A few months ago, I decided I was going to attend my first ever con, Tampa Bay Comic Con, and that I was further going to do my first ever cosplay: a female Marty McFly from my all time favorite movie, Back to the Future!!

(and yes, that is me with Lea Thompson who played Marty's mom, Lorraine!)
On the surface, this looks like a simple costume. But there's a TON of details and converting 30 year old men's clothing items (that are rare and expensive to start with) into equivalent female versions...well, it was a bit of work!
For reference, this is what I was trying to replicate:

There are so many layers and details and components that are easy to get wrong and hard to get right. Even the basics are daunting...
a burgundy tee shirt
a white button up with a black windowpane pattern
black suspenders
custom Guess jacket with those distinctive dark blue accents
burnt orange puffer jacket
jeans
Nike Bruins red and white sneakers
...it was a lot of thrifting and repurposing and getting creative. For example, here's my windowpane shirt:


And here's a pair of vintage women's Nikes I was able to get. They're not the exact style but they're darn close!!


They still make the Casio digital watch amazingly enough. LOL
I even modified an old Jansport backpack to look more like his (VERY EXPENSIVE) Eastpak original:
The jacket was it's own adventure. I started with a vintage one like this:
I painted it step-by-step to give it the details of his original:



I also had to add pocket flaps and fuse in paisley lining for the cuffs.


Overall though it was a HUGE hit! I had a ton of people ask me where I "bought" my jacket.

I was like, bought? I MADE this!!
I get into a lot of information and reference photos and the original screen used products in my blog if you're interested in getting MUCH more detailed info:Part I:
http://giveneyestosee.com/blog/2015/08/female-marty-mcfly-cosplay-part-1/Part II:
http://giveneyestosee.com/blog/2015/08/diy-female-marty-mcfly-cosplay-costume-part-ii/Also see pics of me in action at Comic Con with Doc Brown and other Marty McFly cosplayers here:http://giveneyestosee.com/blog/2015/08/female-marty-mcfly-cosplay-at-tampa-bay-comic-con-2015/Overall it was a HUGE hit and I was so excited. I love this movie so much and this is the 30th anniversary and next month (October 21st 2015) is "the future" (the day they travel to in part II) so it was just a perfect time to try my hand at a cosplay.
