I have never dressed in latex. I probably never will. There is just so much wrong with it. The material is not at all comfortable, it has a somewhat sexualized appearance and it just looks in bad taste. I still find it interesting that one of Catwoman’s iconic looks comes from the movie Batman Returns where she is wearing a latex suit. I don’t know how she wore that thing without getting big puddles of sweat trapped under the suit all over her body. The look was so popular that Halle Berry’s Catwoman also wore a very similar type of costume.
When looking just at that movie it is kind of a strange reaction. Both the villains were completely redesigned. Danny Devito monster-like Penguin didn’t last long in people’s minds, yet Selina seems to be forever stuck with the appearance the movie imposed on her.
Something else which is interesting about her look is how over the top it was (this holds true for Halle Berry as well.) Basically if you are going to wear heavy eye makeup, you generally want to avoid wearing heavy lip makeup and vice versa or your face looks like it is competing with itself.
The various visions of Catwoman in the movies used heavy eye makeup in addition to the latex. I realize that the producers and Tim Burton’s maniacal form of film making lend themselves to over the top characters, as do comics in general, but what seems to be lacking from a fashion perspective is that an overwhelming amount of femininity doesn’t make you look very feminine, in fact it usually has the opposite effect. A few weeks ago in real life, Kate Moss was seen out wearing a full length latex dress. If you look at the picture below though her makeup is pretty subtle, but she still got called out for wearing overly sexual attire. What if she had gone with heavy eyes and in-your-face red lips.
If it were true that the more makeup and more outrageous costumes that you wore made you more beautiful, then drag queens should be considered the highest level of female beauty. Of course they’re not, when others exemplify this much better. I am hoping the Anne Hathaway movie character gets toned down substantially. She has the acting chops for the role – but I for one am hoping the role has what it takes to be filled out with a serious character not a sexual fantasy.
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