The Mutant Body

While all superheroes represent fantasies of metamorphosis, mutant superheroes such as the X-Men embody the agonies of transformation, and many mutants regard their powers as stigmata that must be disguised or concealed for fear of rejection. Indeed, over the years, the X-Men have come to serve as metaphors for prejudice, intolerance, and oppression.

Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, The X-Men first appeared in The X-Men No. 1, September 1963. Their code name is a reference not only to the X gene or "X factor" that causes mutant evolution, but also to Professor Charles Xavier, who founded the X-Men team. A paraplegic telepath, Professor X teaches mutants how to control and contain their powers and offers the mutants a sanctuary from a world of fear, hatred, and persecution. The original X-Men were adolescents whose bodies were erratic and eruptive and whose powers were unpredictable and uncontrollable. In effect, they represented metaphors for adolescent alienation and disaffection, embodiments of the (adult) anxieties surrounding teenagers and their seething emotions and hormones.

Originally an all-white team, the X-Men were revamped in Giant-Size X-Men No. 1, May 1975, and hailed as the "all-new, all-different X-Men." Conceived by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, the ensemble included an Apache speedster, a German teleporter, a Japanese with solar radiation powers, an African with power over the elements, an Irish ex-villain with a powerful "sonic scream," a Russian who could transform his body into "living steel,", and a Canadian with an adamantium skeletal structure and retractable claws. While intended as a metaphor for racism, the X-Men quickly became a metaphor for bigotry in general, including misogyny, homophobia, and anti-semitism.

Not unlike comic books, fashion celebrates diversity, difference, and distinction. In terms of its influences and inspirations, it is the first to welcome the outcast or outsider into its midst. And while fashion is known to be the progenitor of idealized and, indeed, tyrannical standards of beauty, it is also known to be fiercely critical of those standards, offering radical, and frequently reactionary, alternatives. Since the 1980s, in particular, fashion has been characterized by its denouncement and destabilization of normative conventions of beauty. Designers like Thierry Mugler, Alexander McQueen, and more recently (although less consistently) ThreeAsFour, have gained reputations for challenging the "beautiful people" aesthetic. For them, the body is the place where normalcy is questioned. They use the body to transgress corporeal boundaries, to pull the body past its margins and bring into existence new forms of creation. Nowhere is this more evident than in Thierry Mugler's "Chimera" dress, an intensely exaggerated visualization of a body in mutation. Mugler's hybrid possesses the plateletted stomach of an amphibian, the feathered crown of a bird, the iridescent scales of a fish, and the long, wiry strands of the hair of a mammal. It is a missing link that effaces the ontological distinction between human and animal. In its catalogue of corporeal citations, it transcends sex, gender, and even biology. Like the mutant bodies of the X-Men, it challenges us accept the beauty of difference, the liberation of imperfection.

Costume Designer Quotes