CLAWS BEAT SKIN

This summer has once again seen a rise of comic book movies and with them a whole host of swoony male leads. With Christian Bale reprising his brooding role as Batman in The Dark Knight Rises, Andrew Garfield adorably webbing up in The Amazing Spider-Man and fellow British actor Henry Cavill playing Superman in The Man of Steel, to be released 2013. However my personal hero from the recent geekfest is Anne Hathaway’s character in The Dark Knight Rises, Selina, or masked up, Catwoman.

Catwoman’s role in the film added a lightness of touch that the otherwise dark and brooding tale desperately needed. Her Femme Fatale performance had all the wit, sex and glamour of a Film Noir villainess, whilst also conveying a vulnerability that suggested that she was equal parts damsel in distress needing to be saved from a good girl gone bad cliché. Throughout the film striving for a ‘clean slate’ Selina stresses that her cat-burglar routine is done for reasons of necessity only, however unlike Batman/Wayne, she takes no prisoners during a fight and will sell out till the end to save her skin. Her costumes throughout the film make her my summer movie style crush and she will be my no.1 inspiration when Halloween roles around. In uniform black throughout, as Selina she’s all Breakfast at Tiffany’s prim, cocktail dresses and (stolen) pearls, with blood red lips and nails, as Catwoman she’s leather clad and catsuited. At a masked ball she hides behind a lacy eye mask, and subtle cat ears peak above a sleek chignon.

The fashion world has long been a graphic novel fan girl. There’s the cinderella aspect of mask wearing transformation, the Ghost World geek-chic appeal or leather clad spiked heel badgirl image, all to play with. For her S/S08 show Luella Bartely showed a gloriously geeky collection, which wore it’s bat logo on it’s sleeve.

This year in keeping with the filmfest Lazy Oaf launched a Batman themed womenswear collection, complete with Bat logo leggings and backpack and is available at www.lazyoaf.co.uk.

These are my picks for pulling off Catwoman’s look, cat ears not included.

The Dark Knight Rises is in cinemas now.