Multi-Purpose Cosplay

When I cosplay, one thing that influences which characters I pick is what they wear and whether I can incorporate parts of it into my regular wardrobe, saving me both money and space. That might make it seem like it would make the cosplays less special, but I find that only wearing one piece at a time plus the fact that I always wear a wig and make-up in cosplay and rarely do so otherwise makes this work pretty well for me. Here's how I look at the various components of a given cosplay in more detail:

Shoes

Minor detail, right? Some people just wear their sneakers with cosplay, depending on the character. Actually, the feet are a detail that can be easy to overlook or ignore when you're watching or reading something (how often are their feet even included in the picture?), and for some characters as long as you have some sort of black shoe that goes with the rest of their outfit it doesn't matter if it's spot-on (my shoes from high school marching band have come in handy for these characters.) Even if you do pay attention to the subtler details, it's not hard to find characters who wear such basic shoes that you might already own a pair that works. But if you do pick a character with unusual shoes, it helps when you really like the shoes. I ordered these platform boots to cosplay Misa from Death Note, but they became a wardrobe staple for me for years afterward (now that the zipper on one of them has broken a second time, I'll be getting rid of them since replacing it would cost almost as much as the shoes themselves -__-). And I only cosplayed Misa for one convention before getting sick of her.

Garments, Wigs, Hats

I'm including them all in one category because whether it's outerwear, pants, or anything else, how well it fits with what I usually wear is an equally weighty factor. Part of the reason I'm cosplaying Mello from Death Note right now is because of his pants and vest (I plan on wearing the pants often, but I just made them so I haven't worn them outside a con yet. I also made an outfit for Pride with the vest once--it works well with a skirt.) I also still have the blue shirt from my Misa cosplay and am planning to cover it in patches at some point. Part of why I'm considering Rat from No. 6 even though I haven't finished Mello yet (still planning on making his jacket from when he retrieved his photo from Near) and I've been wanting to cosplay Badou from Dogs: Bullets and Carnage for awhile is Rat's black motorcycle jacket, which doesn't necessarily fill a gap in my wardrobe but is pretty versatile and would fit in well (unlike Badou's overalls or green coat.)

The other consideration is similar, but it's focused on using what you have instead of carefully acquiring new garments. I already had a black tank top and miniskirt when I cosplayed Misa, and I have a pair of workboots that would probably work for Rat (although I need to find a reference and double-check.) The wig I use for Mello was originally my Misa wig, and between those two I also used it in my attempt at Edward Elric.

Jewelry

I don't have the equipment or skill to make decent jewelry and some of the attempts I've seen at making small metal things out of foam or clay or other non-metal materials kind of bug me (nothing against people who do that, though--just a personal preference for my own cosplays), so I prefer to avoid characters with unique jewelry (unless their series is popular enough for there to be replicas up for sale) and go for characters that wear things that I could conceivably find/would wear. I only got to half of that with Mello--I think his crucifixes are really tacky, especially the rosary as a necklace--it's pretty, but at the same time that's not what it's for and I wasn't even raised Catholic, so I feel awkward wearing an actual rosary even though I do it for Mello. But (aside from the money clip), everything was pretty easy to find (the belt buckle was a bit of a challenge, though.)

Props

Not really a wardrobe piece, but the same principles still apply. Part of what I like about Mello is using chocolate as my prop since it gives me something to eat throughout the day as well (and when you like dark chocolate as much as me you can get the super dark kind that apparently fills 30 percent of the RDA for iron 8D.) I also kind of want to get a skull like he's holding in one picture because I totally wouldn't mind having one of those sitting around my room all the time.