Dress your Age

For those of you who are logging into CoH for the Golden/Silver Age party on Friday, allow me to provide linkage to a nice Guide to Golden and Silver Age Costumes

1) Be bold, not subtle. Bright, primary colors. Texture is also key. Silver Age is characterized by matte-tone “streamlining” with the advent of new fabrics like spandex, lycra, polyester, etc. In contrast, Golden Age heroes had to make do with older fabrics, layering (briefs over longjohns), bulky tech, combined with normal-style clothing (trenchcoats, yeah right). The Silver Age costume look tended toward being streamlined tights and simple costume elements, because artists were being pushed for faster turn-around overall. Again, mystic types were the exception, since they were anachronistic simply by virtue of having magic as the source of their powers. Armor was futuristic rather than archaic. The Golden Age buckled their swashes as “adventurers”, so flared boots, opera cloaks, and turned gloves edges were favored. Of important note is that anything vaguely alluding to juvenile deliquency was banned (sunglasses, motorcycle jackets)
2) Heroes of both eras concealed their identity, with few exceptions. Golden Age-style efforts to conceal one’s identity manifested as cowls, hoods, helms, archaic helmets. Silver Age heroes preferred domino masks, full face stockings or helmets, partial cowls and helmets, tiaras, crowns, or elected no mask at all. Moderate to excessive facial hair was discouraged as “sinister”, unless the character was a mystic type; female heroes wore their hair loose, usually shoulder-length (shorter hair revealing the back of the neck was scandalous; close-cropped would have been considered gender-bending). Pre-teen sidekicks, wearing outfits paralleling that of their mentors, with the boys wearing short sleeves, shorts or briefs, baring their legs almost as often as the girls (that’s what *I* noticed, anyway). Teenage heroes in their own right didn’t appear until the Silver Age.

Good stuff. It makes me want to log all my toons on and play with their costumes. 🙂
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Sidenote: Anyone want to make next Monday a “Monday Munchies: Age of the Golden (Twinky)” and have everyone wearing whatever costume they cobbled together for the party (even if they didn’t go?) I’m thinking I want to do Bear up in some proper swashbuckling duds. 🙂

Update:
Hype, silver-age 🙂