My friends have finally gotten me to commit to going to my first Otakon this summer, and it is about 5-6 weeks away now. I've been trying to figure out a good character to do, and originally came up with Captain Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly, or Jon Snow from Game of Thrones. I think the Jon Snow costume would be easier, except I can't seem to find any places that sell the "cloaks" that the Nights Watch wears, or at least anything remotely similar. Can anyone recommend a good starting point to build this costume? I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to this.
Building Longclaw I don't particularly have a problem with, but modifying clothing is not my strong suit.
Unfortunately I have a hard time seeing those kinds of "cloaks" off the rack, as it were. You might get lucky in the classifieds or on smaller LARP forums, but I'd hazard that you'd have to pick up ye olde needle and sow one yourself :/
I would think Mal would be pretty easy to cosplay as. It's pretty much just tan pants, redish-brown button up collared shirt, belt, brown leather gloves, a brown duster and a holster and gun. The gun is really the only think that may be hard to get.
For Jon Snows cloak, you might check around for costume stores or movie/stage prop stores. I bet there are some online ones.
You can get bb or paint pellet replicas of most firearms fairly cheaply. I don't know how well recieved turning up with a realistic looking gun would be though.
You're most likely going to have to cannibalize something out of various pieces. In the case of Jon Snow, you're probably going to be going the route of faux fur pieces and attaching them to a cloak. Print out a collage if it helps to have the visual in front of you then hit up JoAnn Fabrics, Hobby Lobby or whatever cloth craft store equivalent is in your neighborhood. Finding a friend who's good with a sewing machine would help immensely.
I would also suggest LARP forums or simply cosplay.com if you'd like the input of others who have experience making multiple costumes.