This costume had been a joke among an old group of friends, that I could basically just put on a red trenchcoat and automatically be Carmen Sandiego. I knew I wanted a cheap, easy costume to kick off NYCC 2021. These days there are licensed costumes for just about everything, so I was able to buy an official Carmen Sandiego costume off of Amazon, a pair of black leather gloves (which I had been meaning to get anyway), and re-wore the red kitten heels I had bought for the Qi Pao Sailor Mars costume, and I was good to go.

Funny story: I had been cosplaying for literally 20 years as of that month. I have had drip-dyed costumes, I have had costumes with hundreds of little beads sewn on to them by hand. I have worn convertible costumes that were masterpieces of engineering, I have worn sexy costumes that were basically yanked out of my wardrobe, I have worn gorgeous costumes that were the equivalent of evening gowns that would not have looked out of place on the red carpet. I've been parts of cosplay groups that numbered in the double digits. And I *never* got the amount of internet fame and attention that I got from this literally $30 Halloween-costume-in-a-bag. It was bananas.