Catsuit

A woman wearing a black latex catsuit and thigh-high 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.

It is usually made of leather (or pleather), rubber/latex, PVC, velour, or spandex. It is identical to a unitard in construction, but its use rarely involves sports. The term "catsuit" tends to be preferred in the context of fashion, fancy-dress costume, or fetishist clothing.

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.

Appearance in popular culture

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 starring Charlize Theron.
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery—Liz Hurley and Mimi Rogers appear in black leather catsuits in a tribute to Emma Peel.
• 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 number 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, leather and spandex 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—the villainess Harley Quinn is renowned for her distinctive costume - a red and black diamond-checked catsuit in the style of a harlequin jester.
• Batman Forever—Jim Carrey wears a number of flamboyant green spandex catsuits for his role as The Riddler.
• 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 sleeveless black latex catsuit and leather jacket.
• Fantastic Four—the heroes Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman and The Human Torch all wear dark lycra catsuits.
• 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.
• Kill Bill Volume 1—Uma Thurman wears a yellow leather catsuit with black stripes in a tribute to Bruce Lee's iconic tracksuit in Game of Death.
• Kim Possible: The character Shego wears a green and black catsuit as her trademark outfit.
• Lajja—Bollywood actress and dancer Urmila Matondkar appears in a gold pleather catsuit in the opening item number "Aa Hi Jaiye".
• The Matrix trilogy—Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) wears a black PVC catsuit.
• Mean Girls—Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) appears in a black catsuit.
• Razor Blade Smile
• Rent (film) — Maureen (Idina Menzel) in black catsuit with matching cat ears.
• Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed—Velma Dinkley (Linda Cardellini) appears in a red latex catsuit in an attempt to impress her love interest, Patrick Wisely (Seth Green).
• Shooting Fish
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine— Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) wears a catsuit (tightness increasing throughout the episodes) as her uniform, distinguishing her rather attractively from the surrounding Starfleet-"Pyjamas".
• Star Trek: Voyager—Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) wore several catsuits throughout her term which contained built in corsets.
• Star Trek: Enterprise— Continuing the Star Trek tradition from previous series, T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) wore a catsuit.
• Tomb Raider films—Angelina Jolie appears in 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.

Music videos

The catsuit has also appeared in a number of music videos:

• Confide in Me - Kylie Minogue wears a black latex catsuit [1]
• Human Nature - Madonna wears a black PVC catsuit [2]
• Independent Women Part I - Michelle Williams wears a copper red pleather catsuit.
• 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 latex catsuits [5]
• "More Than A Woman - Aaliyah wears a white leather catsuit [6]
• Oops!... I Did It Again - Britney Spears wears a red latex catsuit [7]
• Say You'll Be There - Victoria Beckham (alias Posh Spice) wears a sleeveless black PVC catsuit [8]
• There You Go - Pink wears a white leather catsuit [9]
• Too Much - Victoria Beckham (alias Posh Spice) wears a black PVC catsuit with a feline headdress [10]
• Toxic - Britney Spears wears a black pleather catsuit [11]
• Who Do You Think You Are - Victoria Beckham (alias Posh Spice) wears a silver lurex catsuit [12].
• Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand) - Marilyn Manson appears in a black leather catsuit.

Video and computer games

• Dead or Alive—British assassin Christie wears a black and white catsuit as her primary outfit in DOA 3, and as her second costume option in DOA 4.
• Dead or Alive 4—female ninja Ayane has two catsuits available as her 5th and 6th costume options.
• 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.

See also

• Bodystocking
• Fetish fashion
• Gimp suit
• Jumpsuit
• Latex and PVC fetishism
• Latex clothing
• Spandex fetishism
• Unitard
• Wetsuit
• Zentai

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.")

External links

• Catsuit pattern drafting
• How to make a catsuit
• See also Latex fetish sites at Curlie