nanoochka:

maichan808:

I’M PICTURING A VERY UN-SEXY ONESIE SITUATION

Okay, this warrants some further dissection, and I’ve got @maichan808‘s blessing on this so STEP INTO MY OFFICE. Or as I like to call it:

I can’t honestly say I’ve ever given a tremendous amount of thought to how the fuck Captain America gets dressed in the morning (as opposed to how he gets undressed or is undressed by someone else, ahem), but now that the question’s been posed and @maichan808 suggested I do a full post about it, I went down that rabbit hole in about .5 seconds flat because I’m a librarian and a costume nerd and this is how we do. SO.

Not only is Cap’s uniform pretty fascinating from a costuming perspective (although uniform functionality for Cap as a character and functionality for the costume department are two totally different things, as I’ll mention later), but it’s also useful and interesting to think about for fic or art purposes. Because, let’s face it, fandom spends an incredible amount of time writing about Cap getting naked, and the logistics of… how he actually… does that are kind of cool when you dig into it.

So here’s what we have for Cap’s uniforms spanning from Captain America: The First Avenger to Avengers: Infinity War, and I’ll break each one down from there.

From L to R: Captain America: The First Avenger, Avengers, Thor: The Dark World (which I disregard here), Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming (also disregarded for the purposes of this post, but it’s the same uniform as Avengers 1), and Avengers: Infinity War.

Much like the character, Cap’s uniforms evolve over time and get increasingly more complex and intricate, and there are large and small variations based on who directed the movie. For instance, Joss Whedon’s Cap looks cartoonish and extra spangly in Avengers and even Ultron, to a lesser extent, because Joss is overly married to comics!Cap and very literal in his interpretation of the character, while the Russo Brothers’ Cap is more of a study in how a practical uniform would have to look and function in the Real World. (As someone who’d like to push Whedon out an airlock, I don’t think it’s coincidental that this is an excellent metaphor for where those movies diverge thematically and in terms of Cap’s character development.) Which is why we have lycra and red go-go boots on the one hand, and the gift that is the stealth suit on the other.

The question that was posed originally, and which started this whole rabbit-hole dive, is a) how the fuck does Cap get in and out of this thing (or better yet, have someone remove it FOR him), and b) is it actually a onesie? Because that’s what the hell it looks like, and thanks to Spider-Man: Homecoming, we now know how superhero onesies come off.

As much as I’d love to see that, let’s start with Cap’s uniform in The First Avenger. With bonus Bucky.

There are a greater amount of seemingly useless buckles and straps on this one, but you can just about see how the costume comes together if you look closely. It’s three pieces including the pants (but not counting his gloves, boots, etc.)

As far as I can tell, it looks like his uniform consists of the main part of the top, with white sleeves and a white torso with two red stripes/buckles. The second piece is a set of epaulettes-slash-crop top that fits over his shoulders, buckle twice around his biceps, and then also attach to the red buckles. Then it comes behind his shoulder blades, where you can see it’s a separate piece of fabric. Sorry if this gif is a dick punch, guys.

The grey stripe below the star is where it ends, which you can tell more clearly here based on the slight shadow beneath the stripe.

It’s an interesting approach and actually pretty functional.

Weirdly, his uniform in the promo images looks more seamless, although that could just as easily be Photoshop. a separate top part would be way more breathable and easy to move around in.

No bells and whistles but still gives him extra padding/armor where he needs it around the shoulders, which is pretty appropriate if you’re running around on the Western Front during WWII.

Next is Avengers, which I’m going to spend the least amount of time on because it’s the easiest to dissect from a costume perspective and also the most boring/ridiculous, IMO.

You can see pretty clearly that it’s two pieces, a top and pants, and if we ignore the super stylish decorative zippers for a moment, you can see in the picture to the right where the top zips up, and that the area around the star would fasten with velcro. Much easier to change in and out of, but: yawn.

The Winter Soldier was the first real break we saw from the comic-book style of visuals and costuming for all the characters. (And not just Cap. Black Widow’s uniform becomes more practical-looking and less cartoonish as well, but the difference was most obvious with Steve.)

Not only did he get a costume made of kevlar and not lycra, with strategically padded areas and functional details like cargo pockets, arguably much more practical in the field, but we got the stealth suit, which reduced the spangly factor significantly and made him look like an actual special forces operative. He fits right in with his team, except that he’s in navy blue, not black, and still has the star on his chest and the cowl. There is only the tiniest bit of dark red on the sides, if you look closely. Overall, as the name implies–stealthy. But more importantly, it’s realistic, like Cap might actually be out there in the real world saving people and doing things, and not just as comic book character.

This costume not only set the tone for the movie, IMO, but it introduced a level of design complexity in the MCU that takes some figuring out because it’s not obvious how the suit does up. It does actually look like a onesie until you look more closely. And as a costume nerd, I’m impressed by how well-thought-out and cleverly designed this costume is. Not surprisingly, they went so far as to pattern all his other uniforms off this one, with minor differences depending on the tone of the movie and the director, which I further break down below.

Ultron (Whedon):

Civil War (the Russos):

I love how the Russos’ vision of cap is so restrained, practical, and realistic while still capturing the iconic costume/image–no loud colours, not even the white stripes, but it’s still obviously Cap and representing everything he stands for. Whereas with Ultron Cap, it’s like Whedon can’t help himself, putting him back in spangly colours and random red-and-white accents that take the tone the Russos painstakingly created in Winter Soldier and sends it eighteen steps backwards. Kind of like Ultron did as a movie overall.

