Professional Cosplayer Crystal Graziano

It’s a rare sight to see someone be a professional cosplayer. Many who attend conventions do it for fun and generally are fairly low budget. This isn’t to disparage what they’ve done, but when observing a cosplayer such as Crystal Graziano it’s fair to say that she deserves the title ‘professional cosplayer’. A google search of her name will bring up countless results of high quality cosplays ranging from Bioware RPG’s like ‘Mass Effect’ to Japanese Anime. But what does being a professional cosplayer even mean? How do you become a professional cosplayer, and is it simply looking pretty? Not in the slightest.For professional cosplayers it seems fitting to point out that, yes, cosplaying is usually their only source of income. There are very few in the world as of this moment, but more and more are coming into the fold as years go by.

Making Her Own Costumes

The truth is, each professional cosplayer's role varies. Some have entire teams dedicated to building the most elaborate costumes around and constructing lavishly stylish photo shoots to show off the grueling hard work that was put into the making of the costume. Some professional cosplayers, such as Crystal Graziano, actually make their own costumes themselves. These usually involves lots of leather work, metal work, and sometimes, in rare circumstances, amateur blacksmithing if realistic weapons are being made for the cosplay.

So no, Crystal Graziano isn’t just a model. Rather, a cosplayer is a jack of all trades. Part model, part costume designer. The costumes can become incredibly elaborate depending on what property they are trying to emulate, but usually when trying to impersonate a character from anime, the costumes can get disproportionate and ridiculously expensive looking very quickly. So the question remains, how do you actually make money out of cosplay?

The answer is unfortunately not particularly simple, and seems to be unique to each different cosplayer, although there is a general trend that can be followed. First, a cosplayer has to learn how to make these costumes and props. That in and of itself can be off putting, as it takes a lot of effort and skill to make costumes that are visually as enticing and exciting as those that Crystal Graziano makes.

Making a Career of Cosplay

Once you’ve made your costume and a few props and feel confident with what you’ve crafted, the next step seems pretty universal. Go to every convention you possibly can, use social media as extensively as you possibly can, and get noticed as much as you possibly can. Undeniably, it helps if you are attractive, but the use of social media seems to be key to the success.

But still, a single dollar hasn’t been deposited in the bank. At this point there is no return on investment. But at this stage, hopefully the use of social media and getting noticed has paid off, as the end goal is to get a company, particularly those you are already cosplaying for, to pay you to professionally portray the characters in their properties. Social media is absolutely key to the career of a cosplayer, the more they use it, the more successful they become. It’s a simple, but objectively true trend.

If you’ve managed this step you’ve almost made it. It’s no exaggeration that cosplayers like Crystal Graziano can get shipped out across the world to hundreds of different conventions, each with different themes and focuses and not a single penny will be spent out of her pocket. For these companies, good cosplay means that their property will stick in the minds of the customers. It’s a win win situation, and this embryonic relationship between cosplayers, conventions, and companies has resulted in the typical convention culture we see today. For most though, we just get to enjoy the cosplay.

Cosplayers Making Bank

One Cosplay Photographer Don McCaskill has stated that low entry cosplayers usually earn around $75 to $300 on a day to day basis. However, some of the top cosplayer can earn as much as $50,000 to $100,000 depending on how many gigs they have going on at once. It’s evidently a lucrative business, and it looks fun as all hell. It certainly helps to have a genuine interest in the geek culture. Crystal Graziano has made costumes from a wide variety of properties and actively uses Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as her own website. This engagement with her audience is key to being a great cosplayer. She is approachable, interesting, and passionate. She even has a DeviantArt page where she posts her fan art of different video games. So not only can she craft elaborate costumes, but she can draw, too. There’s no disputing that she is ridiculously talented.

Let's take a quick look at some of Crystal’s most acclaimed cosplay over her relatively long career (in relative terms to other cosplayers). One of her most famous, that I even saw before I knew her name was her take on the DC Comics character of Power Girl. Not to beat around the bush, the internet is a fickle beast, and the low cut costume of Power Girl mixed with piercing eyes and what seems to be a genuine passion made it an easy picture that was spread quickly across social media.

Cosplay Inspired Gaming

Crystal is also a massive fan of the popular video game series, Metal Gear Solid. She’s crafted costumes for the scantily clad character Quiet from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and even an octo-camo costume for Old Snake from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots. This costume in particular is impressive, as it is a full body suit that seems to be made out of intricate fibers and textures. Nevertheless, Crystal’s design is spot on and it seems to really capture the essence of the game. Most cosplayers acknowledge that they cannot cosplay forever for a multitude of reasons, but with the vibrant and bright careers that cosplayers like Crystal Graziano have crafted for themselves over the past five to 10 years, it’s fair to say that whatever industry they transition into, they’ll be more than successful.