Fursuit

A female fursuiter, "Lucky Coyote", pretending to be the concierge for Anthrocon 2007 convention attendees.

Fursuits are animal costumes associated with furry fandom. They range from simple tails and ears to full costumes cooled by battery-powered fans. Similar to mascot suits, they allow the wearer to adopt another personality while in costume. Owners can spend less than one-hundred to many thousands of dollars on one fursuit, depending on complexity and materials used.

Fursuits are usually sold at conventions, or online by commission or auction. Many furry fans make their own using online tutorials or advice from newsgroups. Due to their delicate nature, they require special handling while washing. Fursuits are directly comparable to costumed characters and are similar in construction to the mascots and walkaround characters used by theme parks and stage shows.

The term fursuit, believed to be coined in 1993 by Robert King, can also refer to animal mascot costumes in general, as opposed to human or inanimate object mascots. The act of wearing a fursuit is usually referred to as fursuiting.

Types of fursuits

Costumes can include makeup and reflect the wearer's personality

The standard fursuit is a full body costume that consists of a head, forepaws (hands), hindpaws (feet) and a body with an attached tail. In some cases, the tail is connected via a belt to the wearer and hangs out through a hole in the back of the body. Many suits include special padding or undersuits to give the character its desired shape (this is especially present in larger characters or those of a particular gender.)

A partial suit or half-suit has all of the parts of the standard suit, with exception to the body. This allows the wearer to have different clothes over the paws, head and tail, such as another costume or street clothes. In partial suits, the tail is usually attached to a belt, and the arms and legs have sleeves that can go up as far as the shoulders and pelvis, respectively.

Most recently, a third type known as the three-quarter suit has been developed, which consists of a head, arms and pants made to look like the legs, tail and feet of a specific anime. This type of fursuit works well for characters who only wear shirts.

Reasons for fursuiting

Cookiefox entertaining children

Not everyone in furry fandom owns a fursuit. In an Internet survey of 600 participants, the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Davis found out that 18% of respondents own a fursuit. A person who does wear a fursuit may fall into one or more of four categories.

Conventions, parades, exhibitions

Furries enjoy wearing their suits for parades, exhibitions, conventions informal meetings. Often these are of a personal character who they are expressing as a form of role play or expressing who they really are.

Role-playing

Some players of live action role-playing games (LARP) create highly elaborate costumes, including fursuits, for their characters. The characters can either wear a half-suit or a full suit, depending on what the character needs. Weapons and armor could be borne by the players; though each convention or meeting has their own rules about weapons on the convention floor.

Cosplayers (short for "costume players") are similar to LARPers, but without the live games. They focus on characters from popular media, with emphasis on Japanese pop culture such as manga, anime, and video games.

Job or charity work

Some furry fans do fursuiting for a job or to bring attention to an event or charity. This can include mascots, but not all mascots are furries. Many are hired through an agency to represent a character, while others bring their own constructions to an event instead. There are also several volunteer fursuiting groups across North America that either ask or are asked to entertain at various social functions. Some groups even set up their own charitable events or perform on the streets to passersby.

Sexuality

Some of the furry fandom consider the fursuit a sexual item. Fursuits can be sold with or modified to contain provisions for sexual activity, such as openings, removable panels, and anatomically correct artificial genitalia. These openings are called "strategically placed holes" by the community. While these are the most common in the media, they are only a small fragment of the "furry" community and the least common instance of fursuiting.

• 
  The Fursuit Parade at Anthrocon 2006.
• Sinatra at Further Confusion
  Sinatra at Further Confusion
• 
  Spunky and Furloween's vampire bat at Midwest FurFest 2006
• 
  Iron Artist competition host at Further Confusion 2002

In popular culture

• The TV procedural drama C.S.I. featured a fursuit convention in episode 406, "Fur and Loathing."
• The Shining has a brief depiction of someone in a dog costume performing oral sex on a man, a reference to the owner of Overlook Hotel and his homosexual partner.

Music video appearances

Fursuits are occasionally featured in music videos. Examples include:

• "Da Funk" and "Fresh" By Daft Punk features Charles, an anthropomorphic dog wearing clothes walking through New York city.
• "Let's Begin (Shoot the shit)" by Bad Ronald feature PBS children shows characters, such as Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street, throwing a dance keg party with and furries.
• "Beautiful", by Moby, which revolves around a swinger party and murder-suicide where all the participants are dressed up in fursuits.
• "We Know Something You Don’t Know" by DJ Format, features breakdancing animals became a bit of an Internet phenomenon, spreading mostly through short animated gifs--despite the fact that few knew where they came from or the song they were associated with.
• "Nature Anthem" by Grandaddy, featuring a fursuiter parade through the forest.
• "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots", by The Flaming Lips, which involves many fursuiters dancing in a club.
• "Talks Shows on Mute" by Incubus, shows the band playing on a talk show which the audience and hosts are wearing fursuits and extensive make-up.
• "Tainted Love" by Marilyn Manson features dancers in bunny fursuits on a bed behind Manson.
• "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse" by Of Montreal depicts what looks to be a high school play, and there are various fursuits in the video.
• "Clothes Off!!" by Gym Class Heroes features Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy in fursuits doing a variety of activities, including a poker game and a dance-off.

See also

• Kigurumi

External links

• The Furry Costume Information Exchange
• The Fursuit community (on LiveJournal)
• The Fursuit Archive
• fursuit.co.uk The British fursuit site
• Fursuit on WikiFur, a specialist wiki
• Jay Van Buren and the Fursuit Portrait Project