I was able to read this book for free in exchange for an honest review. Honestly, at first, the idea of being able to dress as my favorite characters casually sounded great. But honestly, the outfits in this book just weren't for me. I still gave it five stars because of course it wasn't the book's fault. And I would recommend it.

Such a cool guide! I really liked the casual element of it! Since sometimes you just don't have the time to fully commit to outfit/character.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

I was hoping for a more how to beginning to Cosplay vs Disney Cosplay.
Many of the different design were easy enough but not what I think Beginning Cosplay are looking for. They need a more intro and step by step true creating.

Casual Cosplay is a style and simple tutorial guide for starting mainstream family friendly dress-up by Krystal Everdeen. Released in Summer 2021 by Simon & Schuster on their Tiller imprint, it's 160 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is a beginner's guide to simple cosplay with tutorials which will give a recognizable character result (i.e., people will kinda-sorta know who you're cosplaying, probably), and will build skills and confidence for more advanced cosplays later. The builds are very simple and as an intended feature, the costumes can honestly be worn in public without getting many untoward looks or reactions. The characters are largely drawn from mainstream fandom (Disney (so much Disney!), Pixar, some Star Wars, HP, and a few others).

Each of the tutorials includes one or more color pictures, a color scheme in a highlighted sidebar, and costume tips for pre-made pieces to combine to get an approximation. Tips for finishing details and alternative pieces for comfort or safety (more comfortable shoes, etc) are given in the text descriptions. The book does not include templates or sewing instructions.The photography is clear and in color. It should be noted that there are only a few models pictured in the book (and they're all thin, caucasian, attractive, and physically unimpaired).

Three stars. This would be a good choice as a starting point for exploring fandom inspired fashion. There are some good options for beginning cosplayers and for last-minute Halloween costumes (for when your kid tells you at 9pm the day before).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

**ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review**

Casual Cosplay by Krystal Everdeen was a creative and informative look at the world of low-key cosplay, like when you want inspiration for an outfit that relates to your fandom. It's a great little book for geeky people who also enjoy light costuming. This quick non-fiction read was broken up loosely into fandoms, such as Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and Harry Potter, then categories like princesses, villains, Pixar, and the like. It was straight forward and gave simple and easy ideas on how to shape a character's inspiration using color, fabric, and accessories. You could easily take the strategies learned from this book and apply them to other characters not covered as well. Each outfit was gone over in decent length, reviewing a lot of the same points, so I skimmed some towards the end, but I enjoyed my time reading it and it made me want to try out casual cosplay for myself.

I was a little disappointed. Most of the outfits are Disney which don't get me wrong is super fun. But I was expecting a bigger variety. I loved the ideas and the instructions are very good. With a larger variety of characters this book could be awesome. Something to thing about for a second installment perhaps.

So many fun ideas and such easy concepts that you van make you want try each and everyone of them. I love how they all have to capability to look like normal outfits

Casual Cosplay is a guide to creating character looks. I do like that the book was organized by fandom. Each chapter has characters from a wide variety of media. Everything from Sponge Bob, to Disney, to Harry Potter. The author is a blogger and a YouTuber who wanted to create looks that didn't cost very much and could be worn out even when not at a con. Some of the outfits were obviously the character, but a lot of them were far more subtle. It wasn't a bad thing, I just wasn't sure how a couple of the outfits fit the character. Some of the outfits were super cute.

3 stars.

While I love casual cosplaying, and disneybounding, and all the fun tips in this book, I was so disappointed by the lack of diversity. How can you call something accessible to all when the only faces are white, skinny, cis people?

I received a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review
This was such an adorable book. The outfits were completely adorable and I loved it all

This was not at all what I expected. The vast majority of the outfits are for Disney characters, with a few Harry Potter ones thrown in. I was expecting a lot more diversity of the kinds of characters and in models. A slur for Roma people was used in one description, which is disappointing. The book is basically just pictures of outfits that sort of resemble Disney characters and other childhood movie characters, like wear a short green dress to look like Tinkerbell. There's a lot of text but nothing in the way of the kind of instructions for things like makeup and hair that I would have liked.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book was so much cute and fun to read! My only real issue with it wasn't even really an issue, I was just wondering why instead of Disney villains like I thought would be in the bad company chapter, there were only 3 Disney villains. Other than that, it was pretty well done and enjoyable.

