If you're around for a long time as a comic book character, you go through different looks. Some of them are cool. Some of them are not so cool. In the case of Wonder Woman, though she features one of the most recognizable costumes in all of comics, she's had quite a few different outfits over the years.
In comic books, television shows and now feature films, Diana of Themyscira has accrued one of the most um, diverse, wardrobes around. Let's take a look at some looks that would make the cut and some that wouldn't.
10 Doesn't Work: Whatever This Is
Actually, it's a wet suit, but it kind of looks like the habits of a space nunnery from Doctor Who or maybe even Star Trek. Now, Lynda Carter can make anything look great and blue works on her, but this is one of the most '70s and least successful of Wonder Woman's many looks. This particular costume also turned up whenever Diana had to get on a motorcycle, another '70s staple. While not the absolute low point, it's a sad detour into fashion faux pas for the Amazonian princess.
9 Works: First Things First
Sometimes it just works from the jump. Wonder Woman first appeared in 1941, in All Star Comics #8. Much of her iconic look was already in place. The red top. The gold eagle. The blue skirt with the white stars. While the exact arrangement and composition of these elements would change over time and across different mediums, the foundation of her signature identity was cast in stone. Whenever her outfit drifted too far from his core idea - and it did - it never really worked.
8 Doesn't Work: If You Didn't See It, Did It Happen?
Case in point. While maintaining the basic theme of the classic costume, the outfit in the ill-fated (and never seen) pilot for the Wonder Woman series starring Adrianne Palicki doesn't quite work. It's mostly leather, what there is of it, and doesn't offer much in the way of flexibility, cover or common sense. That gold eagle looks really gold, and one imagines, is quite heavy. It would probably weigh down on her top, which isn't really all that much, to begin with. A more sensible version of this would show up in the films.
7 Works: New 52
Coming up with new takes on old favorites is hard. There's only so much you can (and should do) with iconic characters like Wonder Woman. One of DC's more recent continuity redos, New 52, provided Diana with perhaps the most successful of her modern looks.
Keeping the traditional elements of the costume while rearranging them in a more jumpsuit like outfit with the dark blue tunic under the much more streamlined - and aggressive - breastplate, Wonder Woman is as fierce as she's ever looked.
6 Doesn't Work: That 70s Diana
There are a couple of looks Wonder Woman sported in the '70s that don't quite work, and this is certainly one of them. Looking more like something out of the Hellfire Club than Themiscyra, the best part is Diana considers this a combat outfit. A victim of her age, certainly. Wonder Woman wasn't always served by her creators, who didn't appreciate her status as a role model for women. This left Diana in some odd situations, and of course, some odd outfits from time to time.
5 Works: Lynda Carter
Now, you might be asking yourself what the difference is between the Adrianne Palicki costume and this one. The difference is Lynda Carter. Is she the best Wonder Woman? Something to think about. While the blue wetsuit/motorcycle suit/Blue Man tryout suit doesn't work, this interpretation of the classic outfit does. All the elements are there, and though represented in bright '70s spandex or polyester - one imagines both - the effect is well, effective. Little realism informed the '70s TV series, leading to an outfit that didn't quite make sense, but remains iconic.
4 Doesn't Work: Mod Diana
Over the years, comic book writers and artists would occasionally be tempted to get Wonder Woman away from what they perceived to be a staid look. This never really netted any positive results. A great example of this is the 60s 'mod' all-white look for Diana. First appearing in Wonder Woman #178, comic book legend Denny O'Neill pushed the envelope as far as he could. While it didn't work, one imagines if the films continue to hop around in time, you could potentially see this on-screen.
3 Works: Kingdom Come
A version of Wonder Woman so 100% badass that it's making its way to the screen in Wonder Woman 1984, this armored version of an alternative future Diana is one of her best. Alex Ross put Wonder Woman in a classic quasi-Hellenistic armor for Kingdom Come, and she never looked better.
The gold winged armor gives Diana a look that might improve on the classic outfit to the point you wonder if she's not better off in this. While she doesn't necessarily need the armor for protection, it lends her the grandeur and allure of her culture and past.
2 Doesn't Work: Extreme Diana
Belts and jackets were a thing in the '90s, to say the least. They found their way to Wonder Woman and the results were best forgotten. For a minute, Diana was out of her usual gig, a trope well-mined by DC for its primary characters in the '90s, and she was replaced by another Amazonian, Artemis. This would drive anyone to make some changes in their life, but Diana went to - extremes - by adopting a biker look. It never really worked and fans have never really looked back.
1 Works: The Movies
Pretty much everything has worked about Wonder Woman in the recent DCEU films. The casting, the content and the costume have all brought the character to life in a way she's never really been allowed in her long, long history. The classic look manifests in Gal Gadot's costume, though in the most realistic way so far. It may hail from a heightened reality, but the costume echoes both her ancient past and practical present, all the while keeping the classic elements in place.