Catwoman debuted in 1940 and being around for eighty years, she has redesigned her look multiple times. Occasionally, she'll come back to a motif, like the color purple or the leather catsuit variation. Each version is unique in its way. Some are just more successful than others.
Some are just products of their time. A costume designed in 1969 doesn't work in 1993. A costume designed in 1993 most likely won't work today. With female characters, there is always a fine line between designing an attractive costume and appealing to readers' more prurient interests. Here are five costumes that succeeded at that and five that fell far short of it.
10 Lame: Jim Balent's Purple Shrink-Wrap With Black Thigh-High Boots
While it was a popular costume at the times, Jim Balent's 1993 design was a product that accentuated some of her physical assets more than honoring her status as a thief. The purple color scheme does hearken back to a previous, very popular costume, it didn't translate for other artists.
Jim Balent tended to draw the costume as if was shrink-wrapped around her body. The costume offered little except for titillation. It was successful in mirroring the time it debuted in and doing well enough to make it a favorite for some. It is still reviled by others, making it less than successful for defining the character.
9 Cool: Joelle Jones' 2018 Redesign
It's not much of a departure, but it did mark a change for the character. It builds on the design before it yet by adding a cowl, it brings the character back to some of her roots. While it has the appearance of latex, it does have cut-outs around the armpits, which give the appearance of functionality.
The ribbing around the middle resembles a corset. Combined with the latex-like appearance, it resembles fetishwear without being overtly sexual. It also gives her power with its references.
8 Lame: The Cat
It may be her original appearance, but Catwoman's first "costume" was simply a green dress that accentuated her legs. Ever the detective, it was these legs that tipped Batman off to a disguise that she had donned to steal a priceless jewel from a costume party.
She would begin using a costume with her next appearance, one that often is forgotten but includes a realistic cat mask. It's a bizarre combination that eventually gave way to one of her more iconic costumes, one that also accentuated her legs.
7 Cool: Batman '66 Television Costume
There a few variations of this costume, due to the three actresses that portrayed Catwoman for the series and its corresponding movie. The skin-tight catsuit that slightly sparkled was accented with cat ears, a gold belt, and a medallion necklace.
This costume would become so ingrained into the cultural zeitgeist that it affected future versions of the character. Darwyn Cooke's 2001 redesign took heavily from this version. The thought of the medallion and gold belt came into play briefly. Before the decade ended, the black color theme also made a comic book appearance in a new look for the feline femme fatale.
6 Lame: Black and Blue Costume
In Batman #210, Catwoman donned a black and blue costume with a red mask. This was part of a new scheme that she had after leaving prison. It involved enlisting other women just out of prison with a weight-loss clinic. Catwoman hasn't always been the height of feminist power.
The costume comes off as unoriginal among a plethora of decoys that Catwoman recruits. It's uncertain what advantages the costume gives, except to draw attention to her decoys. It ultimately failed, showing the costume was unsuccessful even in its story-driven purpose.
5 Cool: Year One Grey Costume
David Mazzucchelli designed a simple costume for Catwoman's appearance in Batman's "Year One." It took the concept of a cat-based costume and boiled it down to the essentials. The color was kept grey and it doing so, it both allows her to blend into shadows and stand out, depending on the story needs.
It also succeeds in giving Catwoman an iconic silhouette that isn't dependent upon her whip. There are not many comic book heroes and villains that can be recognized if all details are blacked out. Catwoman is one of them, primarily due to this design.
4 Lame: Halle Berry's Catwoman
The 2004 Catwoman feature film has so much going against it, but the costume is almost universally recognized as one of them. At a time when Catwoman was becoming a feminist icon, the sexuality is turned up to ten with this outfit.
The leather pants are torn and ride lower on her hips. There are straps across the torso that bring bondage to mind. The top is essentially a leather bra, pushed up to accentuate cleavage. Everything that later costumes get right, this one gets wrong.
3 Cool: The Purple Dress and Mask With a Green Cape.
This was the costume for both the Golden Age and Silver Age Catwoman. It's longevity far outweighs any impracticality inherent in its design. Many great artists used this design including Alan Davis, Dave Stevens, and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.
Lopez included this design in the DC Style Guide hunted for by numerous collectors. This was the official Catwoman design for many years, appearing on a wide variety of merchandise.
2 Lame: Armor
To effectively fight a criminal calling herself Cyber-cat, Catwoman has her tech-genius Clutterbuck build her a suit of armor in two days. What follows is something that even Catwoman admits looks nothing like what she would wear.
What follows is numerous scenes where the design of the armor makes for muddled action. Numerous accouterments make almost no practical sense. Thankfully, after Cyber-cat is defeated, Catwoman has Clutterbuck put the armor into a metal crusher.
1 Cool: Darwyn Cooke's Return to Her Cat Burglar Roots
Darwyn Cooke's 2001 design lasted for almost two decades with very little change. Many fans first recognized it in Batman: Hush, but Cooke's wonderfully retro-centric design that looked nothing like anything she'd worn before. Every element made practical sense from allowing her goggles incorporating night-vision to the color enabling her to blend into shadows.
It doesn't hurt to have a series of great covers by Adam Hughes featuring this design, but the costume was something that translated perfectly for almost any artist's abilities. The fact that the subsequent redesign didn't venture too far from this shows how perfect it is for Gotham's resident cat burglar.