Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy exhibit is on at the MET until the end of summer. It features intricate movie costumes and stunning haute couture pieces, as well as high performance sportswear. The show reveals the blurred line between fantasy and fashion and “how the superhero serves as the ultimate metaphor for fashion and its ability to empower and transform the human body“. Since Superheroes’ conception in the 30’s, they have been idolized, redefined, revamped and recycled over and over, yet they never seem to tire us. As time-transcending and hope-invoking as they are, Superheroes will never go out of fashion since they serve as escape vehicles from reality into something larger than life. They are part and parcel of the American dream, raising social and political issues, awaking imagination and inspiring designers with their metamorphic beauty so akin to the fashion industry’s virtues.

Designers, left to right: As Four, 1999; Gareth Pugh, Spring/Summer 2007; Twin-Turbine Powered Exoskeleton Wing Suit, Atair Aerospace, Inc., 2007; Hussein Chalayan, Autumn/Winter 1999–2000; Thierry Mugler, Spring/Summer 1991; Thierry Mugler, Spring/Summer 1992; Julien Macdonald, Autumn/Winter 2003-2004; Alexander McQueen, Autumn/Winter 2007–2008 (images via MET)

Source: Digital Camcorder Redux