"I adore strict, flawless women who are capable of going to extremes." Thierry Mugler
Fashion designers often borrow ideas and inspirations from the world of comics and superheroes. Yet, while there are graphic novels and comic books with some connections with the fashion world, comic fairs and exhibitions usually celebrate costumes rather than fashion. Trends may be changing, though, as proved last week at the Lucca Comics & Games event.
The special theme of the 2013 edition of Lucca Comics was indeed "A Question of Style", a title referring to costumes, but also to fashion-related exhibitions.
While the Lucca Comics poster hinted at fashion and style through an illustration that referenced Cosplaying, the programme featured an exhibition of Frank Espinosa's original illustrations from his biography of Salvatore Ferragamo (showcased a while back at the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum in Florence) at the Church of Santa Maria dei Servi, and another event entitled "Dress Code" at the Palazzo Ducale.
The latter, curated by Simona Mascelli focused on seven different female characters: Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, Susan Storm/The Invisible Woman from The Fantastic Four, Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Valentina, Eva Kant from Diabolik, Marny Bannister/Satanik and Fujiko Mine from Lupin The Third.
The main point of the "Dress Code" exhibition was trying to discover the garments and accessories these seven women, among them superheroines, heroines and anti-heroines, wear at "work", during their not so ordinary lives or in their private lives.
Lucca-born designer Sara Malerbi focused on Catwoman, Eva Kant, Satanik and Fujiko Mine's wardrobes.
Malerbi dedicated to Selina Kyle a black silk low cut evening gown, while she imagined Eva Kant in a practical green sleeveless cocktail dress.
The designer made instead for Marny Bannister a red shantung dress with a petal motif skirt, and opted for a practical silk top matched with a blue skirt and a scarf tied around the neck for Fujiko Mine.
All the costumes were accessorised with matching jewellery by Giovanni Lupo - 3rebbi and bags by Donatella Cristofani.
The sections dedicated to Diana Prince and Susan Storm were a bit too thin as they mainly focused on just a few accessories (shame there were no reinvented star-spangled garments, but who can resist to Wonder Woman's tiara and arm jewellery?).
The Wonder Woman display also featured an illustration by Angelo Montanini (author of an hilarious drawing portraying Satanik in S&M attire dragging Kriminal on a leash) of the superheroine wearing Thierry Mugler's motorbike corset.
The part about Valentina looked more at the outerwear donned by the soldiers in Valentina's psychedelic dreams and hallucinations (a picture of a military coat by Salvatore Ferragamo was also exhibited as a comparison), rather than at lingerie or at the garments donned by the models that appear in Valentina's shoots.
The exhibition made one interesting point, though, as it tried to address the normality behind these popular icons and not the construction of the classic superheroines.
The other interesting point is that there was no attempt at branding any of the main characters included in the exhibition by asking popular fashion houses to dress them or provide pieces from specific collections, if we exclude Wonder Woman wearing a Mugler piece (though, considering Mugler passion for comic books, that's definitely not a branding exercise).
The protagonists of these comics therefore didn't turn into vehicles of promotion of a specific label dependable from a corporate entity. While there was no hint at promoting a feminist agenda, the emphasis was indeed on independent, strong, sexually liberated and successful women with attitude and style.
It's undeniable that it would have been interesting to see minor characters or different comic icons - from Phantom Lady to Josie and The Pussycats, from Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and Tigra the Were-Woman to Modesty Blaise and Moyoco Anno's girls or Daniel Clowes' Enid and Rebecca - appearing in the event.
Yet you can bet that, in future editions, the Lucca Comics organisers will add further and better fashion-related exhibits capable of expanding the audience numbers.
As claimed on the Lucca Comics site, there were around 200,000 visitors at the 2013 edition and, according to Nicola D'Agostino, Italian freelance journalist and comics expert, the "Dress Code" event was quite popular, especially with female visitors.
"The Dress Code exhibition had its highs and lows, but nonethless it should be praised for putting the spotlight in an original (and classy!) way on some well and lesser known female comic-book characters, among which are Diabolik's Eva Kant, Valentina and Satanik/Marny Bannister," D'Agostino told Irenebrination. "Angelo Montanini's homages, featuring the dresses by Sara Malerbi, were astounding and I hope to see more by him in future. The Invisible Woman part was probably the weakest, with just one item and no original art whatsoever while, on the other hand, Valentina probably deserved more attention and space."
Image credits
All images in this post courtesy Nicola D'Agostino
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