayers at or above 30. It just started in the thirty's because of the founder's noticing that the photographers would favor the younger cosplayers. Many cosplayers who get into the hobby later tended go for full face masks. On the panel you find  Joseph Minafra, John Callison, Phoenix Morgan, Laurel D'Arrigo, Bill Watters, and Many Anne Bulter.

The first question to the panel was what inspires your costume choice. Laurel was in her new Zarina costume from Disney's Pixie Hollow. She was focused on her seamtress skills, which has occsionally limited her, but never works against her fully. Her first costume was Galadriel Entranced. She put a blue light below her face, intergated into her bodice. She choses her costumes from Literature, TV and film. Her second costume was Melisandre from Game of Thrones followed by her third, a Steampunk version of Melisandre. Both had placed 3rd in Costume Contests. She later made one for Queen Clarion.

Next was a couple, Sharron and Bill. They handed things more like a Q&A session. They were asked if one had brought the other into Cosplayer, but they were one of the perfect storm couples where they were both into Cosplay to begin with. They were then asked if, for couples, they should do Cosplay together or do seperate costumes. Bill responded that it is up to the individuals and that they should just go for it, live in their passions. If there is a couple cosplay, they should do that. That question was followed by if they had skills that the other did not possess. The answer was they had fairly similiar skill sets but would do the best with what skills they had.

The discussion shifted more to the focus of the group itself. One very clear piece of advice given was "There is no wrong way to Cosplay". Sometimes being an older member of the Cosplayer Community you will encounter people who are going to discourage you. Most of this happens on personal pages but not on the Facebook group for Over 30 cosplay because of the numerous admins who will ban people for attacking the cosplayers.

After that, there was talk of where to go to learn about making costumes. Ander suggested using the resources you have at hand before you go asked for help online. It does help to develop a plan for your costumes. It will save you a little time and a fair bit of money. Go, make your mistakes and learn from them. Do your research into Safety measures about what you are doing. Be sure to wear a breather mask when sanding props. When it comes to learning skills, look into books from the 1970's (Hippe Books). You will also find some useful tips in Foxfire. Be sure to also focus your searches for patterns and cosplay to include the words "Pattern" and "Cosplay" to make your results more relevant. Learn about using Keywords in your search. You can get some useful props from Vulpin or Punish Props. There is also the Bay Area Costumers and Pattern Bashing to develop a costume. You can also go to Heroes of Cosplay to get starting patterns that can help you. Heroes for Hire offers to sell preowned costumes for those just starting as well.

Also, with your costumes, be mindful of the temperture restrictions that it can have. It helps sometimes to use non-period accurate materials to avoid overheating, dehydration or heat stroke. It helps to have a Cooling vest or Travel Ice Packs that you can intergrate into your costume. There are also small fans that you can make a small cooling system with a battery pack. You will also want to drink lots of water 64 fluid ounces or more each day when in heavier costumes. Think about all your layers and the materials that they are made of here.

The final part of the panel was focused on more tips for managing your costumes, learning your limits and setting limits on where a costume can be worn.