Retro Gets Refreshed: The Reincarnation Of Wonder Woman

by Lucy G. · February 9, 2011

    The aggressive presence of the maxi dress has already determined this will be a seriously retro spring. Throwbacks to the seventies usually include some hippie-inspired garb (wasn’t it peasant skirts just last year?) and the aspiration to a relaxed, carefree lifestyle. It seems the powers-that-be have a different vision for remembering the decade of polyester. Via Wonder Woman!

    Lucy G. is one of the GofG Guest Bloggers we're hosting as part of Social Media Week. For the full list of our participants, please go HERE.

    MAC Wonder Woman pop-up shop. It’s a refreshing change from the taupe palate of other Spring St storefronts, and maybe garish in a good way.

    Some choose to make a less direct reference and merely allude to the Amazonian super hero. For example, OCTV’s most recent video adventure is inspired by a film by Dara Birnbaum - 'Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman (197' which was in turn inspired by the original Wonder Woman series. Of course, being Opening Ceremony, they can’t resist throwing in a Parisian sense of superiority and utter adorableness, apparently saving the world via quirky fashion.

    And finally, NBC has ordered a pilot of a new Wonder Woman series, which is daring considering other superhero shows have not done so well in the ratings (see: The Cape). As The LA Times Blog noted, even Smalltown was only entertaining because of the guy that played Lex Luther.

    So what to make of all this? If you answered ‘Be a Superhero!’ you’re a) wrong and b) adorably naïve.

    There’s some comparison to be made of the wartime economic conditions that inspired the original Wonder Woman comics, the economic depression of the late 70s that brought about the first television series, and the current economic climate, which being an optimistic non-expert in economics I like to think of as 'battered, but hopeful.'

    Personally, I'm picking up some Army of the Amazons mascara and practicing with my golden lasso.

    [Image via NYT]