I’ll include a shot of Cap in Avengers: Infinity War too, but it’s important to note that it’s the same suit he wore in Civil War, just dirty, beat to all hell, and with the star ripped off. Because the costume designers were clever enough to factor in that Steve probably wouldn’t be picking up an edgy new uniform as an internationally wanted fugitive. But then I started thinking about what state of mind Cap would have had to be in to claw the fucking star off his uniform, and then I had to go sit quietly by myself for a few minutes.

In terms of how the costumes are constructed in Ultron, Civil War, and Infinity War, they’re very similar. To address the most basic thing first: no, it’s not a onesie. It’s less obvious in the movies, and I’ll touch on why in a minute, but from behind-the-scenes pics, we can see there are two distinct pieces they strategically hide with a belt.

Let’s start with the jacket.

In this picture, you can see fairly clearly that the jacket isn’t one seamless piece, like a shirt. It wouldn’t be practical with this stiff kevlar, and take it from someone who used to have to wear head-to-toe kevlar as a competitive fencer: that shit can be stiff as hell, and Cap’s uniform is also padded to make getting dressed and undressed extra difficult while protecting him from minor inconveniences like bullets and people trying to kill his ass. At the neck there are symmetrical sections that come forward over his shoulders and fasten on either side of his neck and chest, likely with velcro. (Can we also appreciate the attention to detail in adding a tag with ROGERS below the shoulder? In case anyone forgets who the suit belongs to? I’ve watched TWS eleventy billion times and never noticed this.)

This shot from IW shows that there is a piece that comes up over the backs of his shoulders, although it’s a little difficult to distinguish from his harness. You can see the shiny edge of the leather harness, though. The bit right below it is part of his jacket that comes over the shoulder.

And this shot from Civil War clearly shows there’s a place where the jacket separates and fastens down, probably also with velcro.

What I imagine is that Cap’s uniform jacket probably goes on a bit like a straitjacket (with the arms free, obviously), where he’d stick his arms into it from behind and then do it up the back and over the shoulders.

What I think is most hilarious about this is he’d probably need help getting in and out of that thing, which I’ll let your imaginations run wild with at your discretion. That scene in in Civil War when Cap tells everyone to suit up at the airport? You know the next shot was Sam and Bucky shoehorning him into his uniform and making sure all his velcro parts were stuck down before sending him out into the world to punch things.

Now for the pants. Steve does appear half in uniform in a couple different places in the films–ironically both in Whedon’s Avengers. The first in Avengers 1 where he’s sitting at a conference table wearing a running shirt, and we can extrapolate from there that he’s probably wearing pants underneath the table. Probably.

The other time is in AoU, when he’s at Avengers Tower and just walking around in his uniform pants and, presumably, the undershirt he wears under his tac jacket.  

This isn’t the exact shirt he wears at Old McBarton’s farm in the movie–that one is more blue–but clearly this style is his preference because he’s a smedium until death it shows up multiple times in the movies. (All of these shirts are made by Under Armour. You might argue that product placement is a thing, and I’d argue Steve is totally the kind of dork who believes in brand loyalty.)

That one’s for science.

The one other thing I’ll talk about is the difference between what is considered practical for Cap as a character, and what is considered practical for the costume departments. For Cap as a character, an athletic undershirt, tactical jacket, pants, and belt (plus the harness, gauntlets, gloves, boots, etc.) are what would be considered practical to keep him intact in the field and make it easy to get dressed and undressed without a team of stylists.

But for the costume departments, they have other considerations, like what will look the best and create the smoothest lines while still being easy to move in or breathe so their actors don’t drown in their own sweat on set. Which is how we end up in somewhat more wacky territory like that of the belly window. We all remember the belly window, right? If not, let me remind you.

This is where I go and contradict myself, because that? That is a belly-windowed onesie with a jacket that goes over top. Chris Evans on set wears a onesie; Captain America does not. (Again… probably.)

Here’s another because it looks suspiciously like Cevans is self-conscious of said belly window and trying to cover it up. Not that I blame him. Or maybe he just ate a taco that didn’t agree with him. Who’s to say.

The whole point of this is because a onesie with lots of mesh and spandex creates clean lines under a jacket, much like Spanx for superheroes, and won’t show gaps when he’s moving around and doing lots of stunts. Realistically, Cap’s uniform should show tons of gaps and ride up awkwardly and move around like crazy because it’s two separate pieces, but that’s Hollywood magic for you. Costume designers have to think of these things and concede the point that Cap likely would be difficult to take seriously in a fight if he were flashing his midriff all the time. Just goes to show what they know, because blinding people with his abs would probably come in handy now and then.

So if you’re a writer or a fan artist or just a very curious individual who wants to know how Cap would get dressed or undressed, there you have it. This was a super long post, but these are things we as serious researchers need to know in the interest of attention to detail and accuracy.

But if you take away nothing else, just remember: that jacket is super awkward fastening up from behind, so Cap? He’s probably gonna need you to have someone give him a hand with that. Who you elect for the job is entirely up to yourself, but don’t leave the guy hanging.

ETA: Now there’s a similar analysis for Black Widow. Enjoy!