Supergirl’s Costume Requires Two Pairs of Tights, Spanx & a Corset
Before Melissa Benoist flies onto your TV screen on CBS’s Supergirl on Monday night, get to know the girl behind the cape. Playing Kara Zor-El, Superman’s cousin, the 27-year-old trades after school sessions singing on Glee for saving the world with her superpowers. The biggest difference between the two shows? “Two pairs of tights, Spanx, a harness, a corset,” she tells Glamour. “There’s some mild gymnastics involved just to go to the bathroom!”
Colleen Atwood, the costume designer behind nearly every superhero show including Arrow and Flash, made an undersuit that zipped up beneath the costume in order to hold the cape in place during tough stunts. The fabric is called Eurojersey and it has a four-way-stretch quality, in order to give Benoist breathing room and flexibility no matter the situation from stopping a plane crash to taking down bad guys. “I put tights on her because I wanted the leg to be shaded a little bit darker,” she told Vulture. “It looked better than just a bare, nude tone — Melissa’s legs are nice; she didn’t really need anything!”
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