Cosplay or LARPing?

Mulan and Snow White discuss costumes

There are always worlds of which I have no knowledge that are seemingly common knowledge to either a select group of people or the mainstream. Since I belong to neither group, it is easy to get past me with just about anything new and different or older and recognizable. That is to say, my universe, while not exactly tiny, is rather two-dimensional.
I love those geeky fads that are here for an hour and gone by next week...roughly two weeks before I find out about them. Planking was such a phenomenon: almost everyone had done it and grown tired of it before I discovered how much fun it was to get photographed lying board-like in some abnormal place.
Then came Tebowing...just as I found out about it and staged an elaborate photo of myself doing it, the Detroit Lions copycatted me in a game with the Broncos; now, everyone has realized that the emergence of Tim Tebow was merely a figment of the fans' imagination, so that fad is gone. But I have something new (to me): cosplaying.
To some, it's an art form; to others, it's flattery in the form of imitation. It is a fan-based activity that pays homage to Japanese entertainment and involves, developing, sewing, painting, sculpting, jewelry making, and wig styling skills as one attempts to create exactly a costume of his or her favorite anime or fictional character.
Yaya Han, seen above as Mulan, is a professional cosplayer who gets invited to fan shows like Comic-Con every year to display her talent at creating lifelike superheroes or bring to life movie characters. similar, I suspect to having curvy models open doors of cars at an auto show, this idea takes much more of an effort. But, it's unlike the auto show things in that cleavage is not necessarily the look cosplayers go for...and I presume there are male cosplayers as well. All, however, is not completely rosy, for many people confuse these artists as mere LARPers...something Yaya Han would find objectionable.
LARPers are folks that DO dress up as characters, but then they all agree to meet somewhere with foam swords and foam "magic" balls, etc. and proceed to play out in real time a fantasy game. Live Action Role Playing is definitely popular in some circles...think paintball fights with a fantasy theme (as if dressing up as a paramiltary force and shooting at each other ISN'T fantasy).
So, you have two choices.
With either of them, it fan be Hallowe'en every day of the year.
Having a rich fantasy llife is good for one's sanity, I'm told.
Tonight, I'm going to cosplay as.......Adam, pre-fig leaf.
The costume should be easy.
I know. TMI.