After packing three costumes to take to Calgary Expo with me, I felt this would be a great topic to share with all of you.
Cosplay's can be large and cumbersome, or super delicate and the last thing you want is to pack up your precious costume, take it on a plane and find out at your destination that it's been destroyed or there are pieces missing. I have seen all sorts of creative ways to get costumes to cons, and from watching other cosplayer's struggle I've come up with a few thoughts on the do's and don'ts of traveling with cosplays. 1. Pack as much as you can in a suitcase or carry-on. No matter if your costume is sewn or if it is foam armor or worbla, if you can fit it in a suitcase, then do so. This is probably the most efficient way to get your costume to a con, and the safest way. If you are taking a mask with you, or foam armor, I would recommend balling up cloth inside of the foam pieces to help it hold it's shape. I find that the more you put in your suitcase, the easier it gets for your armour to squish, which means you have to spend time re-forming it the right shape when you unpack. 2. If it's big, is it worth taking with you? If you have a giant prop that goes with your costume, think really carefully if it is worth taking a plane with you. If it looks like a weapon (foam or not) airlines will not permit you to take it with you in a carry on or checked bag. I highly recommend that if you do have large props that belong with your costume, you may not want to travel with them, or choose a different costume to take with you. One example I can think of is, in an episode of "Heroes of Cosplay" one of the cosplayer's had built a race car to go with her cosplay. They packed it up in a refrigerator box and shipped it through the airline. When the box arrived at their destination, the TSA had opened it up and removed pieces of it as they were deemed unsafe for air travel. So the prop was now useless. Make sure and do your research before you go and take large props, or just leave them at home. 3. Don't go nuts! For my trip to Calgary Fan Expo I packed three costumes in the same suitcase. I was bound and determined to have a different costume for each day of the convention, plus have one day for just wearing casual clothes. Granted, things changed in our plans while in Calgary so I only got to wear two costumes while there. One of them I only wore for a couple of hours, and the other one I removed pieces of it so it was just me dressed steam punk rather than as a character. I felt awful and guilty about not wearing my costumes, not having my wigs styled properly and just not feeling like dressing up. On top of that, we had to pay for the checked bags which would have been an unnecessary cost if I had only taken one costume. So what I'm saying is...It's ok not to pack multiple costumes and just take one with you! Pick what you really want to show off, and something that is comfortable, easy to travel with. You don't need to have multiple costumes for multiple days. Of course, the choice is yours of what you want to bring to a con, but just be sure to pack smartly!! Good luck and have fun!
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