Do the Clothes Make the (Super)Man?

Gallery

Costumes of the Caped-Crusaders

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute pays tribute to superheroes in an exhibition that explores the connection between their costumes and contemporary fashion.

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In some instances, it can be difficult to distinguish Hollywood costume from fashion. Designers such as Bernhard Willhelm, John Galliano, Gareth Pugh and Walter Van Beirendonck have built their reputations on merging fashion and fantasy. They are not realists. They are also not American. For while superheroes are closely tied to American ideals, it's European designers who are most inclined to appropriate them for their own needs, to subvert the messages or to present them with a thick layer of irony.

The American designer Donna Karan, whose work is not included in the exhibition, addresses the notion of the powerful female body in her work, but in a subtle way -- through her choice of body-conscious fabrics, for instance. Ralph Lauren certainly plays with the idea of American heroics. But the exhibition focuses on fashion's most exuberant showmen. By the time one arrives at a lone dress by Giorgio Armani, in which subtle beadwork creates the effect of a spider's web, it's a welcome resting place for eyes that have been dazzled and numbed from the ka-pow and wham of hyperbole.

Visitors can catch their breath as they examine this gown -- the rare piece of evidence in the exhibition that superhero tropes might be hiding somewhere in one's personal wardrobe. It serves as a reminder that fashion is at its best when it assists in the daily transformation of private persons into public ones.

Armani is the unlikely main sponsor of the exhibition -- a minimalist underwriting an exhibition based on exaggeration. (If Armani could have any superhero power, he says, it would be to travel through time.) But he was drawn to it, he said in an e-mail, because of the "democratic" nature of the theme. "Superheroes are the modern-day representatives of the ancient archetype of the classical hero, engaged in the struggle between good and evil. Because of this, their appeal works at a very primal level -- everyone can relate to the hero myth. . . . Fashion is not just about catwalks and glamorous red carpet events. It has deeper ties to the culture."

The exhibition could not be better timed. This is a culture in the throes of a superhero obsession. The film "Iron Man" opened this month. This summer, the latest installation in the Batman saga, "The Dark Knight," opens, as does "Hancock," in which Will Smith stars as a flawed and reluctant superhero whose feats of heroism leave a trail of collateral damage.

While the exhibition doesn't make specific references to the Olympics, the Beijing Games will be the setting for a collision of patriotic one-upmanship in the pursuit of athletic dominance. Real-life superheroes -- complete with body-hugging costumes -- will demonstrate extraordinary examples of speed, strength and agility in the name of national honor. The exhibition includes examples of a high-tech Swift Skin suit from Nike and a Fastskin swim unitard from Speedo.

It also touches on the idea of the militarized man, with examples of the "soft wing suit" and "rigid wing suit," both designed by Daniel Preston -- an engineer, skydiver and someone who says he never dreamed of being the Flash, despite his fantastical, daredevil inventions. His creations are high-tech parachutes and personal gliders that give man the ability to fly. One of the flight suits in the exhibition is a modified version of military-grade, satellite-guided parachutes: the Army Ranger as superhero.

Presidential politics tussles with the meaning of patriotism, power and heroism. Who are the candidates with a flag (pin) emblazoned on their chests? Who is best prepared to save the world when the bad guys come calling at 3 a.m.?

"It's very much a part of contemporary politics, this rise of interest in superheroes," Bolton says. "Maybe there's a need for these optimistic images."