Power Dressing
The ideas that dominate fashion — identity, performance, gender, body shapes, sexuality, logos and the quest for state-of-the-art materials — pretty well describe the world of the superhero.
These two forces are brought together in “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy,” the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s playful look at comic book costumes and their influence on radical haute couture as well as high-tech sportswear.
Superheroes emerged in the late 1930s, the hinge years between the misery of the Great Depression and the start of World War II, and American utopianism literally colored the costumes and avenging exploits of the comic heroes as they hurled bowling balls and other objects at the heads of the Axis dictators.
Wonder Woman, created by William Moulton Marston, first appeared against a patriotic Washington skyline in January 1942. The drawn version — unlike Lynda Carter’s television character with her 22-inch waist and ample bust — looks wholesome and cute in her flirty star-patterned skirt and bustier.
Installation view of the “Patriotic Body”.
Clark Kent, when trouble loomed, slipped out of his street clothes and into Superman’s sleek, empowering unitard. As the writer Michael Chabon points out in a witty essay in the “Superheroes” catalog, this minimal garment, for all its flash and novel materials, ultimately “takes its deepest meaning and serves its primary function in the depiction of the naked human form, unfettered, perfect and free.” Of course the body is the prime form of fashion. It also supplies the exhibition’s principal organizing theme — the Patriotic Body, the Armored Body and so forth.
Clothes by Moschino which were inspired by Superman’s S-Shield.
Quite a few of the fashion interpretations of superhero costumes here are fairly literal and do little to expand our knowledge of either form of expression. Bernhard Willhelm’s 2006 Superman-inspired dress features an S logo that appears to be dematerializing in drips of red, while a Moschino three-piece suit from 2006 sports a T-shirt emblazoned with a red M. But beyond commenting on the proliferation of logos and branding, what do these garments tell us?
In the Spider-Man display, which includes Tobey Maguire’s costume from “Spider-Man 3,” there are a number of cobweb knit and web-embroidered ensembles. Some of these show finesse and sly humor, like a 1990 Giorgio Armani gown traced in silk threads and crystal beads. But you can’t really know if this design springs from the natural world or a comic book, and you are left simply to marvel at its creepy beauty — which may be enough.
The Armored Body section of the exhibition alludes to a fascination with machines, technology and extreme, often violent, sensibilities. In the late 1980s and early ’90s few other designers provoked as much outrage and feminist debate as Thierry Mugler with his metal and molded plastic armor suits. With openings for breasts and belly, they left the most vulnerable parts of the female body exposed. Meanwhile a metal and flame-enameled bustier, from 1992, seems to transform the gal into the front end of a Harley, complete with handlebars and side mirrors.
Installation view of the “Mutant Body,” nylon and rubber pants, far right, by As Four. While it’s surprising that only two American designers are included in the exhibition — Rick Owens and As Four — it is also understandable. Superheroes are largely an American invention, and designers here are probably too close to Catwoman and the Flash to be inspired in a new or funny way. Their fantasies involve England or Rome, not Krypton. Via N.Y. Times
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