Fashion

Geekdom has grown rapidly in the past few years, extending beyond comic shelves and hitting the apparel market. Brands such as WeLoveFine and Her Universe have made an effort to incorporate geek culture into their collections and introduce trendy apparel for every type of fandom. With Hero Mode, Comics Alliance hopes to offer you a selection of the best geek-themed apparel for your wardrobe, inspired by your favorite characters. Of course, a great hero is nothing without a villainous adversary to tip the scales, stir up trouble, and spread discord through the streets of Gotham, so for our second edition of Hero Mode, we're going into Villain Mode with apparel themed around one of the best and most popular villains in comics today; Harley Quinn.

Geekdom has grown rapidly in the past few years, extending beyond comic shelves and hitting the apparel market. Brands such as WeLoveFine and Her Universe have made a conscious effort to incorporate geek culture into their collections and introduce trendy apparel for every type of fandom. With Hero Mode, Comics Alliiance hopes to offer you a selection of the best geek-themed apparel for your wardrobe, inspired by your favorite characters --- starting with Black Widow.

We Love Fine has launched a new collection of Spider-Verse-inspired apparel, featuring a selection of cardigans, leggings, a Spider-Gwen hoodie, and even a Spider-Woman moto jacket in the style of Kris Anka's redesign for Jessica Drew's Spidey alter-ego. Created by costume designer Catherine Elhoffer, the We Love Fine x Spider-Verse collaboration combines wearable design with the iconic stylings of Spider-Man, Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Woman, and Silk. Although Spider-Men are featured in a couple pieces of apparel, the Spider-Verse collection focuses on the current costume designs worn by Spider-Gwen, Spider-Woman, and Silk, which is no surprise considering the popularity of these characters and their distinctive looks.

There are many things you can point to in superhero comics as examples of sexism and gender essentialism. Today we will ignore those. Today, we come not to bury comics and their handling of gender issues, but to praise them. Today we salute those brave men who stare down a world of gender-coded clothing choices and say, "No. Not on my watch. Not around my waist." We speak, of course, of the male miniskirt.

Emma Frost is stylish. Allegedly. I mean, that’s what I’ve been told, over and over again, by the dudes who write and draw her. She’s a scion of the Boston brahmins! She attends the swankest parties, given by the crustiest of the upper crust! She loves to feel sexy — in ways that just happen to coincide with the most thuddingly obvious fanboy desires! So classy! So urbane! Truly, what modern woman doesn’t consider what appears to be a $29.99 plastic corset from a strip mall sex shop the height of empowered glamour? Emma Frost has a wardrobe problem.

It's a sad truth about this world of ours, but our freedom is constantly under attack by Cobra Commander and his sinister army of snake-themed soldiers. I mean, no, it's not as bad as it was in the mid-80s, when you couldn't even chew gum, get a hamburger or listen to the latest Cold Slither record without finding yourself under assault by Night Creepers and Alley Vipers, but the threat is still out there, chipping away at our safety in the most unexpected ways. Take, for example, the Commander's latest sinister plot: Taking over America two feet at a time alongside New Balance and BAIT, collaborating with Hasbro for a limited edition set of sneakers decked out with a snakeskin pattern in Cobra's traditional colors.

Everyone wants a piece of the Avengers pie. When a movie with a global audience this large is at stake, there's no brand deal that doesn't make sense to at least attempt. We've already seen Under Armour, Samsung and Gillette, among others, team up with Marvel and Disney to produce a few Avengers-themed goods. It would seem however, that Adidas, already responsible for Quicksilver's sneakers, isn't content with just running shoes with Avengers designs. According to Chinese sneaker site Dunk, Adidas is planning on revisiting some of its more well-known basketball sneakers from years past, albeit with a comic book twist. Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor will all get retrofitted onto kicks from the Adidas catalog, though your mileage may vary as to how attractive these shoes really are. Though I guess it doesn't really matter given that comic book-themed footwear for adults is rather limited outside of Journeys.

Pre-orders started yesterday for an awesome new line of Espionage Cosmetics nail wraps inspired by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro's Bitch Planet and Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky's Sex Criminals. Nail wraps, for those who aren't familiar with them, are adhesive nail art that can be applied at home easily. Each style was approved by the creative teams on the books and is tastefully but clearly inspired by the excellent comics they're based on. Plus, not only do they have really cool designs, they're also glow-in-the-dark.

Annie Goetzinger's Girl in Dior is, unsurprisingly, a love letter to designer Christian Dior, both as a person and as a designer. The illustrations lovingly recreate many of his designs from the presentation of his first collection all the way up to the designer's death. The styles that Dior created changed women's fashion for the post-war era, taking women from more functional, simple clothing, back to more elaborate designs. Goetzinger's historical research is impeccable, but it's her art, and, more specifically, the way she illustrates clothing, that makes Girl in Dior so impressive.

As a tie-in to Avengers: Age of Ultron, Her Universe is collaborating with Marvel to create a line of Avengers-inspired apparel, available exclusively at Hot Topic. Designed by Amy Beth Christenson and Andrew MacLaine, the winners of Her Universe's "Geek Couture" Fashion Show at San Diego Comic-Con 2014, the capsule collection features bomber jackets, fit-and-flare dresses, and a jacket that resembles Black Widow's signature digs. Unlike the Avengers x Five Four Club menswear collection, the Her Universe x Marvel line opts for unabashedly bold motifs over subtlety, with over-sized Captain America shields and gold Loki silhouettes.