Post-Convention Costume Triage

Inspecting Before Storage, Not After

Check every costume for loose seams, stressed boning, worn adhesive residue, and prop damage within a day or two of the convention, while the issues are still fresh and easy to spot — problems left unnoticed until the next time the costume comes out of storage are often worse and harder to trace back to their original cause.

Prioritizing Structural Issues First

Address structural problems (stressed seams, bent boning, cracked armor) before cosmetic ones (scuffed paint, minor makeup transfer) — structural damage tends to worsen with any further wear, while cosmetic issues generally don't get worse just sitting in storage, so structural fixes are the genuinely time-sensitive priority.

Cleaning Before Long-Term Storage

Clean any costume before it goes back into storage rather than putting it away dirty "to deal with later" — sweat, skin oils, and makeup residue left in fabric over months of storage tend to set in and become genuinely harder to remove than if addressed within the first week after wear.

Logging Repairs for Next Time

Keep a simple note (physical or digital) on each costume of what was repaired and what to watch for next wear — this turns post-con triage from a one-time fix into an ongoing maintenance record, and makes it much faster to prep the same costume for its next convention.