A few suggestions for Ms Frost...

I'd meant to post this last night but instead fell into an intense discussion with a couple members of my fashion team, Nicole and Gary about Emma's clothes. To be honest I'd not been very happy with what I'd come up with initially, which I'll discuss with you in a couple of moments and together we refined our thoughts and settled on a couple of what I think are really good looks that still acknowledge her complicated and confusing origin. Also Gary reported mutant and X-Man member Hank McCoy AKA Beast to the D.S.D.C.C. (Department of Superheroes' Dress Code & Critique) and we are dispatching Sentinels to locate him immediately. You can contact the D.S.D.C.C. at ghirdietus@gmail.com to report suspected violators of D.S.D.C.C. policies. Now, back to Emma Frost, teacher, CEO, millionaire and one of the well known faces of mutant kind, why do you even wear a costume? Oh yes, because you're a superhero--and at first that limited me too. My first take on her was to return her to a bob hairstyle (long hair is impractical in battle, even if I prefer it in theory) restored her to a stylized 18th century leather corset and the riding boots she wore with her original Hellfire Club outfit. I added a jacket with rounded lapels and of course suede pants and a white choker. I only gave Emma a single X logo on her belt buckle because I find it hard to believe she'd want to promote the team over herself. In my second take on her we still have the corset and pants, though I've extended the length of the corset to cover her midriff and changed her boots to clunky platform thigh high heels. I've added a white trench coat for a longer look to compliment the length of her hair and kept gloves (best to leave no fingerprints even if people know your face). This time the X logo is smaller and appears on her choker. I'd like to take a moment to address the issue of corsets, and how placement of lacing is incredibly important. Historically when women wore corsets, it denoted either lower class or prostitution to wear a corset that laced up the front. The wealthy had servants so their corsets laced up the back, and as such I've placed Emma's lacing to the back where it belongs. Besides when Wolverine is on your team, do you really want to give him access to your corset strings so with a simple snickty snak you're now topless and at the very least inconvenienced if not furious? I like the look of both these outfits but in many ways they're just pastiches of her other costumes and left me feeling vaguely dissatisfied. After talking with my fellow fashionistas I came up with some ideas that please me a whole lot more. We thought about Emma's origins in the Hellfire Club, who dressed in "oldey-timey" clothes and then discussed Marie Antoinette and Elizabeth as well as other famous and influential historical women who chose to adopt men's clothing styles to a certain degree and decided to give Emma a look that pays homage to her origins, her apparent and unexplained need to show off her curves and the power she possesses both as a mutant and a business woman. Here she wears a white satin frock coat, white gloves, a white silk brocade vest, matching satin breeches and white knee high boots. Her long hair is swept up and pulled back in a loose bun and she wears little to no jewelery. In keeping with historical tradition Emma has left the last couple of buttons on her vest open to show she is a "gentleman". I think women dressed in men's period clothing are extremely sexy and powerful looking and would have loved to see Emma dispensing justice to Sebastian Shaw in the Uncanny X-men Annual #2 (the Black King of the Hellfire Club) in an outfit more like this than the one she wore in the issue. We still weren't happy though and it's for this simple reason: Emma, everyone knows who you are--why spend extra money on costumes that have a habit of frequently being destroyed and are undoubtedly expensive? Here's our revolutionary suggestion for Ms Frost...sweetie just wear last seasons' clothes into battle. There's no point to the theatrics of a costume when a power suit can be just as commanding and is in many ways a uniform/costume itself. This is a woman who knows her clothing, designers, labels and what makes an impression and her clothing needs to reflect it, so straight from the board room to the battle field we give you Emma in a business suit with shoes by Christian Louboutin (the holy grail of the shoe world). This time we've also added jewelry, dangling diamond earrings and a diamond necklace if for no other reason than to compliment her in both her human and diamond forms. The business suit itself consists of a fitted short waisted linen jacket, and complimentary mini skirt which is a blend of 70% linen and 30% unstable molecules (a special fabric found only on Earth 616) which allows her freedom of movement in diamond form. Underneath the jacket she wears a silvery white lacy camisole and white matte satin gloves complete the outfit. Since the shoes are Louboutin this brings up a perfect opportunity to address the heel. Due to Emma's change in weight, strength and density when she changes to her diamond form regular heels just wouldn't do. She'd be leaving fights constantly to purchase new shoes. We suggest she have custom adamantium reinforcements in her heels which will not only insure they won't break easily as adamantium (also available only on Earth 616) is largely unbreakable, but make them weapons grade heels if she feels the need to make a point. At the end of the day I just don't see why she'd wear a costume at all, her fabulousness should be costume enough. Nicole said if she could draw and was working for the industry it would be her favorite part of the job researching current fashions and finding just the right look for each character and I agree heartily. Some artists, like George Perez, Phil Jimenez and the Dodsons to name a few are very fashion conscious but then there are artists who don't really seem to think about what the characters wear at all except for how their costume looks and rarely think about whether or not the character in question would wear such an outfit. There are costumes heroes wear that are given to them by family members or friends but when the artist actually draws the outfit it seems like no one informed him/her of that very relevant fact, but we'll talk about that in my next post...TARGET ACQUIRED Name: Kara Zor-El, Kara Zor-L, Linda Danvers, Matrix and Cir-El A.K.A. Supergirl.Emma Frost, the White Queen, the Black Queen, Sebastion Shaw, the Black King, the Hellfire Club, the X-Men and all related symbols, insignia, costumes etc, are all © Trademarks of Marvel Comics and the images reproduced here are used only as examples of my ideas for her costume and the promotion of Marvel Comics

Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, Kara Zor-L, Linda Danvers, Matrix, Cir-El and all related symbols, insignia, costumes etc, are all © Trademarks of DC Comics and the image reproduced here (penciled by Ed Benes) is used only as an illustration for the purpose of costume critique and the promotion of DC Comics