A Beginner’s Leather Cosplay Guide

by Willow Enright

Ben Delano sporting a gun holster with ammo pack, Octopus bracers, hip bag, and belt from Leather Works by Willow's Steampunk Spacetime Vagabond collection.

I love to cosplay as much as the next nerd, and not just cosplay but use copious amounts of leather in my cosplay. I understand that some might have concerns about using leather, and if you do please read the previous blog, Cosplayers Concerns Over Using Leather. Now that we’ve covered that, let’s talk about how to incorporate leather into what you are already doing, or hope to be doing.

Keep in mind everyone has a different way of creating each costume, but if you’ve never put together a cosplay, this guide should be helpful for you. Always start your costume with a mock-up, create one piece at a time, and budget your time wisely. Most importantly, have fun! After all, that’s why we want to cosplay in the first place!

Various bag patterns I made from old cardboard boxes and a pair of sweatpants .

You always want to start your project by making a mock-up pattern(s) for your idea(s) using paper bags, cardboard boxes, old sweats, bed sheets, or whatever you can spare. This will decrease the amount of leather that you will need, and keep the cost down. You can be particular and take your time getting the fit and shape just right. Once you have a working pattern made from some cheaper material you’ll have a better idea on the desired thickness/hardness of the leather you want to use. The mock-up will also let you know where problem areas could arise. And, since you’ve already created a version, you’ll know roughly how long it will take.

I know that people often want to do multiple costumes for various events and they don’t always want to wear the same thing over and over again. That’s understandable, but you should look at your cosplay as an arsenal of characters, just waiting to happen and add pieces to it as you go. If you have a character that has multiple leather items, you’ll first want to 

figure out if all of them need to be cut from the same hide, or multiple hides. You’ll want to think about which ones will be simple and easy to create and which ones will take, FOREVER. You’ll also need to think about which ones are essential to identifying your character, and prioritize properly. ​​

I love making pieces that can double as everyday wear and not just an awesome piece from your cosplay that you wear only when in character. For example, the waist cincher on my Mord-Sith Armor has detachable straps allowing it to disconnect from the rest of the armor. This way I can rock the town in just the waist cincher and look absolutely stunning without total body restriction. It makes it wearable whenever I might fancy, but it also allows it to be a key component to my overall Mord-Sith cosplay. Seriously, SO MUCH FUN!

I know it’s tempting to run to the store, or open up a new tab on your browser and get to shopping, but be sure to make a workable timetable plan that includes when your costume needs to be done and what your budget is for the project. You should overestimate a bit on both fronts to be sure that you will be personally satisfied with your costume in the end. Plus, giving yourself extra time to complete your creation usually means you take the time to put in more details which makes it more awesome.

Willow in the Mord-Sith waist cincher, rocking the town.

Now that you have made a mock-up, prioritized your items, and outlined your schedule, you have a much better idea of what supplies you might need. You can now head to the store, online or otherwise, and choose which items will work for you. Only when you get to perusing you realize you don’t know whether you should get veg tan, oil, tan, and what the heck is chrome tan?

When choosing leather, there are three main processes to consider, besides which animal it’s made out of, vegetable tanned (veg tan), oil tanned, and chrome tanned. If you can find the color, thickness, and overall feel from oil tan leather that fits what you’re looking for, get it. If you are thinking about a chrome tanned hide, you should know that chrome tan is an unnatural chemical process that creates the final color that you see. Vegetable tanned leather is an unfinished and undyed hide that’s been treated with ingredients found in different vegetable matter, such as tree bark prepared in bark mills, wood, leaves, fruits, and roots.

Three leather hides, top and bottom Veg Tan, the middle hide is a brown oil tan. With Erin's feet at the bottom. Fun Fact: the ruler on top of the leather is 18 inches long.

If you are having a tough time finding that one piece that works for you, consider veg tan. The vegetable tanned is better for the environment and you can really individualize the piece you are working on, by shaping, tooling, and coloring. The downside of vegetable tanned leather is that you need more supplies such as leather dye and a leather conditioner, or acrylic leather paint and resolene finishing, to help protect it and keep your item looking sharp. However, you can wet form vegetable tanned leather to get specific shapes, whereas the chrome tanned and oil tanned leather you cannot shape in the same way.

Whatever material you end up using for your cosplay, just be sure to enjoy what you are doing!