Through the decades, Wonder Woman has maintained her iconic red and blue costume. Though this look has changed from traditional superhero costume to more of a Greco-Roman style armor, the color scheme and general design have remained the same. Diana had one heck of a wardrobe alteration in the '90s, however, with the Amazon princess giving way to the trends of the era.
The 1990s saw Wonder Woman briefly replaced by a grittier, edgier Amazon, with Diana subsequently operating under a new alias and much different costume. Giving her the appearance of a stereotypical "biker chick," this new costume was a far cry from Diana's classic apparel.
Diana: The New Wonder Woman
The circumstances of the changed design were started in "The Contest" storyline, in which Artemis, a violent member of the bloodthirsty Bana-Mighdall Amazons, won the title of Wonder Woman from Diana in a new contest held by Hippolyta. This was due to an enchantment that Hippolyta had placed on Diana, as she had been foretold that soon "Wonder Woman" would die. To hide this reasoning, Hippolyta stated that Diana's mission in Man's World had theretofore been a failure and that she needed to be replaced in the role.
After becoming Wonder Woman, Artemis began wearing the iconic red and blue, as well as bracelets and other accouterments that gave her powers more on Diana's level. Diana, however, didn't stop being a superhero, even if her new role was more "freelance." Simply going by her own name, Diana now wore a black bra and pants as a costume, which were accentuated by a Wonder Woman jacket and belt. Her hair was also slightly different, as she wore more blunt bangs and straightened hair compared to the curly hair that George Perez had drawn her with.
As soon as Artemis got to work making a violent name for herself, Diana also returned to her former home of Boston. There, now freed of the Amazon mores that guided her time as Wonder Woman, she partnered with a down on his luck detective named Micah Rains. Rains had been trying and failing to deal with the city's growing crime, and attempted to team up with Wonder Woman after she came back to Earth from being in outer space. After saving him, she's met by Hawkman, who enlists her help dealing with his own issues. The recently rebooted Hawkman comic had just begun a new storyline titled "Eyes of the Hawk," in which Hawkman fought animalistic beings, many of whom were the avatars of particular creatures. Diana and Hawkman search through a maze wherein they fight a minotaur who's actually the Avatar of the Bull.
Design of the Times
The jarring design definitely wasn't what most fans were used to, as it embodied "Wonder Woman" in only the vaguest way possible. This of course fit the storyline, but both the design and the storyline itself were definitely products of the era. For one, this was a time period in comics in which characters were being replaced by newer, darker and edgier versions of themselves. Examples of this include Thor being replaced by Thunderstrike, Batman being replaced by the vicious Azrael and Superman's replacements, the Eradicator and Cyborg Superman.
Secondly, the chained biker look was another disdained '90s trend, evoking gritty and dark characters like Ghost Rider, Lobo and of course, Spawn. Taking Wonder Woman of all characters and putting her through this veneer seems outrageous to say the least, but given that even Superman briefly wore a black costume when he came back from the dead, it made some sense. Likewise, Diana shows a lot more skin in this outfit, taking the original comic book good girl and making her bad to the bone. After all, Lady Death and Witchblade were huge at the time, with Wildstorm's Gen13 also making bank off of pure sex appeal. Sadly, this meant that Diana had to show a little more bare midriff to keep up with the young folks.
Once Diana reclaimed the Wonder Woman title after Artemis' death, her black costume was quickly forgotten. It did show up in flashbacks during John Byrne's run on the character's book, but ever since DC came into the new millennium, it's firmly left Diana's edgy bad girl costume in the past.