LibGuides: Cosplay: Fandom-Specific Resources

Other Fandom Resources

501st Legion
If you want the most screen-accurate costume possible for Star Wars and want to connect with others passionate about that, this is the group for you!
Avengers Initiative
While not as focused on the craft, they are a dedicated group of Marvel Comics fans, who use cosplay as a way to volunteer and give back to the community. They definitely have resources on how to get or build the best Marvel costume as well though!
Game of Thrones Wiki
While this isn't a group of people, this Wiki includes some pretty detailed information not just on the costumes themselves, but also the story of why they were made.
The 405th Infantry Division
This site is dedicated to fans of the Halo franchise, helping each other make costumes.

So what about ____?

Whether it's Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, or Star Wars, the big franchises all have pretty distinctive and amazing costumes. It can be hard to tell just from watching how a costume was made or what it really looks like, but thankfully there are books and resources out there that give those details!

With some newer fandoms like podcasts or indie games, it can be hard to find official source material. In those cases, see if you can find fan wiki pages. Often they'll have any official info listed, as well as fanart and theories, which can come in handy too.

Game of Thrones: the Costumes, the Official Book from Season 1 to Season 8 by Michele Clapton; Gina McIntyre; David Benioff (Foreword by); D. B. Weiss (Foreword by)
ISBN: 9781683835301
What's great about this book in particular is that it's not just a book of pictures of the costumes and concept art, but also actual discussions with the creators on how they made the costumes. This can be crucial with complex costumes like these, where figuring out how to replicate a detail can be incredibly difficult.
The Art of Disney Costuming by Jeff Kurtti; Staff of the Walt Disney Archives
ISBN: 9781484741221
This is a fantastic resource for Disney cosplayers, because it covers not just their live action and park costumes, but the animated films as well. There's a lengthy discussion of Cinderella's dress and its many incarnations, but there's still plenty of room in the book to look at other heroes and villains of Disney.
Star Wars Costumes by Brandon Alinger; Aggie Rodgers (Foreword by); John Mollo (Foreword by); Nilo Rodis-Jamero (Foreword by)
ISBN: 9781452138053
This book is specifically a deep dive into the costumes of Episodes IV, V, and VI of the Star Wars saga, so if you're wanting to build a cosplay from one of those movies this is a great resource! There's photos of the finished costumes as well as sketches, notes, and some behind-the-scenes info that can really help finish a build.
Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok - the Art of the Movie by Eleni Roussos
ISBN: 9781302903237
This is more of a traditional making-of book that includes concept art but also discussion of filming and locations, but can still be useful for those hidden details on costumes that you may not be able to get just from photos of the costumes found online.
The World of Critical Role
ISBN: 9780593157435
If Critical Role is your jam, then this could be a great resource for cosplaying from the show! It covers more of the origins of everything, as well as art and cosplay others have made.
Final Fantasy VII Remake: Material Ultimania by Square Enix; Studio BentStuff; Digital Hearts
ISBN: 9781646091218
Though this covers much more than the characters in the game, there are some really great resources in here for cosplayers of Final Fantasy VII: Remake.
Madly Marvelous by Donna Zakowska
ISBN: 9781419744419
While this is a fandom-specific book for cosplayers looking to wear the characters from The Marvelous Mrs Mabel, this can also be a general resource for historical costuming because the design team did research historically accurate outfits from the time.
Cosplay the Marvel Way by Judith Stephens
ISBN: 9780762485802
This book has a little bit of everything: some history of cosplay as a term and thing people do, history of how Marvel as a company has been a part of that, and some interviews of cosplayers. But the best part is that there's walkthroughs for a few different Marvel characters, as created by some pretty cool cosplayers.