MAID OF STEEL Bernard Wilhelm’s balloon dress puts a Bizarro twist on Superman.

Photograph: Courtesy of Chris Moore

When Olympic sprinter Cathy Freeman won the gold at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, she was wearing one of Nike’s then-new Swift Suits. The aerodynamic uniform was designed to reduce drag, slicing precious seconds off of finish times. Superskintight and flashy, it also looked like something a member of the Justice League would wear—a fact not lost on Andrew Bolton, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. “We had been looking at clothes that literally transformed the wearer into a superhero,” he says. “Things that made you run or swim faster—or fly.” But by the time he got the green light for the Institute’s newest exhibit, “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy,” Bolton was more entranced with how the superpowered set represent particular metaphors in our culture, especially through their wardrobe. “When you look at how Superman or Catwoman dress, there are a lot of issues of transformation and transgression, and an exaggerated sense of masculinity and femininity.”

Opening Wednesday 7, “Superheroes” bridges the seemingly vast chasm between high fashion and what some would denigrate as “silly kids’ stuff.” Several pieces—like John Galliano’s Wonder Woman corset for Christian Dior and Bernard Wilhelm’s subversive Superman dress (below)—are direct references to established heroes. Other links are more circuitous, like a gold-plated Alexander McQueen bodysuit meant to inspire thoughts of Iron Man. “Even if they don’t realize [the connection],” says Bolton, “the designers are looking to the zeitgeist and the zeitgeist is looking to superheroes.”

Comic-book looks have worked their way onto the street as well; Bolton says the popularity of capes and draping, and the exaggerated shoulders in Martin Margiela’s collections, are indicative of this. “There’s so much accessible fashion that’s linked to the superhero—the whole idea of body-conscious fabrics and bright colors. Last year, Marc Jacobs did underwear as outerwear.”

For those who don’t follow the comings and goings at the Bryant Park tents, the Institute has included costumes used in Hollywood comic-book adaptations, including Lynda Carter’s curvacious bodice from the Wonder Woman TV show, Christopher Reeve’s Superman costume, Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man armor and Rebecca Romjin’s Mystique outfit from the X-Men, movies. “That’s not so much a costume as it is a series of appliqués that were glued to her body,” explains Bolton. “Judianna Makovsky of Spectral Motion effects sent it to us and we put them on a blue-skinned mannequin piece by piece. It’s quite labor-intensive.” Somehow we don’t see Mystique knockoffs hitting Canal Street anytime soon.

See the next page to learn how to ape these superhero fashions in NYC.

“Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy” opens May 7, 2008.