Evolving The Batsuit

Last week i wrote an essay about the costume design of superhero films, however i barely touched on the design of the batsuit, worn by the eponymous Bruce Wayne. There have been by far more iterations of this superhero than of any other comic book character, and many different costumes, these costumes vary greatly in color, design and material.

The first costume to appear on the silver screen was worn by Michael Keyton, in the Tim Burton 1989 drama and it's sequel. The costume is fairly traditional, it features the immobile cowl, thus reducing movement of the head and neck, the iconic helmet with the ears and all but the mouth covered. The suit is made of a smooth matte plastic in jet black, molded and contoured, featuring anatomic muscles and abdominals. The suit features a golden utility belt, which stands out from the rest of the suit, and a logo in fluorescent yellow. The costume is highly reminiscent of the classic comic book suit, and treads a fine line between the campiness of the television series and the tough aesthetic of later films.

The next costume was worn by Val Kilmer, this version is not dissimilar from the Michael Keyton suit, the anatomical features of the suit are now more exaggerated, Bruce Wayne now looks like he is on steroids, the suit contains defined pectorals and even the legs of the suit are muscular and overly defined. The suit contains the same cowl and helmet of the first films, but the neck of the cowl is contoured and ridged. The same utilities are present on the suit, however the belt is black, and the logo is now a bronze color. The suit is still black, however it is now shiny and reflective.

The suit worn by George Clooney would make this next film infamous, Batman & Robin was released in 1997, and would feature Clooney wearing first a suit featuring anatomically correct pectorals with nipples added, and an enlarged codpiece and buttocks, the suit also features the bat logo in silver. This suit was reviled and mocked at the time, and remains undeniably camp. The second suit Clooney wears in this film, breaks the cardinal rule of Batman wearing only black or grey. For this adventure Wayne would wear a silver suit, featuring the same unfortunate codpiece, but including silver panels on the suit, and a huge silver bat logo. This film will go down in history, for the presence of these suits alone.

The Christopher Nolan films would present a tougher, grittier and edgier aesthetic. Filmed a decade after Batman & Robin, the film uses a batsuit supposedly invented for the military, the suit is a matte black kevlar, featuring flexible panels, and a utility belt in a dark bronze, tthe batsuit is also subtly incorporated into the costume. The second suit Christian Bale would wear in this series solves the batsuit's biggest problem, it allows Batman to turn his head, the suit uses interlocking panels to make it flexible. the logo is smaller and more discreet and the neck is slim and allows Wayne to turn his head. The suit overall is tougher and more realistic.

The batsuit has gone through numerous iterations from the ludicrous to the uninspired to the realistic, the Nolan suit is  realistic and by far the most removed from the source material, the most inspired and the most realistic.

Designing The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby was one of my favorite films of last year, sumptuous design coupled with wonderful costumes and fine acting made this film gorgeous to look at, despite it's narrative flaws. The film one two Oscars, both for design, one for set design and set decorating, and the other for costume design. I have always loved the twenties, art deco and art nouveau are two of my favorite movements, and having lived in Brussels, i have seen copious amounts of both.

One of the defining features of the twenties and indeed of The Great Gatsby is the architecture, the film takes place in various mansions around long island, and the characters are defined architecturally by the houses they live in. The Buchannans live on East Egg, and belong to the old establishment. Their mansion is a large regency brick building, rectangular and strong, showing the Buchannans place as old money, and their status. Jay Gatsby, on the other hand, lives in an Art Deco mansion, featuring turrets and towers. This house is much more ostentatious than the Buchannan residence, being more ornate, showing Jay Gatsby as a climber, concerned with appearances and status. Nick, on the other hand lives in a ramshackle cottage, overrun with tumbleweed and wisteria, clearly presenting him as a lesser member of society.

