If someone talked to you about bubblegum goth, would you know what they were on about? How about dark academia or angel-core? Would they be on any safer ground with coconut girl or Christian autumn girl?
My guess is not. Unless, that is, you are of the generation for whom cosplay is an everyday part of life. For you, those phrases might already look hopelessly antiquated. In the fast-moving world of teen culture, nothing stays fixed for long.
For the rest of us, let’s take a step back. Cosplay – a portmanteau word combining “costume” and “play” – is the phenomenon of dressing up in character. It started decades ago, with fans of animation, science fiction and video games who wanted to look like their favourite characters. It took off in a big way in Japan and has proliferated in the age of TikTok with the platform’s appetite for colourful visual content. [READ MORE]