Financial accessibility in costuming communities

Wearing my red and gold damask sideless surcoat

I wanted to talk a little about attempts to make costuming, cosplay, sewing (etc) more financially accessible to people who think that it’s too expensive to do well, to compete, to join in all.the.things that are out there.

In the last while it’s really jumped out at me – well-meaning folks who truly want to share the thing they love with as many people who want to be there as possible. There’s this big push “join us, it doesn’t have to be expensive!”

Much for all those good intentions.

However… saying this kinda thing while posting photos from 3 different conventions in three different cities it becomes clear that a lot of the ideas on “how to save money” are steeped in a lot of economic privilege.

Well-meaning or otherwise – travel is expensive, conventions are expensive, costume college is expensive… While I do not fault anyone for prioritizing these things if they are passionate about them – they are often talking to people who couldn’t prioritize those things even if they wanted to.