Robert Tonner reinvents superheroines with a sense of style in the Women of Power collection.
By Kathryn Peck
As New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art closed the doors to its exhibit “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy” earlier this fall, the Tonner Doll Co. opened the doors to its own version of an extension of this exhibit with a new series of 16-inch (41-cm) Women of Power Tonner Character Figures™ (TCFs™) based on classic DC Comics superheroines and supervillainesses.
Superheroes have long been considered metaphors of real-world social and political realities. In her emblematic red, white, and blue costume, Wonder Woman, for instance, was created during the World War II years and was initially depicted as fighting fascist military forces.
The exhibit’s closer examination of superhero fashions, however, revealed that in the world of superheroes, fashion provides limitless opportunities to transform one’s identity, both in personality and in the flesh. As stated on the Metropolitan Museum of Art Web site, “Through fashion and the superhero, we gain the freedom to fantasize, to escape the banal, the ordinary, and the quotidian.”
According to designer and CEO Robert Tonner, the exhibit wonderfully showed the influence that pop culture superheroes have had on fashion, and it was a “fantastic and fanciful display of clothing that was inspired by comic books.”
It wasn’t that long ago that Robert began marketing the company’s TCFs (fashion doll-action figure “hybrids”) and launched the DC Stars™ collection, the original line of DC Comics-inspired TCFs like Wonder Woman, Super Girl, and Poison Ivy. However, taking a step forward and designing additional costumes for the Women of Power series wasn’t always easy. “It’s the most interesting process, designing other ‘superhero’ outfits for the Women of Power,” says Robert. “First of all, what the heck does a superhero ball gown look like?”
Designer Joe Petrollese was up for the challenge and was quickly brought on board to begin designing gowns. Joe says he found inspiration for the designs from the characters themselves. “I try to look at them as actors in a movie and think ‘what would they wear if they were to be dressed in an evening gown?’” he says. The challenge for Joe was designing gowns that not only stayed true to the look of the character but also maintained a feminine and sexy appearance.
Robert notes that Joe was able to add some evening glamour to the designs while being careful to keep the bold, graphic elements of the superheroines’ iconic outfits, like The Blonde Bombshell’s fitted black satin gown with “V” insert and choker collar, which echoes the character’s original 1947 costume of black fishnet stockings, boots, bustier, and unbuttoned jacket, or like asymmetrical design of the ivy-green gown worn by Sealed With A Kiss, a gown that is accented with feathers, leaves, and beads and clearly borrows from the original 1966 Poison Ivy costume.
Like the figures in the Women of Power series, comic book characters’ costumes have been reinvented over the years, changes that can be seen as a commentary on shifting social values, identity, and pop culture. Skirts change to shorts, sandals to heels, and in this case fish nets to evening gowns, but if you look carefully, the costumes are always redolent of that character’s original illustrated costume.
Luckily for Joe, his favorite character to design for happens to be our fabulous cover girl, Diana of Themyscira, aka Wonder Woman. “She’s a much more interesting character to design for; she can be anything from a Greek goddess to a superhero to an average person,” says Joe. “She’s a very well rounded character to design for.”
Each TCF in the Women of Power series is limited to 200 pieces and available exclusively through www.tonnerdirect.com for $159.99 each.
Tonner Doll Co.
Tel: 800-324-0486 / 845-339-9537
www.tonnerdoll.com
Buy This Issue: November 2008
| 
