Catsuit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A woman in a red catsuit and black boots

A catsuit is a skin-tight one-piece garment with sleeves and long legs, and sometimes with feet or gloves, sometimes with a hood (the combination of which turns it into a zentai suit). It usually has a zip closure in the front or back, but other necklines are possible.

Unlike a unitard, its use rarely involves sports, and it is usually made of leather, rubber/latex, PVC, velour, or spandex. It is identical to a unitard in construction, but the term "catsuit" tends to be preferred in fancy-dress costume or erotic contexts.

1 History
2 Appearance in popular culture
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Catsuits date back at least as far as the 1940s with wetsuits appearing in the early 1950s. Although a lot of catsuits are now made of spandex, that fabric was not invented until 1959, so it seems likely they were first made of knits or hand knitting—a rather more practical and cheaper fabric than rubber.

[edit] Appearance in popular culture

[edit] Movies and television series

The catsuit has appeared in a number of movies and television series:

Æon Flux, in both the TV series and the 2005 film.
The Avengers—Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman) began wearing black leather catsuits when the actress complained that her ordinary clothing was constantly getting ripped during the numerous fight scenes throughout the series, particularly her pants.
The Avengers—Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) wore a variety of black leather catsuits during the monochrome series, but then switched to wearing colorful psychedelic jumpsuits as the show entered Technicolor. In the 1998 film based on the series, Uma Thurman wears a black pleather catsuit and a black PVC/latex catsuit as Emma Peel and her evil clone respectively.
Batman—Batgirl has appeared in various forms of the catsuit throughout the Batman film, TV and comic book franchises.
Batman—Catwoman has worn a variety of lurex, PVC and leather catsuits in the Batman TV, film and comic book franchises. (note: while the feline characteristics of her costume make it the most iconic image of the catsuit, general catsuits are not feline.)
Batman & Robin—Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman) wears two flamboyant spandex catsuits.
Cat's Eye
Charlie's Angels—Cameron Diaz appears in a white spandex catsuit, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore appear in black catsuits (during the Alley fight scene) and the villainess Vivian Wood (Kelly Lynch) appears in a black PVC catsuit and leather jacket.
Irma Vep—Irma Vep (Maggie Cheung) spends most of the film dressed in a tight, black, latex rubber catsuit, defending her director's odd choices to hostile crew members and journalists.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back—the criminal quartet forming the C.L.I.T. syndicate (Eliza Dushku, Shannon Elizabeth, Ali Larter and Jennifer Schwalbach Smith) wear black latex catsuits.
The Matrix trilogy—Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) wears a black PVC catsuit.
Mean Girls
Razor Blade Smile
Rent (film)
Shooting Fish
Star Trek: Voyager—Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) wore catsuit which contained a built in corset; it was so tight that Ryan had to be sewn into it
Tomb Raider films—Angelina Jolie appears in a couple of catsuit outfits, including a thermal silver spandex catsuit.
Totally Spies!—Clover, Alex and Sam wear red, yellow and green catsuits respectively as their spy outfits
Underworld—Selene (Kate Beckinsale) wears a black latex catsuit with matching leather corset.
X-Men film series—all members of the X-Men team (male and female) wear black leather catsuits as their official uniform.

[edit] Music videos

The catsuit has also appeared in a some music videos:

Confide in Me - Kylie Minogue wears a black latex catsuit [1]
Human Nature - Madonna wears a black PVC catsuit [2]
It's A Fine Day - Opus III's Kirsty Hawkshaw wears a black catsuit [3].
I Want Candy - Mel C wears a black pleather catsuit [4].
Just a Little - Liberty X's Kelli Young and Jessica Taylor wear black PVC catsuits [5]
Oops'... I Did It Again - Britney Spears wears a red latex catsuit [6]
Toxic - Britney Spears wears a black pleather catsuit [7].

[edit] Video and computer games

Death By Degrees—assassin and action heroine Nina Williams wears a purple leather catsuit and a black and white leather catsuit during gameplay.
Soul Calibur series—female ninja Taki wears a red spandex catsuit with body armor.
Tekken series—assassin and martial artist Nina Williams has worn a variety of catsuits throughout the series, including a green, brown and black Military Camouflage catsuit, purple Military Camouflage catsuits, and a shocking pink catsuit.
Tomb Raider series—adventurer and action heroine Lara Croft has appeared in several catsuits, including a black leather catsuit and thermal spandex catsuits.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Pop-culture reference to 'first catsuit' ("Witness the group's formation and the first time they wore catsuits!" - Editorial review of Archie Americana Series Best Of The Forties Book 2 on Amazon)
Invention of wetsuits ("Bradner took the first plunge in a neoprene wetsuit in the winter of 1950 at Lake Tahoe.")