01x09 - Samhita Mukhopadhyay & History of Costumes

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writers and artists tend to get most of

the glory

but editors are a vital part of the

storytelling process

a good editor generates ideas critiques

work to make it stronger

and shapes stories to make them as

compelling as humanly possible

when i was editor-in-chief my mission

was to keep building the marvel universe

into a diverse tapestry

that reflects the world outside our

windows

executive editor samina mukabadai is

doing very much the same thing at teen

vogue

her fresh voice informs the magazine's

inclusive conversations

and nuanced accounts of the tumultuous

times we live in

i'm a fan of samina's work so i wanted

to pick her brain

one editor to another i'm joe quesada

i tell stories for a living welcome to

marvel's storyboards

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[Applause]

today i'm in chelsea at the museum at

fit hanging with samida to talk about

fashion

expression and how to keep telling

relevant stories in a rapidly changing

world

thank you maybe i'll even find

inspiration for our next daredevil

costume

so your dad's something right out of a

comic book yeah absolutely

so teamville has gone through some

radical changes and you've been a big

part of that right my background really

is in digital news this new generation

coming up teens are really navigating

being interested in fashion being

interested in beauty

but also caring about politics and

caring about the policies that impact

their lives

you're also known as a writer did you

ever see fashion as something that was

going to be an important part of your

career

i didn't see that coming no my second

book is about

the election it's called nasty women and

so my writing has kind of always been

focused on

politics and feminism and you know being

a journalist in those spaces

part of why i wanted to come here today

is i am really fascinated by the history

of fashion and

i think that can be a source of

empowerment i do see this kind of

current

between fashion and art and expression

but also politics and culture and i've

always been interested in that

it is an interesting cross section it

really is

when you create a character how do you

think about a character's costume like

how do you think about how you're going

to address them

well i can't speak for everybody else

but for for myself it's who is the

character

more importantly who's the alter ego

what are their powers

and then what's going to look cool yeah

at the end of the day

we're definitely treading into the 60s

and 70s oh no 86.

we're the shoulder pads what do you

consider

a classic era in fashion like for you i

think for my personal style

you know what's kind of influenced me

the most is the glamour of the 70s

my mom moved here in the early 1970s

from india and she was like a very

glamorous like she had

hair like cher and she always had bell

bottoms on i grew up playing in her

closet

and that's when i think of like a chic

modern woman i think of a woman

in like some great 70s clothing and like

a good blowout

it's feminine but it's still like a

strong woman

i'm an 80s kid and i was a musician to

boot in the 80s so

you can imagine i had the most glorious

mullet oh i believe it

but they should never ever ever come

back

if you look at the history of comics and

how costumes have changed over the years

they're

so reflective of the era you know

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look at this thing from 1968. how mod is

that that is mod yeah

what have been some of the changes over

the years are clothes like would you say

that characters i mean it seems like

they've gotten more defined

their bodies have gotten larger it's all

an idealization

but there was definitely an

over-sexualization of female characters

that happened during the course of a

large span of comics history that's

changed a lot because they've taken on a

more real-world approach

so if it's a character that's going to

go into battle they're wearing a costume

that is

akin to somebody who's going to battle

we've have

so many great female characters that

lead teams like the x-men captain marvel

of course kamala khan who's miss marvel

character called dusk the first ever

muslim woman comic book character

it's clear walking through here all

these designers are telling a story

you know the story of their times their

ears the story of their lives how do you

view fashion from a storytelling

standpoint i think of fashion as a story

it's a story that you tell about

yourself

a set of decisions that you make and how

you're going to express yourself in the

world

and i think that translates to how we

tell stories so

how does fashion impact how you tell the

story of a superhero

in the case of peter parker well the

spider-man costume is psychotic but what

peter parker wears

peter parker is really really important

because he's a sort of lower middle

class kid

always struggling to pay the rent to

help his aunt may so we try to at least

give his alter ego

that that kind of look

writer blogger feature executive editor

did a lot of things you maintain a

storyteller all the way through

tell me about yourself as a storyteller

moment i realized that

there was more to writing than

just putting sentences together it's

about the experience it's the feeling

that it evokes for somebody

and we have the possibility and the

potential to kind of really open

people's eyes to have them feel

empowered and have them feel a greater

sense of connection

and to me that is ultimately that's what

i see my

kind of life's work when did you know

you're good at it i still don't even

know if i'm good at it right that's

actually a good answer

and i started writing probably in the

late 90s early 2000s

i just got obsessed with it something

would happen that felt transformational

when i would sit down and write

something

there was nothing you could do to stop

me from doing it that's what corrado is

it's a great spot

i hear that around the offices they call

you auntie

is that true how did you get that oh i

have

uh i have spies

yeah you really do they do call me

auntie

around the office do you find that in

gearing do you like i do i do

yeah at first i was like stop calling me

old but i actually do embrace it

a fundamental part of my work has been

about bringing in these

diversity of voices and we want a

newsroom that kind of reflects the

america that we're reporting on and that

we're living in how does that

manifest itself it's in the story

selection we

you know the interviews that we decide

to have the kind of celebrities we

choose to profile

i don't see this as diversity i see it

as inclusion we're interested in good

stories

and some of those good some of the best

stories have diversity in them they are

inclusive

and we are not just going to focus on

that but that's an important part of

what we're thinking about

marvel has been on the front lines of

really having diverse characters and and

inclusive characters and you know

there's probably been some pushback and

criticism but what has been

the positive response to these

characters well the positive of course

has been new readership many many more

women coming in to reading comics

marvel has made a legacy out of

reflecting the world outside our window

our stories take place

in new york in los angeles in the real

world so for us not to reflect the world

outside our window

it will be completely disingenuous and

when we don't do that

it clearly reflects on how fans react

what excites you

about team vogue today where team vogue

is going

the youth are so inspiring having the

opportunity to see the world from their

eyes and feel

the possibility we had the opportunity

last year

you know we put emma gonzalez on the

cover her and a group of students

came together and really changed the

public conversation on g*n violence

amazing

amazing they are resonating with an

entire generation

that's fed up i think gen z is

criticized for being on their phones and

for

you know this and that well guess what

they're reading on those phones and

they're

communicating with each other and

they're frustrated and you know they're

dealing with the same existential angst

that we dealt with as teenagers just

having the opportunity to kind of see

the world through their eyes does give

me hope for generations to come

i feel very grateful to have the

opportunity to kind of shape those

voices

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what do you want the next chapter to be

in your story i'm really interested in

the next phase of digital media the one

thing that's not going to change is

people's cravings for stories that they

connect to but i think the basics of

storytelling

are fundamental and those transcend

platform

tina thank you so much and generously

your time in your story it's been truly

inspirational oh thank you joe you are

such an inspiration yourself

so it's an honor to say that's my show

a day downtown with semeda reminded me

that each of our stories

is still being written

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but the more people you include in your

story the better off it is

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[Applause]

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so

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you