up, up and you know the rest..

i have two brothers, five and ten years older than me, so action figures, comic books, video games and superheroes figured prominently into my childhood at a very early age. i did have a major barbie affinity though, and i deemed myself to be a very girly girl, so i remember feigning indifference for x-men and spiderman when i was forced to watch tv with my brother, but in reality, i loved it. my unbroken losing streak couldn't keep me from playing video games with them whenever someone needed a second player, and despite my supposed disdain for the games, i was known to have a small fit if i wasn't being included in the gaming fun.

my superhero love has grown with me, so it's probably no surprise that i'm mildly stalking the superheroes: fashion and fantasy exhibit, coming to the met on may 7. and the exhibit-related spread posted on fashionista has just made me that much more excited for it (coco rocha ALWAYS = love in my book, but those pictures are beyond amazing). with that in mind, i set out to rediscover the sartorial and historical roots of my favorite lady heroines.




jubilee debuted in 1989, and boy, is it apparent in her clothes. i absolutely loved jubilee, even though my brother was always telling me how useless her powers were. but look at her - could there have been a cooler x-man? i think not. according to her wiki, she was born to wealthy chinese parents in beverly hills, and was on her way to becoming an olympic gymnast, but she also happened to be a major mallrat. in other words, she was lisa turtle for the comic book set. awesome. jubilee's super bright and bold ensemble is definitely represented all overthe spring08 runways and the street as well. loving it.




i'm not exactly sure how i became aware of cammy.. i was way into street fighter (chun-li, anyone?), but cammy wasn't in the game that we had. maybe i heard of her through one of our several fighting games, marvel vs. capcom, maybe. anyway, when i hit up style.com recently and saw the "marching orders" piece on military-inspired looks on the fw08 runways, i imagined cammy to be a super body-con incarnation of the look. also, a little unexpected body paint never hurts.




speaking of body-con, i remember always wondering why psylocke was barely clothed. but nowadays, my older (wiser?) leather skirt and latex legging-wearing self totally appreciates her bold fashion sense. like so many style daredevils, psylocke is british, and is quite a saucy little minx to boot. she's gone after several fellow x-men, single and married, and has undergone several costume changes over the years. she's even died once or twice. when i thought of her, i immediately thought of manic panic hair dye, and some notably body-conscious pieces and lines like hervé leger, vpl, and those american apparel leggings that changed my life.

..and those are the heroines that first come to mind. while i love psylocke's body-con suit, wonder woman and supergirl's all-american version of body-con never much appealed to me.. in fact, i never cared much for them at all. but i'm sure i'm missing a bunch of other stylish heroines. which superpowered ladies inspire your outfits (or halloween costumes, for that matter)?