The interiors of the house also contrast, the Buchannan mansion features a hollywood regency style, with white stucco ceilings and classy, understated furniture, referencing the fact that they both grew up with money. Gatsby's house on the other hand is pure art deco, wood inlay floors, tall collumns and vaulted ceilings gilded with gold, the whole effect is more overstated and ostentatious, a sign of Gatsby's new money. Nicks cottage is in complete contrast with both of these interiors, it is a more arts and crafts inspired environment, and is overall a much more personal space. The apartment occupied by Myrtle is also different, being predominantly red and stuffed with flowers, the lack of taste in the interior showing Myrtles lack of class and status, the color red being significant of her blatant femininity.

The costumes of the film are also superb, Daisy is the character most obviously categorized by her clothes, her clothes make her look feminine, girlish and naive, they show a sense of immaturity, however they nonetheless show her as someone of status, and her clothes are embellished and fashionable. Gatsby, on the other hand, shows himself to be someone, again, concerned about status, he uses a cane, despite not needing one. Tom Buchanan, on the other hand is more conservative, wearing three piece suits in wool and tweed. Gatsby always wears light colored suits, while Tom always wears dark colors, showing their contrasting personalities and conflict.

The supporting casts costumes are equally distinctive, Jordan Baker wears trousers and pant suits, elegantly tailored, and unusual for a woman of this era, her wearing of more masculine clothing shows her golfing background and her dominant attitude. Myrtle's costumes are more feminine, her wearing much of the color red, wearing her skirts short and wearing fishnet stockings. Her choice of costumes show her as a sex symbol, and as a woman who flaunts her sexuality.

The Great Gatsby is a highly elegant film, the interiors show us much about the class and tastes of the people who inhabit them, their clothes are revelatory of their personalities and status, and of their interactions with the other characters.

Costuming Superheroes

Comic Book adaptations are very en vogue right now. With the global success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Dark Knight Trilogy, more and more characters are finally being adapted to the big screen. The first series to be adapted was the superman series in 1974 starring Christopher Reed, subsequently the Batman and X-Men series were released followed by an explosion of superhero films, seen this summer when over three superhero and comic book adaptations were released.

The first films adapted their comic books very literally, Christopher Reeve's Superman costume is virtually identical to the comics, and Michael Keaton's costume is highly similar to the now iconic Batman costume. Likewise the Spider-man films have followed their source material almost exactly, whereas most series, when they are rebooted, alter the costumes of the original series, in order to differentiate themselves. Spider-man didn't do this, and the costume in The Amazing Spider-man is almost identical to that of Sam Rami's original trilogy.

Other series have been less literal, the X-Man series offers one of the most radical alterations from it's source material, instead of the bright spandex costumes featured in the comics, the characters are instead outfitted in sleek leather costumes, which have much more consistency and which were more cohesive. The costumes of the comic books are brightly coloured, tight and iconic, Wolverines costume in particular is an iconic comic book image, yet even in his spin off movies, Wolverine sports his now iconic leather jacket.

Since 2006's Batman Begins, superhero costumes have taken on an even more utilitarian image, the batsuit used in this incarnation is like modern, military armor, sleek and jet black, with the batman logo noticeably disguised. After this series, costuming in superhero films became incredibly lifelike and more military inspired. Iron Man's costume is very grounded in reality and realistic, and evolves from a more amateurish armor to the sleek gold-titanium alloy seen in the later part of the film and it's sequels.

Other marvel films also take this route, Captain Americas costume is even upgraded from the spandex colors seen in the comics, to a less sleek and more realistic costume seen in the first film, and finally into the sleek kevlar inspired costume, less brightly colored than the comic book and more practical. The only exception to the mold is Thor, who retains his brightly colored red cape and slightly more ridiculous costume than the others on this list, however his costume is still slightly less ludicrous than in the comic book, the bright blue being downgraded to a subtle gray and the spandex being changed to a tough almost roman armour.

Modern superhero movies place a huge amount of importance on realism, their costumes are grounded in reality, made of tough and strong materials, and not from thin spandex or lycra. The colours of the costumes is also more subtle with bright yellows and blacks, royal blues and reds being replaced with jet black and gray and navy blues and burgandies, this gives the films a darker more sleek aesthetic which is refreshing and which is tonally more realistic.