CITY Issue 56

CITY LIFE / IN ROGUE HERO WORSHIP In the world of superheroes, costumes signal the transformation from man to superman. But what about in real life? Elyssa Dimant suits up to reveal how couturiers are starting to design fantastic fashions that let our imaginations take flight. E ven if you’re into romantic comedies or tormented indies, the theat ical pull of a good supe he o movie is undeniable. Few among us have g own up without supe he oic dayd eams — a e all, Supe man has been ﬂying since befo e Wo ld Wa II. In ou fantasies, we fended oﬀ enemies with the fo midable g een musculatu e of the schizoph enic Hulk o climbed, Spidey-like, st aight up the side of a building. With the hype su ounding the late Heath Ledge as a young Joke in The Da Kni ht, Edwa d No ton as B uce Banne and his g een alte ego, and Robe t Downey, J . as the fa less ado ed I on Man, it’s clea that ou supe he o ﬁ xation is still intact. Pa t of the omance of these cha acte s is that they a e idealized ve sions of us. Su e, X Men membe Jean G ay can ead minds with he telepathic powe s and he pa tne Cyclops ﬁ es a high-powe optic blast with stunning accu acy. But they’ e mutants. Batman is basically just a t ust-fund kid with a kille body. nd isn’t eon Flux simply a gymnast with a fondness fo fetishistic catsuits? But while these “supe ” specimens have always fascinated us, thei lu e has had as much to do with thei human qualities as thei exceptional ones. Ou supe he oes have always been, whethe foolishly o ealistically, benchma ks fo ou futu e selves. Ove the past qua te of a centu y, we’ve c eated the supe toys — nea lightning-speed jets, tank-like ca s — but whe e a e ou supe clothes? So intent on p og ess, we have yet to adapt the b illiant, gadget-ﬁ lled wa d obes that can t ansfo m us f om Jack Nicholsons to Joke s. The Costume Institute will p emie e its “Supe he oes: Fashion and Fantasy” exhibition at The Met opolitan Museum of t this month to expose high fashion’s supe he oic p ototypes. et comme cial fashion still hasn’t quite caught up. Even Bac to the Futu e’s Ma ty McFly showed us that the st centu y was about self-d ying leathe jackets and auto-ﬁt pump-up Nikes fo one and all. So whe e a e ou i McFlys? Now don’t get me w ong — we’ve managed to make some p og ess ove the yea s. We have long used camouﬂage as a means to channel Mystique (anothe X Men associate), and othe shapeshi e s ce tainly would have envied designe Lucy O ta’s t ansfo mable jacket-into-tent dwellings. The invention of advanced elastics and ballistics nylon have p ovided mate ials that allow us to move with the ease of uicksilve o The Flash, o to shield ou selves as eﬀectively as Spawn. The Fantastics’ “ ” emblem and Supe man’s “S” badge only ma ginally t ump P ada’s t iangula logo plate, that coveted symbol of p ivilege and ﬁscal supe io ity. The logo oﬀe s ou supe he o wa d obe a sense of identity — a key component of the supe he o pe sonality. When the millennium hit, a host of “sma t” clothing c eato s c opped up. B it Jeﬀ G iﬃ n designed the “Fish Mouth Jacket” with a hood that zips up ove the wea e ’s face, the eby oﬀe ing the masking st ategies of the G een Lante n, Spide man, and Black Panthe to the eve yman — o at least the eve yman who could aﬀo d it. C.P. Company’s “Munch Jacket” is outﬁtted with a pe sonal safety ala m that ce tainly would have bolste ed Batman’s utility belt. nd United Sola Ovonic’s appa el, conﬁgu ed f om a lightweight foil to foste a / / / / / / / / / / / / / / ///// THE LOGO BADGE OFFERS OUR SUPERHERO WARDROBE A SENSE OF IDENTITY — A KEY COMPONENT OF THE SUPERHERO PERSONALITY. pe sonal sola ene gy sou ce fo its wea e , may not cont ol the weathe like Sto m, but it ce tainly utilizes the sun’s powe . longside the evolution of this “sma t” niche, high fashion designe s like Walte Van Bei endonck and Naoki Takizawa fo Issey Miyake have o c eated p ototypical visions of “supe ”-io ity, but no coutu ie has been as dedicated in his explo ation of the supe he oic capabilities of fashion as the B itish designe Hussein Chalayan. Though the ﬁbe glass Remote Cont ol D ess, ope ated by a handheld device, is pe haps his most eve ed invention, Chalayan’s Fall collection oﬀe ed a ﬁ nale of human ﬁ eﬂ ies that danced down the catwalk in lit wi e co sets, ecalling lexande Mc ueen’s cont ove sial p esentation of glowing mothe boa d-esque d esses fo Givenchy. Fashionistas will not soon fo get Chalayan’s Sp ing Robot d ess, which featu ed automated metal plates that expanded to p oduce an a mo -like cage. On the mo e consumable end of the spect um sits Olivie Theyskens fo Nina Ricci’s c inkled silve gown with Wonde Woman–esque belt, which was not quite as “supe ” as Nicholas Ghesquie e’s a mo ensembles of the same Sp ing season. These we e modeled a e the st uctu al integ ity of spo ts ca s in a host of silk gaza pastels, and in da ke latex and plastic coatings fo the fall. Ghesquie e’s cu vilinea sculpting and alte nate mate ials ealize the ambitions of Giacomo Balla’s manifesto fo Futu ist fashion — pe haps the ﬁ st attempt to deﬁ ne and pu sue the supe he oic wa d obe. Balla explained, in , that Futu ism in fashion equi ed sleek, st eamlined shapes and “t ansfo mable” appa el. Vincenzo Fani, Balla’s pee and fellow Futu ist, mapped his fu the intentions in to c eate “the ai plane woman, the subma ine woman, the moto boat woman.” Balla and Volt did c a some clothing items in thei quest to impose Futu istic d ess on ea ly th-centu y Eu ope, but like Chalayan’s imaginations, the Futu ist wa d obe existed mainly in p ototypes, with actual p oduction being fa too expensive to execute fo mass consumption. Pe haps fashion’s esistance to fall f om its deco ous th one p events us f om being aﬀo dably fashionable and supe he oic simultaneously. Pe haps the gadget y doesn’t look nice in cha t euse. Even if we wanted to kick it just a little bit supe he o, in a Balenciaga o a Ricci, most of us can’t back up the d eam with the dolla . Maybe the e will be a day when ou supe he oes a e mo e like supe pee s. Until then, I guess we’ll just have to live, like Chalayan says, “in the gap that lies between fantasy and eality,” and keep unning to the box oﬃce to combat Good ve sus Evil. CITY TY BALENCIAGA; PHOTO BY CHRIS MOORE / CATWALKING 45

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CITY Issue 56

City Issue 56 Contents Letter from City: Re: Design Our Friends: The Faces Behind the Stories Action: What's New, What's Hot, What's Now Wanted: Olympic Bound? Button Up City Moment: The Writing’s on the Wall How We Live: Concrete Jungle Fast Food: Bites of Spring The Amused Bouche: Blueprint Special In Rouge: Hero Worship Fashion: Welcome to the Boys’ Club Travel: My Pod Architecture: Out of the Blue Design: Home Remedies Tokyo Rising Zen and the Art of Catholicism Think Big Face Value Runaways Intimate Relations Where to Buy It: Store Locations Icon: The Infinity Pool

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