This gallery of photos from a 1980s SF Convention has been floating around for a while, but it just crossed my timestream. While all convention photos from every era share a few things—gaudy hotel carpet backgrounds, at least one ill at ease looking guy with a pencil mustache, women with flaming red hair—this one does prove a few things. Although they didn’t call it “cosplay” back then —I believe the term was costuming—obviously people liked dressing just as scantily. However, based on these photos at least, the costumes are not as crafty and don’t involve the sometimes staggering amount of work that modern cosplayers exercise in terms of sewing, construction, and even electricity. Some of these ’80s costumes are little more than “Hey, I put fur on a bikini!”
Anyway, as we continue to unearth archaeological evidence from the “Hair Era” perhaps some who were there will speak up in the comments to explain and contextualize.
I’m developing a thesis around how each era’s cosplay is as good as or better than the previous era’s actual movie/TV show costumes…
I imagine the lack of the Internet has a profound effect.
There are some really neat costumes in this set, and ones that definitely took a lot of effort to make (furry bikinis notwithstanding). There are quite a few whose origins I don’t recognize that impressed me, and from what I did know the Ripley and Queen Emeraldas (a manga-based costume in 1980!) costumes both made me smile.
Of course, even if they weren’t comparable to today’s cosplay, you’d have to cut some slack based on the fact that thirty years ago you couldn’t walk into a store and buy a lot of materials that today’s cosplayers take for granted (EVA foam, LEDs, Cosmetic contact lenses, etcetera).
Very interesting pictures, although “just as sexy” may be overstating it a bit.
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