Taking it to Eleven at WonderCon

I love seeing people cosplay. I get a great amount of joy seeing them dressed up in their elaborate costumes. I’m always amazed at the creativity and work that a person is willing to put into dressing up as their favorite character. It’s even more impressive when they put it all together themselves (the sewing, weapon making, etc.). I find that I don’t have the patience, creativity or skill set to put together anything like that. The only time you’ll see me in a costume is when I’m on stage.

The biggest reason I don’t participate is because of comfort. I’m very much a t-shirt and shorts (or jeans) type of person. I couldn’t work anywhere that called for me to wear a suit or tuck in my shirt on a regular basis. Heck, I had a job where I went to work in a t-shirt and shorts every day for almost 5 years, rain or shine. I suppose that comes from living by the beach. I just don’t like feeling constricted and that’s one of the biggest complaints I’ve heard from people who do it regularly.

That being said, I decided that this year at WonderCon, I’m going to step outside of my comfort zone and dress up on one of the days. I wanted to do something that could easily be put together and I thought, “Hey, how about the Eleventh Doctor. How hard could that be?” Yeah, it was a lot harder than I’d anticipated. After doing my research (the best resource is here), I compiled a list of the Doctor’s costume pieces.

The shirt was the hardest part to find. The actual shirt is made in the UK by Paul Smith. It’s discontinued and sells for ridiculous amounts online (if you could find one). I found auctions that had gone up to $200+!!! I did happen to see one on eBay that I got into a bidding war for. I got up to $98.00 (fuck you, bidders rage!) when I realized I was it was just stupid to go any higher for a shirt. After looking at a million and one places I finally decided on a shirt that that I found at Macy's that was close enough. In fact, every piece is as close as I could get without risking the comfort factor. After all was said and done, I ended up spending about $120.00 piecing it together. A little pricey, but it's all in good fun, right?

What did I need to put it all together?


1. Shirt

2. Bowtie

3. Suspenders

4. Boots

5. Jeans

6. Tweed Jacket

7. Sonic Screwdriver

We’ll see how it goes. Should I get uncomfortable, my hotel is close enough that I can walk back there and change. I’m planning on possibly attending FanimeCon in San Jose in May, so WonderCon is going to be my test run. If it’s not that bad I may (quickly) put something together for that. You should be seeing the pics here soon!