Cosplay: Toni Stark (2015)

Sometimes a cosplay is more of a concept than a literal translation of a character. And sometimes the idea for a concept cosplay grows out of strange places. My concept for the gender-swapped version of Tony Stark (who I mentally nicknamed Toni) grew out of a pair of bright red pants I saw one week at a Goodwill. I had just been trying to think of a costume for the 2015 ECCC and there it was: I could gender swap my favorite Avengers character into a red-lipstick and red-pants wearing femme badass.

I don't mind playing a character cross-gender; I've done it for both Jack Sparrow (which I mentioned briefly in my bought costumes post) and Jason Todd. But gender-swapping is a great way to cosplay your favorite character in a way so you don't have to disguise your body (for example, I'm pretty curvy; the Red Hood armor covered that up a bit, but clothes for non-armored Tony would be less forgiving). You get to rock your own look while still being your character.

For Toni Stark, I based the look on a mix of the first Iron Man and Iron Man in The Avengers, as well as a fanart I came across of gender swapped Tony.

Artist Credit: Kamasoutras

The nice first step is that I already owned a teeshirt with a picture of Iron Man's arc reactor on it. It's so nice when you don't have to buy a piece and you can "shop" from your own closet! However, it was a plain tee and I wanted to make the arc reactor glow. There are versions of the shirt which do, but they are all over $30, as opposed to the $12 I originally paid for the plain one. So, how to make a painted arc reactor glow...?


Well, I purchased some "party light" LEDs for a few dollars online and using a lot of blue-tape I fastened a blinking light in the center of the arc reactor.


 I also wanted a gauntlet, and it seemed like licensed was the way to go... but some of those props can be expensive! I ended up buying an $9 Iron Man 3 Wrist Repulsor toy. It looked pretty plastic-y, so I got out some black and brown paint to give the gold plastic a more distressed look, covered the cheap-kids-toy looking red strap with brown leather from an old couch, and glue-gunned some real metal pieces on the sides. Instantly, a kids' toy can look just a little more grown up.

The rest of the outfit was pretty easy: I already owned a suit-coat for one look, and I found a $10 gold-colored leather jacket at a different Goodwill location that I loved for a different look (I actually found an Iron Man mask for $4 in the toy section too! What are the odds?!). At the original Goodwill where I found the red pants ($6), I also found the same style of Aviator glasses ($2) that Tony Stark wears in the beginning of the first Iron Man.

To finish the cosplay off, I added a pair of computer-chip earrings from Etsy that I loved and that seemed very "Toni," and the wig I used was Old Faithful (previously seen in both my Jubilee and Jason Todd cosplays).

By the end, I thought I looked like a million bucks... which is probably just a fraction of Tony Stark's fictional net-worth!

Can't have a Stark costume and not have a drink!

Gender-swapped Iron Man and Loki at ECCC

All photos taken by the amazing Jaden Emme

I had a lot of fun this one and might bring it back again... or maybe I'll try my hand at being Tony as opposed to Toni. We'll see!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go see Civil War, and I think you all know which side I'm on. ~ LK