Superheroes and fashion walk hand in glove in museum show

Samantha Critchell, Associated Press

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Stephen Chernin, Associated Press

A fantasy costume by Thierry Mugler at the Met in New York.

NEW YORK - News flash: A cadre of superheroes has invaded one of Gotham's top cultural institutions, bringing swaths of bright color, pop graphics and an Everyman theme to the hallowed halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Have no fear, though. Their mission is friendly.

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and hero-of-the-hour Iron Man have been employed by the Costume Institute to illustrate the parallel worlds occupied by fantastical creatures with super powers and creative fashion designers. And those designers dress mere mortals - if you consider Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, George Clooney, Julia Roberts and a host of other celebs who gathered at the Met mere mortals.

"Superheroes are about issues of the body, identity and transformation, about acting your fantasies and transforming yourself into anyone or anything you want to be," said Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton. "Those are all the things at the heart of fashion."

"Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy" begins with an examination of Superman, the first modern superhero when he appeared on the page in 1938.

Thanks to an old smoke-and-mirrors trick used by Victorian magicians, Superman is presented to museumgoers as both Clark Kent (in a 1950s Brooks Brothers suit) and the Man of Steel in the 1978 film costume worn by Christopher Reeve.

Then there are the antiheroes of the 1970s and '80s, such as the Punisher and Ghost Rider. Bolton points to them as successful metaphors for the flawed characters prevalent in the dark side of the contemporary world.

Bolton first wanted to marry superheroes and style in an exhibit five years ago, but it was the wrong moment in fashion, he says, as the "in look" was soft. "We're now returning to an aggressive femininity and the highly sexualized fashion of the 1980s," Bolton said.

One of the most stunning couture pieces in the exhibit belongs with mutant creatures such as the X-Men: a rainbow-colored Mugler gown that morphs from a birdlike top to an amphibian's corset and then mermaid hem.

But Superman and Spider-Man have had the strongest influence on mainstream style. In the vignettes dedicated to each, there are not only the costumes that made these characters famous in film, there are clothes that mimic their spirit. For Superman, there is Moschino's M-logo gown with complementary red cape, while there are several spider-web dress silhouettes by Mugler, Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Julien Macdonald and Giorgio Armani, the sponsor and honorary chair of the exhibit.

Calling it a "spectacular show," Armani tipped his hat to experimental designers. "I was wondering, 'Are these pieces part of a collection? Did these guys have the guts to show these on the runways?' "