What is cosplay? Costume play is costume play. It can be compared to both theatre and masquerade. Cosplayers dress up as characters from their favourite anime, films, TV series and video games. They love their characters and act out scenes involving them, reincarnating virtual screen stories in the "here and now".

The main goal of a cosplayer is to breathe life into a favourite character, to speak and act as if the character has jumped off the screen and now walks among people. What is needed to do this: not just "remove" his features, copy the style of behavior, outfits, but also to engage in the inner world of his character. So cosplay is a real philosophy.

Columbian cosplay pioneers are considered fans of Tolkien's immortal saga "The Lord of the Rings", which opened up an infinite space for imagination and disguise in medieval fantasy clothes. But, of course, cosplay was given a major boost by the fascination with Japanese anime and manga.

How you can earn money in cosplay

Modeling contracts - when the image is so awesome that you are chosen as the physical embodiment of the fictional character.

By selling content or donating money. A cosplayer gathers a community of fans who like the characters, the level of preparation of the costumes, or something else. Or looks. The second has spawned a huge market of very strange erotic cosplay on Patreon and Onlyfans, where girls of exciting looks offer to see what naked characters from various games and movies look like. Nobody has cancelled rule 34. In terms of the business model, it's quite interesting to build a personal brand and then monetise it. The problem with that is that the core asset is actually gradually depreciating over 7-8 years, which means you have to diversify the business.

Selling merch is when a cosplayer makes his own merchandise. Goes well (especially in Japan), but there is an acute problem with licenses, because usually all the modern characters of games are rigidly owned by someone, and that someone is making money on the merch.

Crafting - because a cosplayer makes costumes and accessories in one way or another - you can sell them. Apex replicas, for example, can be quite expensive.

There are two approaches to a business built on its own communities: it's either creating a community around a product, or creating a community and finding a product for it.