Showa Era Riders' Plain Clothes

[Glamador]

So...Glamador notices that a lot of the showa era riders have really awesome outfits. Jin Keisuke's sweet blue suit with the open jacket, Amazon's black and red leather, Shigeru's big S shirt, they're all really unique looks.

They spend so much time in "plain clothes" that are so cool looking that Glam is sort of disappointed when they henshin because they inevitably don't look as good in their Kamen Rider forms...Glamador finds this strange. The superhero outfits look cheap and gaudy, but the normal ones look expensive and stylish.

There's something wrong with that scenario.


(Obviously a lot of that is personal taste, but it's a point of fact that the normal clothes look like they cost more than the rider suits.)

Anyone else actually prefer them out-of-suit?

 

[Scissors]

Most of the clothes that they were wearing in the shows were just normal 70's outfits with some modifications. I doubt that they were that expensive.
Also, they had to make a compromise between suit design and the comfort of the stuntmen.

The first Rider 1 suit was thick leather, which I have heard was not that comfortable during stunt scenes, so they started using a different material.

 

[vertighoul]

I like the old suits! They don't look bad to me.

 

[SamuraiEchidna]

I have actually noticed the civilian wear of the Heisei Riders more so, but I think that was intentional. Either way, I like the many styles I see.

 

[Glamador]

I like the old suits! They don't look bad to me.

Super-1, possibly the coolest of them all, had TASSELS on his gloves. Even if you like the look, you cannot deny that they are gaudy.

 

[Igadevil]

Nah, you totally can. It's a completely subjective topic. If you think something looks good, it looks good, regardless of age or how much money they spent on it, or what's considered 'in' at the moment (fashion is by its nature a very fleeting thing.) The original 10 classic Riders are all near the high end of my list for best Rider costumes. Super-1's probably the one I'd rank last, and I still love him. I just like the others more. They're great designs on paper and I like how they were realized onscreen.

And I like them not in spite of the low budget, but in part because of it. There's something awesome to me about the roughness of the original Rider costumes. They did so much with so little, crafting these amazing characters out of very simple materials that in a way elevates the materials of the costume beyond budget. They're memorable and easy for kids to draw, which is one of the most important things in a superhero design IMHO. Are they of their time? Of course, but so is everything. Rider designs in 30 years are not going to look like what they do now. I for one love that they've kept changing over the years and I enjoy the Heisei Riders, but there is something extra-special to me about those classic guys.

And the fringe on Super-1's gloves harkens back to Rider's western influences and his 'space cowboy' conceptualization. That's a perfectly justifiable reason for me why they'd include them. There's a number of words I'd used to describe Super-1, but gaudy isn't one.

 

[Burkion]

Preach it, Iga.

 

[Glamador]

Don't get yer knickers in a bunch. Glam just means it as a descriptive term.

gaud·y/ˈgôdē/Adjective:
Extravagantly bright or showy, typically so as to be tasteless

The tassles, the huge shoulder pads, X's flag scarf. These are gaudy things. I only mean to distinguish them from the 'plain clothes' which are not.

And for the record, Stronger, Ichigo, and Super-1 are totally awesome looks. Just...not as awesome as their regular duds. Especially Shigeru's. That dude's got fashion sense in spades.

 

[Igadevil]

No need to get upset! :laugh: All I did was express a difference of opinion. I don't know how you perceived anything in my post as an attack on you, but it wasn't meant that way. I simply disagree with the notion that they're gaudy because, well, I don't find that they are. 'Gaudy' for me would be reserved for something I dislike, since it implies tastelessness, not a word I associate with the classic Rider costumes.

I do like the Riders' civilian clothes a lot, but I don't find them objectively better or worse than the transformed states. Just different. Peace?

 

[Glamador]

This is beginning to feel like a Japanese office party. Apologizing everywhere. Glam took no offense, merely clarified his use of the word/term gaudy. Superfluous tassles and garish color choices (V3 says hello) are usually something that is described as such.