I briefly mentioned Cosplaysky.com in my original blog on the idea of cosplay, and I thought having ordered from them, and had some experience of their customer service, it would be a good idea to do a brief review in case anybody out there stumbled across this blog because of the cosplay discussion, or in case anybody was curious after my last post on the subject.
As I've explained before, Cosplaysky is part of the more reasonable end of the market for costume prices in the field of cosplay, and while it can seem extremely expensive when you're new to the hobby, it's considerably well priced, particularly since you often get full outfits. However, there are a great many Asian based cosplay sites out there, many with varying reputations, and it was only after a brief bit of research and hearing positive things about Cosplaysky, I decided to give them a try.
Settling for a Flynn Rider costume, as I had to play a Disney character to fit with my wife's theme, and frankly, if I'm going to be a Disney character, I'm going to be an amusing and cool one, I decided to order it, not really sure what to expect.
Delivery times were extremely impressive. Since I was ordering a custom made costume, I received the costume within 15 days, which since that included making the thing and then posting it from Asia was very positive.
I was actually nervous about the quality of the costume though. While, as I've said, this isn't a large amount of money to spend for cosplayers, for me, it was an insane amount of money to spend on a single costume, and I was very worried about Cosplaysky's reputation as the 'cheaper' end of the market. I have to say, this was unfounded. The costume arrived, an extremely high quality. For those of you who know Flynn's costume, it includes a waistcoat (or vest, if you're not British), and this was extremely well detailed. In fact, it looked better than on the website itself, with subtle detailing representing the texture of the waistcoat from the film that you couldn't see in the images and impressive looking metal buckles to do it up. It was also fully lined, with a silk like material. This is a major upgrade for costumes here; these are costumes as clothes. While I cannot imagine a situation in which I'd like to wear Flynn Rider's waistcoat in an every day situation, with this, I really could.
It also contained trousers and a shirt, and these were more standard, although comfortable and fitted very well. The shirt itself was made out of a soft, seemingly polyster material rather than perhaps what a traditional shirt would be made out of, but this made it soft and actually helped it fit the look of the animated fabric. The trousers were the perfect colour and fitted very well, although they had no pockets. Something that seems accurate to the film, but a tiny bit frustrating for wearing it as a costume to a convention.
It also came with multiple 'pleather' belts and a pleather satchel. In many ways, this was the second most important part next to the waistcoat, a replica of the satchel alone could cost nearly the same as the costume, and not really having much experience with fake leather, I wasn't sure what to expect. What arrived was again very impressive, with a better texture and look than some real leather items I own. Although the material was reasonably thin, it looked the part, and was functional too, with a decent clasp. This actually was another good reason to pick this costume; if I had to wear something to a convention, having a way of carrying things would be good, and this came in handy. Once again detail came to a point where it was actually more impressive than I expected, with an accurate and very good pattern on the main belt, just like in the film, which I hadn't expected at all, but looked great.
Unfortunately, I did have one issue. While the quality of the costume overall was pretty great, and I really was impressed (and wouldn't hesistate to recommend them in this area; if you want a cosplay costume, they do good quality), I had issues with sizing. As I said, the shirt and trousers fitted perfectly, but unfortunately, for reasons I'm unsure of, the waistcoat was considerably too short. Odd, since the shirt was fine.
Usually, I'd write something like this off as a mis-size and assume there was nothing I could do, but having spent this much money, I thought I'd contact Cosplaysky's customer support, but again, I have to admit, I didn't expect much. What I got surprised me to say the least.
I got a very helpful and very friendly response from a member of staff named Amy. I was a little surprised, expecting at best the usual demand for clothes the wrong size to send it back, pay all postage there and back, and get another one sent out. Instead, Amy at first very politely requested an image, to see the issue. I sent one, and she promptly agreed it was the wrong size, and decided the best course of action was to simply send out another one, the correct size. I didn't even have to return the original. I did have to pay the postage for the replacement size, but given that I would basically end up with two waistcoats out of it, I could hardly complain!
Impressed by the customer service, I happily agreed. Unfortunately, the waistcoat that arrived remained the wrong size (considerably wider, but no longer). Unsure what to do, I decided to try my luck and contact their customer service again. Again, Amy came back to me, as polite as can be, and this time, offered a replacement totally free of charge.
As of writing this blog, I haven't yet received the replacement (to be clear, that's not slow delivery, this correspondence only concluded today), and perhaps when it arrives I'll find more sizing woes, but I was sufficiently surprised and impressed by the friendliness of their customer service and particularly their desire to help correct their mistakes for something that others might find silly (a costume) that I felt it should be included.
So in conclusion, Cosplaysky make great quality items for the price, particularly in comparison to competitors, their delivery times are fantastic and their customer service friendly and extremely helpful. But if you do order from them, watch your sizing options. I suspect, if it'll fit, you might actually be better going for the premade costume sizes, and if not maybe include custom notes to ensure they get the size right. Or ensure you allow yourself plenty of time, their customer service will sort out any issues you have with sizing, it seems, but you may want to allow yourself a few more weeks in case you need to contact them and be sent another item.
I still haven't found, or heard of, a better entry-level cosplay site, and despite my issues, I expect if I ever come to order another cosplay costume, I'll be using them again. So, if my cosplay blog inspired you to seek out your own costumes, check them out. I've been impressed, and that's after they actually got my sizing wrong.
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