There's so much to love about Marvel movies — the fan theory–sparking post-credit scenes, the mind-boggling special effects, the entire cast of Black Widow — but none of it would be the same without the costume department. It's amazing how much time, effort, and imagination they put into not only the superhero suits, but also the Avengers' everyday clothes.
Here are 35 ~super~ interesting facts about the costumes in the MCU:
1. In a 2018 interview, Elizabeth Olsen expressed her desire to modify her Avenger costume so it "would just not be a cleavage corset," and her wish was soon fulfilled when she got to help design her new Scarlet Witch costume for the WandaVision finale.
2. The ribbon on Wanda's '70s pregnancy dress — which is called a cinta ribbon — represented the way she hid her pregnancy.
3. The main colors of the WandaVision design palette represented two important characters — red for Wanda Maximoff, and black for Agatha Harkness.
4. Wanda's wedding dress was an homage to Audrey Hepburn's wedding dress in Funny Face.
5. Sophia Di Martino gave birth a few months before production began on Loki, so her Sylvie costume was designed with strategically placed zippers to make breastfeeding easier.
6. Loki's TVA pants were made from authentic 1950s sharkskin fabric, which made them difficult to stretch and easy to rip.
7. The designer sourced vintage fabrics to add authenticity to Classic Loki's spandex costume.
8. Brie Larson's suit for Captain Marvel was altered to fit her body, and it changed due to the exercises she did to prepare for the role.
9. For Carol Danvers' '90s-era street clothes, the wardrobe team decided "grunge is the way to go" because it fit with "that almost tomboyish image and attitude that she has."
10. There was a lot of back and forth about which band shirt Carol would wear, but they went with Nine Inch Nails because the logo was "kind of sweet and subtle."
11. Sam Wilson's Captain America suit in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was predominantly white to make him stand out as a "completely new, separate Captain America" and a "ray of light."
12. John Walker's Captain America suit, on the other hand, was designed "to feel darker and more threatening than the Captain America that had come before him."
13. Bucky Barnes' street clothes were designed to be "a darker reflection of Steve Rogers [with] an Americana kind of look."
14. Zemo's iconic fur coat was supposed to be an old Sokovian military uniform, so the costume designer took inspiration from Slavic traditional clothing and Polish and Russian World War II overcoats.
15. The costume department for Avengers: Endgame required 120 workers, including people making the clothes, agers, dyers, technicians, and specialty costume leather makers.
16. The superhero suits may look like spandex or leather, but most of the time, they're actually made with stretch cotton.
17. The most difficult Avenger to dress is Spider-Man because his suit has to fit without showing wrinkles or seams.
18. Since Banner Hulk's hero costume digitized, the wardrobe department created a scale model — which is called a maquette — for the visual effects team to use as a reference.
19. While they were being fitted for Tony Stark's funeral scene in Avengers: Endgame, the actors were told they were filming a wedding scene, so the wardrobe designer explained their all-black outfits away as "a concept" they just needed to trust her on.
20. In Black Panther, the embroidery on T'Challa's palace outfit was taken from a few Nigerian embroidered tops that the wardrobe department found.
21. The embroidery patterns that T'Challa's ancestors wear in the astral plane were inspired by various cultures from across the globe to "represent royalty that you find all over the world."
22. Some veining of the Wakandan language circles T'Challa's Black Panther suit, and a small triangle pattern was added between the line work to help it "feel like the roller prints you see in so many African patterns and printed fabric."
23. Chadwick Boseman wore a silver muscle suit under his Black Panther suit to give the illusion it was made of vibranium, which was inspired by Superman's suit in Man of Steel.
24. Shuri's lab outfit was inspired by "Stella McCartney’s ability to recycle fabrics, and the idea of taking recyclable materials and creating new fabrics."
25. For Captain America: The Winter Soldier, directors Joe and Anthony Russo wanted the costumes to look realistic, "as if Captain America walked outside in Washington, DC, nobody would really look twice."
26. Even though Tony Stark is incredibly wealthy, his Avengers: Age of Ultron wardrobe wasn't all designer — the wardrobe department got his clothes and shoes "from anywhere and everywhere."
27. For Captain America: Civil War, there were indoor and outdoor versions of some costumes.
28. For Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff's suit was redesigned with comfort in mind — the designer added a rubber base and an elastic seam allowance so it wouldn't feel too tight.
29. The idea for Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova's white suits came from pictures of Russian and Norwegian soldiers wearing white in the snow.
30. Their coordinating suits were designed to show "the difference between Russia and the USA."
31. Yelena's green vest was based on "post-'50s sportswear fashion."
32. Red Guardian's old-fashioned helmet was inspired by "those guys who are shot out of cannons at the circus."
33. Marvel's team of conceptual artists work with company president Kevin Feige to develop a strong concept for each hero's onscreen suit before the costume designers are allowed to begin their work.
34. Typically, whenever a hero cameos in another hero's standalone movie, the wardrobe department designs a totally new costume for them instead of reusing one from a previous film.
35. And finally, once the movie wraps, all of the costumes go to Marvel's secret warehouse, and from there, they're sent to museums and exhibitions.
