Meet a ‘furry’ costume designer who sells full-body fur suits for over $1,000 in their spare time

Gill’s passion for this unconventional art form began in high school, after a friend introduced them to the furry fandom— or the global community furries who chat about their characters online and go to conventions together.

Now, Gill, a mostly self-taught designer, runs a small business selling pieces of costumes and full fur suits online. They also have a 9 to 5 job.

Gill told Insider what it takes to make the $1,000 or more costumes, and what it’s like to be a part of the furry community.

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By day, Hailey Gill, 24, works as a social service assistant for the National Guard of Oklahoma. But during off hours, Gill, who uses “they”gender pronouns, is a garment designer with an interesting clientele.

Rather than constructing delicate pieces made of taffeta, suede, and satin, Gill’s manikins stand draped in luxury shag suits, fully equipped with tails, paws, and giant mascot heads.

The Oklahoma native is a fur suit designer for furries — a group of people interested in anthropomorphized animals who sometimes wear full-body animal character costumes.

According to Gill, the most important elements of being a furry actually rest in a shared love of anthropomorphized animals and a desire to create a “fursona” — or animal alter ego, which some furries go to great lengths to embody.

This is where Gill’s costume design skills comes in.

These fur suits may not be conventional pieces of runway fashion, but Gill can sell their labor-intensive creations for upwards of $1,000, depending on the design.

Gill shared exactly what it’s like to be a furry costume designer and how their passion for this unconventional fashion came to be.

Hailey Gill has a 9-to-5 day job, and a side gig as a furry costume designer.
Hailey Gill

Gill’s passion for furries began as a fascination with cartoon animals

Like many members of the furry community, Gill’s fascination with anthropomorphized animals started at a young age.

“It started out as a funny family story where I came running out of the bathroom with a piece of toilet paper stuck to my butt saying, ‘Look, I’m a bunny,’” Gill said. “I’ve always had an affinity for thinking animals were humans or seeing myself as an animal.”

But it wasn’t until high school that a friend introduced them to the furry fandom, or the global community of furries who chat about their animal characters online and go to conventions together.

After joining an online chatroom of over 200 furries based in Oklahoma when they were 18, Gill’s interest in the subculture only grew. In college, where Gill was a fine arts major, they decided to turn their passion into their senior art thesis.

Gill spent their final year in undergrad toiling over two full fur suits that were then displayed in the student art gallery for their peers and family members to see. For the most part, Gill was self-taught in how to create these colorful, furry masterpieces thanks to YouTube tutorials and other online platforms.

A furry dressed in a fur suit Gill designed at a FurryCon, or furry convention.
Hailey Gill

Full-body suits can take over a month to make

Gill gets a majority of their orders online and typically takes over a month to make full-body suits. Because Gill has a small operation compared to other fur suit designers, they typically only take on two to three requests for suits a month.

Gill charges $1,000 or more for suits, and materials alone can cost anywhere from $300 to $500 for standard suits. Some makers sell their suits for over $5,000.

Colorful luxury shag, foam core, and stuffed animal filling are the most common materials Gill uses to create their suits. Some of the most popular requests Gill receives include cats, wolves, foxes, and dragons — but they have also made snails and reptiles.

According to Gill, while a fur suit can be a nice touch for any furry’s development of their animal character, the most important part of creating a furry alter ego is forming a personality.

“You try and create a character which is the idealized version of yourself,” Gill said.

For Gill, that’s an outgoing emerald green wolf named Zoe. Gill identifies as more of an introvert, so they see Zoe as a way of being more social and extroverted. Zoe’s appearance has changed over the years but their personality has ultimately remained the same.

Gill keeps their fursona consistent, but some furries have multiple fursonas they costume as, though it is uncommon.

Participants of the furry convention “Eurofurence” greet each other in the Hotel Estrel in Berlin.
Paul Zinken/picture alliance via Getty Images

While suiting is one of the most well-known aspects of the furry fandom, FurryCons are about more

In addition to getting orders online, Gill makes a large chunk of their earnings from costumes during FurryCons, or giant conventions where furries flock to meet fellow members of the fandom, honor important people in the community, and buy artwork and pieces for their fur suits from vendors like Gill.

“Right at 9 or 10 a.m., depending on when the convention opens, everyone just runs through the doors and gets so excited to see all the vendors and what they’re selling and the goodies they can get,” Gill said.

After arriving the night before and setting up their booth at 7:30 a.m. before the other furries, Gill keeps selling until 5 or 6 p.m.

During FurryCons, Gill said their most popular items by far are plush tails. Gill said they sell an average of 75 tails per typical convention priced at $30 each, and even more for larger gatherings like the annual Furry Fiesta in Dallas.

Gill sets up their booth at 8 a.m. on convention days and doesn’t stop selling until 6 p.m.
Hailey Gill

“It’s so much fun selling furries their first tail because they go through and pick out the colors and they get so excited when you say you can do custom tails,” Gill said.