I’ve seen Captain America’s costume and this is what it looks like!

Some superhero costumes, like Iron Man, make fairly easy transitions to the world of movies. Others, like Captain America, prove to be a little more difficult. What works in the comics doesn’t always work well with an actor actually having to wear that costume. So I’ve been curious to see how they were going to adapt the Captain America suit for Chris Evans to resemble the original design but work within the WWII world that Joe Johnston is creating for the film. I got an exclusive look at one of the approved costume tests for CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER and while I can’t pass along anything here, I can describe to you what I saw.

Captain America will have two different costumes in the film, according to Johnston. He told the LA Times that he’ll have a costume designed by the Army for his initial USO appearances that’s slightly more flashy and a nod to the original design. As he gets called into active duty though, Steve Rogers (who hated the original suit design), creates a new costume that’s more battle-ready. This second costume is the one I saw and will the primary costume for the film.

The first thing I noticed is that the trademark wings that flank the side of Cap’s hood are gone. In fact the “hood” is gone entirely. In its place is a more traditional M1 Army helmet though this helmet does come over the eyes to give Cap a traditional “domino mask” look. Still present is the white “A” in the middle of the hat (nothing fancy, this is the traditional font), though like the rest of the costume, the blue of the helmet is much more muted than the blue in the comic costume. A thick black strap comes down over the ears and connects under the chin.

Cap is wearing a blue neck piece but from what I saw, it’s hard to tell if this is connected to something under the helmet or whether it’s something like a turtleneck (I’m gonna guess the latter).

The many looks of Captain America

On his chest still lies the white star though it’s not as prominent as the comic version. The costume is still split horizontally through the middle with blue on top and red and white stripes on the bottom. But instead of stripes, it’s actually just a white base with two red utility straps acting as stripes. These straps affix to a metal loop at the midpoint of the chest and a black strap extends up to the shoulders from that point.

His shoulders have pads over them that extend down to about mid-bicep and are attached via a brown strap under the arm. The sleeves (for lack of a better word) are white with a fairly standard brown glove.

The fabric of the costume doesn’t look like the scaled material of SPIDER-MAN but more of a leather fabric, like something you’d see on one of the X-MEN. Cap wears an old school utility belt, the likes of which we haven’t seen much in modern superhero movies. Utility belts were a staple of comic superheroes but haven’t made the transition but here Cap sports a rather thick belt made up of brown pockets with a silver buckle. (It actually looks something like the belt on this Captain America toy.)

As you might expect, there’s no codpiece to be found and Cap is wearing blue pants tucked into brown utility boots. The pants aren’t skin tight but they aren’t baggy either. And for those who are curious, the pants actually have a fly so Cap can take a leak if he needs to.

The suit actually has a practical WWII military look to it with some of the obvious Captain America flourishes that we would expect. It’s hard to really pass judgment on a costume until you see it properly lit, in motion and doing what it’s meant to do. But based on what I saw, I’m pretty impressed with how they were able to adapt the costume for the film.

As for the shield, it actually hews very closely to the classic design of red/white/red rings with the white star in a blue circle at the middle.