1908
Mr. and Mrs. William Fell attended a masquerade costume ball and dressed up as Mr. Skygack and Miss Pickles. The characters were from a newspaper comic, which is Chicago Day Book.
- Although most people think cosplay is originally from Japan, cosplay initially began in the 1930s in North America, with a practice called costuming. At the time, the participants did not have to mimic the characters. The participants only dressed appropriately.
1939
Forrest J. Ackerman was the first to wear a futuristic costume to the First World Science Fiction Convention in New York.
1983
The first Costume-Con was held in San Diego, California.
1984
The term ‘Cosplay’ is a combination of the words “costume” and “play.”Although it was invented in 1930, the term ‘Cosplay’ was not invented until 1984, by a Japanese reporter named Nobuyuki Takahashi. In 1984, Takahashi attended WorldCon in LA, California, and he reported on the masquerade. When he was translating the word 'masquerade' to Japan, he used 'Cosplay' to describe because the name was vintage.
1999
The first Cosplay Cafe opened in Akihabara, Tokyo.
2003
In Nagoya, Japan, the first World Cosplay Summit was held. Cosplayers from four countries, including Japan, joined.
- References
- Go, Ysabel. “An Overview of Cosplay: Exploring the Subculture- The Artifice.” The Artifice, 28 Aug. 2015, the-artifice.com/cosplay-overview/.
- Sarkar, Patricia. “History of Cosplay.” Geeks, 2016, vocal.media/geeks/history-of-cosplay.
- “75 Years Of Capes and Face Paint: A History of Cosplay.” Yahoo!, Yahoo!, 24 July 2014, www.yahoo.com/entertainment/75-years-of-capes-and-face-paint-a-history-of-cosplay-92666923267.html.