Redefining the Hero
July 9, 2018 3:01 PM   Subscribe

Tom and Lorenzo present a three-part essay series on costume design for heroic female characters.

Individually, they are:

The Extrapolated Costume Design of “Wonder Woman”: How to turn that iconic image into something that will work for modern adventure-film audiences while still being recognizable as the icon?

The Referential Star Wars Costumes of Rey: She is a character designed to be ambiguous while at the same time designed to convince the audience that she not only belongs in this world, but that she’s so entrenched in it that she deserves to be held up as its champion.

The Warrior Women of “Black Panther” and the Symbolic Approach to Costume Design: Part of what makes this trio of women so interesting is how they each symbolize a specific kind of heroic archetype: the soldier, the spy, and the scientist.
posted by Hypatia (8 comments total) 52 users marked this as a favorite
 
I love this series! I read the first 2 the other day, and was planning to post on it when the 3rd one went up, so thank you for forestalling me!

I am not trained in art or fashion, so I love reading these articles that explain how the fashion or production design of a film or tv show ties together with the character and thematic elements of a story. It's so fascinating and insightful.
posted by suelac at 3:46 PM on July 9, 2018


Ruth E. Carter deserves every possible accolade for costume design for Black Panther. The MacArthur Genius Grant for costume design, the Pulitzer Prize for costume design, give her everything.
posted by nicebookrack at 4:09 PM on July 9, 2018 [12 favorites]


All three articles are great, but wow, Black Panther blows the other two out of the water.
posted by zompist at 4:14 PM on July 9, 2018 [6 favorites]


These guys do consistently excellent write-ups on clothing and fashion as signifiers and means of communication. I originally found them thanks to their brilliant Mad Style reviews -- fascinating deep dives into the meaning and importance of the costuming in Mad Men.
posted by myotahapea at 5:20 PM on July 9, 2018 [5 favorites]


Just finished the piece on Rey, and it is absolutely terrific, and the analysis only reinforces how good THE LAST JEDI is, and how well written Rey is as a character.

Would be interesting to see them tackle Benoist's outfit on SUPERGIRL.
posted by theartandsound at 8:21 PM on July 9, 2018 [5 favorites]


Relevant to ALL my interests- this is just so good.
posted by Space Kitty at 8:42 PM on July 9, 2018


I had only read the one about Rey but all three are so good!
posted by like_neon at 1:59 AM on July 10, 2018


Most excellent writing and analysis. I could only wish that more SF writers put this kind of thought into their worldbuilding.
posted by Quasirandom at 2:53 PM on July 25, 2018


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