Since the dawn of comics, superheroes have had fabulous outfits – flowing capes, wonderful trendy logos, fantastic accessories – yet they've never been what the readers of Vogue would consider clotheshorses (or clothes-bats, or whatever). Kevin Wada's work changes all of that.
Wada, a San Francisco-based illustrator, has a fondness for putting the most badass of heroes and heroines (mostly heroines) in trendy designs of his own making. Vixen? She gets a fantastic sun hat and white gloves. X-23? Give her steel-toed spikey boots and jet-black pants. And so on. In essence, the 26-year-old's illustrations give heroes the opportunity to empower their sense of style as much as their sense of duty (also, they give fans the change to dream of the day Wolverine would work a runway). And even though most of Wada's work has focused on the Marvel Universe heroes — particularly X-Men like Magneto, Mystique, and Cyclops – he's open to adapting his style to other heroes, and possibly even other media.
"I'd love to attack other areas of geek pop culture - different fandoms to 'fashionize,'" Wada said in an email to WIRED. "Everyone keeps telling me to try my hand at Game of Thrones characters. So I guess that's another show to add to my 'watch this now' list."
While the illustrator does editorial work – he once worked up Sigourney Weaver for WIRED – and comics, his superhero fashions are what he calls a "perfect storm" of his interests in superheroes and fashion. (He's also put his own twist on pop culture icons like Janelle Monáe and Beyoncé.) However, that passion has lead to actual comics work too – he did a variant cover for X-Men earlier this year. And when he puts superheroes in fun fashions, Wada said, he draws inspiration from both comics creators like Bruce Timm and Frank Miller, and fashion designers like Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen.
"I tend to be attracted to artists that veer off the beaten path when it comes to comic books – I like that originality and that striving to be different," Wada said, adding that when it comes to designers, "it really varies depending on the line – I don't have too much devotion to any one designer or label."
In honor of this week's 50th anniversary of the X-Men (Wada's most well-known collection is his X-Fashions line) and the end of New York Fashion Week, WIRED asked Wada to share some of his favorite designs. Check them out in the gallery above.
All images courtesy Kevin Wada
