Over the summer, the San Francisco Opera decided to clear out its closets and make a few bucks by selling off old costumes. Two days later, 125,000 frocks and props had been scooped up into the blissful arms of Burners, cosplayers, and all-around costume connoisseurs.
Long after most people have abandoned dress-up to dusty corners of childhood, a well-stocked costume box is a must for any number of Bay Area social events: the Big Wow Comicfest for fans of costume play, or cosplay, who get a kick out of capes and anime characters; the Edwardian Ball and Dickens Fair for anachronistic adventurers; the Bay to Breakers 12K footrace for the huffers-and-puffers who don't mind tempting heatstroke as long as they get to keel over in a Care Bear suit; and, of course, Burning Man for the playa-dusted faithful.
"All of us put on costumes every day," says Robin Rosenberg, a Bay Area clinical psychologist who co-authored a Stanford University study on virtual avatars and also co-wrote "Expressions of Fandom: Findings from a Psychological Survey of Cosplay and Costume Wear."
"There's our costume we wear when we go to work. If we're out on the town, wearing Saturday-night clubbing attire will make you feel differently," she says, and that even applies to sports fans who deck themselves out in team gear before heading to the stadium. "Wearing those clothes makes them feel a certain way, act a certain way, and it's part of their identity."
"There's the creative outlet it provides, not to mention the joys of bringing to life and embodying a character you love," says Robbie P., a 25-year-old cosplayer from Santa Rosa who has organized events around the Bay Area. He's dressed as characters from anime and manga, comic books, videogames, and TV shows such as Doctor Who.
Not everybody understands the pleasures of dressing up and role-playing. In many areas, Rosenberg says, costumers are often faced with questions and blank looks.
"There's the usual 'Eww, that's so geeky,' 'Grow up,' and 'Get a life' sort of taunts that are always directed at people who have hobbies like that," Robbie P. says. But, "on an average day, a cosplayer in San Francisco or Santa Cruz won't even make the top 10 list of unusual sights."
In San Francisco, unusual attire has been admired since before the first female impersonators took the stage at the dearly departed Finocchio's in 1930s North Beach, and before the hippies stirred their first packages of Rit into tie-dye stews on Haight-Ashbury stoves.
"In the Bay Area in general, people are very tolerant of people who wish to experiment with self-identity and self-expression," Rosenberg says. "You get people who have a willingness to try things. Like in Silicon Valley, people trying weird and wacky things, taking risks."
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