Kylo Ren, my dear friend...

The 501st Legion logo

Regardless of what you might feel about Star Wars and the Sequel Trilogy (ST), Star Wars has a massive family (not fandom) of people promoting the best aspects of the galaxy far far away. There is a dedicated group of cosplayers that pride themselves on creating screen-accurate replicas of the costumes and props you see in movies and video games. They are called the 501st and are well respected among fans, media, and Lucasfilm.

In addition to having fun making their costumes and evolving them as technology improves and new movies, TV, and games are released, they spend a lot of their time volunteering to appear at events all over the world. You can request an appearance for a special function such as a comic con, sporting event, or birthday party. However, the work they do that inspires me the most is when they visit hospitals, particularly children's hospitals to bring smiles to all the patients and staff. This is the reason that I want to get involved.

I used to want to be a Stormtrooper because you can have any number of them at an event. I mean you can't have 2 Darth Vaders in the same room. That's not safe for anyone. However, when I saw Kylo Ren in 2015, I new I had to have that costume. He's a very similar build and height as me, so it makes it even better. To me, he's a great, layered character unlike any we have seen before in the Star Wars galaxy. Adam Driver is giving everything he has to this character and it's amazing to watch his journey on screen. I could go on a tangent about his struggling, being manipulated by everyone he looked up to... But instead I'll just focus on how awesome he looks.

My dream since leaving the theater at the Force Awakens premier night was to cosplay as Kylo Ren. Now, I don't know the first thing about costuming, sewing, fabrics, measurements, etc... I've read the Costume Reference Library for Kylo and I understood about 30% of it. I will either need to make some friends that can help make the costume, or find the money to purchase a complete costume. The best one that I have ever seen comes from Wicked Armor. I'll be chronicling my decision-making process here as I debate the best course of action. Regardless, it is going to cost quite a bit of money to make this happen, so it will be a slow process. If anyone has any insights, recommendations, or can help in any way, please comment below! Thanks for joining me on this journey.