Overview

Researched and presented by Rachel Liebowitz. This project was completed for the Comics and the Archive class during the Spring 2024 semester. 

The focus for this exhibit is on the Archie series of comics, particularly the fashion that the character cast (in this, Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge) wear throughout the various stories, covers, and overall issues. 

The clothing that the characters war, while conceptualized originally in some cases (such as the more elaborate formalwear), are in fact reflections of real fashion that people would wear during the time periods the comics were published in. This project sought to look through the Archie comics from the 1940s to the 1990s, noting certain instances of clothing styles characters wear and making real-world connections to actual articles that were popular. 

Archie has always been a staple of teen comics and is still popular to this day, and with all of its other real-time cultural references, it is just as important to look into the cultural significance of fashion in each decade and how that affected the comics and the designs of characters as a whole.

Initially, this project was going to cover the entirety of the cast, but ended up being narrowed down due to a multitude of factors, including that some characters (i.e., Cheryl Blossom) don't make their on-page debut until later, and the male members of the cast do not display the fashion variation as much as others. Jughead Jones, especially, does not change design throughout the decades. 

This resulted in this exhibit focusing solely on the characters of Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge, the most prevalent female members of the cast from day one. 

The exhibit does not span past 1999, due to the stagnation of fashion in the series and the advent of modern Archie and Riverdale in the 2010s, which utilized a different concept and style than the original lines of comics.