Cosplay America June 20-22, 2025

Antique parasol restoration by Matty Blatt, UNC MFA ‘24

I’ll be hosting a session on parasols at this year’s Cosplay America conference, held June 20-22, 2025, in Cary, NC. 

My colleague, UNC MFA costume director Triffin Morris, will also be taking part & leading two sessions—one on a TBD corsetry topic & one called “Fitting Office Hours” where she will address issues of fit and advise participants who sign up in advance.

We will be assisted by two of our current graduate students, and some of our other students and alumni also plan to attend.

Now in its tenth year, Cosplay America describes itself as “a convention dedicated to costuming (or, as it's known in fandom, cosplay) and cosplay culture.” The event’s programming leans heavily on the side of making, media, and methodology.

Conference sponsors are companies well known among makers like Tandy Leather and SureBonder glue guns. Triffin and I are participating in this year‘s event with a goal of sharing our knowledge beyond our own students and school; we will also gladly answer any questions conference-goers have about graduate study in costume production.

There is significant crossover between cosplay culture and entertainment costume professionals. More and more of our incoming graduate students include cosplays in their application portfolios & we are thrilled to continue building this relationship with Cosplay America.