High-fashion heroes at New York's Metropolitan Museum

By Paul Lieberman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

If there is any doubt that the world is experiencing a superhero moment, then the Costume Institute's "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy" puts the question to rest. The exhibit, which opened Wednesday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, offers as much an opportunity to step inside the pages of a comic as you'll experience this side of a video game.

About 60 ensembles -- superhero costumes from runways, movies and sports arenas -- are on display, proving that a mere 70 years after DC Comics introduced the flying strongman from Krypton, there is no underestimating the magnetism of capes, unitards, masks and armor.

(Thierry Mugler, fall-winter 1996-1997)

Also in Image:

•
• Miu Miu boutique is back — in Beverly Hills
• Cars and couture
(Patrice Stable / The Metropolitan Museum of Art)