Wonder Woman Costume Evolution

Wonder Woman has the most stable iconic costume in superhero comics. The core elements — red bustier, blue starred briefs, golden tiara, golden eagle or W chest emblem, red boots, indestructible silver bracelets, golden lasso — have been continuously legible since 1941. No other long-running comic-book hero has had as little fundamental redesign in their core look. Where Superman's costume has remained essentially fixed and Batman's silhouette has shifted between camp and grim, Wonder Woman's design has been refined, tweaked, modernised, and occasionally rebooted, but rarely reinvented.

This page traces every major version. For context, see the Wonder Woman hub.

The original — H.G. Peter (1941–1947)

William Moulton Marston wrote Wonder Woman; H.G. Peter drew her. Peter was an unusual choice — already in his 60s when the character debuted, with a cartoonist's flat illustrative style that was out of step with the more polished superhero art of the era. The costume he designed for the December 1941 debut in All Star Comics #8 set the template for everything that followed:

• Red strapless bustier with a golden eagle emblem across the chest
• Blue skirt with white stars (changed to briefs within the first year)
• Golden belt with stylised W
• Silver bracelets (the Bracelets of Submission)
• Red boots with a white stripe
• Golden tiara with red star
• Black hair, contrary to some early misconceptions

The skirt-to-briefs transition happened almost immediately — by mid-1942 Diana was wearing what would become the iconic star-spangled briefs. The Marston-Peter run ran until Marston's death in 1947 and Peter's retirement shortly after.

Silver Age stability (1947–1968)

For two decades the costume was essentially frozen. Different artists drew Diana with different proportions and rendering styles, but the fundamental design didn't change. The post-Marston era was creatively uneven, with some of the more reductive 1950s and 1960s stories assigning Diana a romance-comic register, but her look remained stable.

The depowered Diana — Mike Sekowsky (1968–1972)

The most radical reinvention of Wonder Woman's look in the character's history was also the briefest and most controversial. In 1968 writer Denny O'Neil and artist Mike Sekowsky stripped Diana of her powers, retired the costume, and reimagined her as a mod-fashion martial artist running a boutique in Greenwich Village. Her mentor was a blind Asian sensei named I Ching.

The Diana Prince of this era wore civilian clothing — white jumpsuits, knee-high boots, mini-dresses, mod prints. The classic Wonder Woman costume disappeared entirely from the comic for four years. The covers of this era are striking design documents in their own right, often more stylised and graphic than typical superhero covers of the period.

In 1972 Gloria Steinem put the classic stars-and-stripes Wonder Woman on the cover of the first issue of Ms. magazine and publicly criticised the depowering as a regression rather than a modernisation. DC restored the powers and the costume the same year. Sekowsky's mod Diana is now a minor cult favourite — defended by some as one of the more daring takes on the character, dismissed by others as a four-year insult.

The Lynda Carter era (1975–1979)

Although the comic costume changed only in fine detail through the 1970s, the most influential live-action take debuted in 1975 with the Lynda Carter ABC series. The Carter costume was a faithful realisation of the comic look — bustier, briefs, tiara, lasso — translated to cloth and Lurex. The famous transformation sequence locked the design into the public eye in a way no comic had quite managed.

The Carter design influenced subsequent comics: panel-art Wonder Women through the late 1970s and early 1980s often visibly drew from her live-action presence.

The Pérez relaunch (1987)

After Crisis on Infinite Earths reset DC continuity, George Pérez relaunched Wonder Woman with refined, classical proportions. His Diana was taller and more athletic than the Silver Age version, with a costume that was structurally identical to the original but rendered with more anatomical confidence and Greek-statue gravity. The Pérez run codified the modern look that would carry through the 1990s.

The eagle chest emblem was retained in his design but quietly transitioned over the following years to the stylised double-W emblem that became standard.

Jim Lee, Greg Land, and the 2000s

The 2000s saw various artistic interpretations without any major redesign. Jim Lee's Wonder Woman in Justice League (2002) and elsewhere brought a more armoured, hyper-detailed look that influenced subsequent renderings. Adam Hughes covers from this period — particularly his work on All Star Comics and various Wonder Woman issues — established a new standard for cover art that emphasised classical, sculptural elegance.

A 2010 redesign by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Don Kramer briefly put Diana in trousers, a black jacket, and a more street-clothes silhouette as part of a continuity-altering storyline. It was reversed within a year, but it was a preview of the more radical New 52 redesign coming in 2011.

New 52 — pants and armour (2011)

When DC rebooted its entire line in 2011, the Brian Azzarello / Cliff Chiang Wonder Woman relaunch redesigned the costume more aggressively than any version since the Sekowsky era. The skirt-style briefs were replaced with full-leg trousers in some panels and a more armoured silhouette in others. The chest emblem moved to a stylised metallic W. The bracelets were larger and more visibly weaponised.

The Azzarello/Chiang run is widely admired creatively, but the costume changes were divisive. By 2016 the design had reverted closer to the classic.

Rebirth and after (2016–present)

DC's Rebirth initiative, launched in 2016, returned Wonder Woman to a costume much closer to the Pérez era — classic briefs, classical proportions, restrained armoury. The Greg Rucka run that opened the era set the look that has continued through subsequent runs by Shea Fontana, Steve Orlando, G. Willow Wilson, Mariko Tamaki, Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, and Tom King.

The film costume — Lindy Hemming (2016–2020)

The most influential modern take on Wonder Woman's look comes from costume designer Lindy Hemming's work on the Zack Snyder / Patty Jenkins films. The film costume is essentially a gladiator interpretation: red and blue rendered in tooled leather, bronzed metal armour pieces, a more practical silhouette that still reads as Wonder Woman at first glance. The colours are darker, more battle-worn, more "Greek warrior" than "Fourth-of-July". The film costume retains the iconic elements — bracelets, tiara, lasso, eagle/W chest plate — but reframes them as battlefield-era armour rather than circus-poster pageantry.

The Hemming design has heavily influenced subsequent comics. Several comic artists in the late 2010s and 2020s drew Diana with explicit Hemming visual cues, blending the two design traditions.

What's stayed and what's changed

Eight decades of redesign and the core elements remain identical. Red, blue, gold, white. Eagle or W. Tiara, bracelets, lasso. Boots. The strapless silhouette has been altered more often than it's been preserved, but the silhouette is itself the consistent identifier — in any panel, animation cell, or film frame, the Wonder Woman colour palette and gear set are immediately legible.

What has changed: - The skirt vs. briefs vs. trousers question has been answered different ways at different times. - The eagle emblem transitioned to the W in stages through the late 1980s and early 1990s. - The bracelets have varied in size from delicate cuffs to full vambrace armour. - The tone — pageantry, athleticism, gladiator armour, mod-fashion — has shifted with each generation.

The fact that all these versions are still recognisably Wonder Woman is itself the design's strongest argument. The 1941 Marston/Peter design has proved extraordinarily robust to reinterpretation.

For the broader history of the character, see the Wonder Woman hub. For every actress who has worn the costume, see Wonder Woman on screen.