A fun book that inspires you to dress like your favorite characters. I love the concept, making everyday clothes into your favorite characters costume. It’s fun and creative, definitely a great book to checkout if you want to spice up your wardrobe

I was given an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this guide as a start for casual cosplayers who are more into mainstream fandoms, or really just Disney. It does offer tips readers can apply to characters from different fandoms, and also offers tips for different styles and takes on the cosplay... but they're pretty much all Disney characters. The vibrant pictures of the models serve as a great visual starter for new closet cosplayers, but it would have been nice to see more diverse models and body types in the guide. I think retitling this book to be more clearly about Disneybounding would serve it much better, and be less disappointing for new casual cosplayers looking for a guide to help with casual cosplaying for anime, video game, or book characters. I was at least expecting a wide variety of fandoms, not just Disney. Since Disneybounding is Everdeen's specialty, it would make the book stand out more if it was a guide on Disney bounding and not casual closet cosplay in general (though some of the outfits in the book do use wigs, which defeats the purpose of it being casual).

Organization-wise, the book was divided up well. The "Bad Company" section, marked as being for "the best Disney villains," got a bit confusing since out of the 10 casual cosplays featured, only three were actually villains as the description said. Maybe it would have been better to label the section based on lesser-known Disney characters. I also have a huge problem with Everdeen using the g-slur in reference to Esmerelda and hope it'll be taken out of the final book and replaced with the proper term.

Overall, this book wasn't what I was expecting. However, it will be good for people who want to get into Disneybounding and casual cosplay that way, so with a change of title, it could reach its intended audience much better.

This is a great guide for people new to cosplay and especially the Disneybound idea. It is full of photos to inspire and also charts of color schemes. I appreciate that the author encourages the reader to use clothes they have on hand and to not turn this into an expensive hobby..

My one issue is that chapter 3 is titled "Bad Company" and says it is about Disney Villains. However, the chapter all includes Prince Eric, Tinkerbell, and Mary Poppins who definitely do not fall into that category. I feel like they should have a separate chapter for those that would fall into this "other" type group.

This was a good book to see for some casual cosplaying for every day things if you want to be discreet about it with some outfits as well as for convention ideas if you’ve got a last minute idea you might have. I love that they included color schemes for the characters they were cosplaying. I was surprised at the inclusion of some of the male characters, but it was also very much welcomed in case that’s who you wanted to cosplay for yourself or for couple cosplay. Over all it was a nice short read. Thank you for allowing me to take a read at this book!

I miss conventions and cosplay, so it was fun to flip through this and look at the photos for ideas. This would have been great to read before traveling to Florida for Disneybounding. :) And I'm so glad all the instagram handles were mentioned, I'd love to follow some of them for inspiration. Overall though, it seemed too wordy with not enough pictures. I think it would be better to have a chart for each character, noting color schemes / hair style / accessories / etc, instead of writing very similar-sounding paragraphs after each look. And - although I'm impressed with all the outfits they've done so far - I wish there had been more, it felt a bit short.

This book is wonderful for anyone that wants to begin in doing casual cosplay. Casual Cosplay is just using items that you already have in your closet to make an outfit!! This book gives real life pictures to have to set up and wear your favorite characters with only things in your closet!!! From Disney princesses, Disney Villains, Pixar characters, Star Wars characters, and even Harry Potter Characters!! Each look is given specific items to look for in your closet!! I would think that anyone who needs an idea for a Halloween costume or someone who just likes to dress up, would love this book!! It was made for them!! I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves to be a character.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the concept of this book, but wasn't impressed with what was included.

Some are actual cosplays, not casual cosplays - some obviously involve wigs. They're pretty much all Disney. There's also a harry potter section included in this book. There's not a lot of diverse models or media included. There's also color pallets listed for each character which seems a little weird -I would not look at someone wearing clothes that are red, yellow, and black and assume that they're wearing something inspired by Mickey Mouse.

Overall not a good fit for me.

As someone who has never been comfortable or really learned "how-to" put costumes and cosplay together I was hoping for a book that would be good for beginners. I do like that some of the ideas can be worn as an everyday outfit and have color schemes recommended. However some of the costumes I would not have known who they were trying to be if not for the information in the book. I did get at least a couple of quick simple costume ideas if I needed something on the fly.