Super Hero Fashion
November 2nd 2007 00:06
Is it a bird, is it plane, no it’s a fashion show.
I’m a complete comic book nerd and it seems so is the fashion world. This week it was announced that super powered designer Giorgio Armani will chair a Super Hero themed Costume Institute Gala scheduled for New York City in May next year.
The exhibition is aptly titled Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy. Scheduled to be held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, George Clooney and Julia Roberts will be co- chairs.
Originating in the 1930’s and 40’s before the advent of television, comics began as a subversive past time, deemed by the general populace as intellectually stinted. By the 1950’s and 60’s there was a certain kitsch appeal attached to fans but it was in the 1970’s that super heroes started to define pop culture.
Today the once humble plaything for childish imaginations is now a gigantic influence on society and the fashion community. You only need look at the choking hold that superhero movies have over the box office to get a gauge of their enormous popularity.
Designers and stylists have worked in costume departments for decades, projecting the outfits from the illustrated page and onto the screen.
Andrew Bolton, a curator at the Costume Institute says, "Today, superhero imagery has suffused almost every aspect of popular culture."
He continues, "The superhero's iconic costume of cape, mask and bodysuit finds many fashionable permutations. But fashion's embrace of the superhero extends beyond iconography to issues of identity, sexuality and nationalism. Fashion shares with the superhero an inherent metaphorical malleability which fuels its fascination with the idea and the ideal of the superhero."
Amongst the pieces that will be displayed is John Galliano's notorious Christian Dior Wonder Woman designs and Thierry Mugler’s Ghost Rider inspired leather jacket.
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