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Description

Let's kick off my series of X-Men redesigns with one of the greatest leaders of the team,

Ororo Munroe -- STORM!

(Edited 12/4/23 - added classic red jewel & altered background color to match upcoming slew of X-redesigns; reworded/reordered the commentary on each design aspect)

The main point of this series isn't to reinvent the wheel, but to distill each character down to a design that I believe captures their core essence by combining all or as many of their iconic looks as possible, diversifying the silhouettes and overall designs by incorporating aspects unique and inherent to them as a character, and adding cohesion by incorporating some sort of X motif beyond the usual X-buckle, chest logo, or shoulder patch we so often see. While you can design any number of outfits that "work" from random individual designs to fully uniformed teams, I felt that for the X-Men in particular reflecting each person's uniqueness and inherent beauty just makes sense.

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For Storm specifically, I had to somehow combine two wildly divergent personalities/aesthetics: the goddess and the badass punk. Let's go top to bottom!

ICONIC COLORS: Black (& White*) and Gold. While Storm's outfits are almost universally black with a dash of gold, the immensely iconic 90s Jim Lee design is bright white. Kris Anka's redesign in my opinion had the right idea of combining both color schemes.

PUNK MOHAWK: By far the most unique and visually striking hairstyle she's ever had. All I did was give it a natural texture and added some hair shaved into lightning bolts on either side of the mohawk.

CLASSIC HEADDRESS: Since I'm almost always Team Headdress, the original Cockrum headdress was always going to be thrown into the mix.

NOSE RING + EAR PIERCINGS: Adds more punk flair; matches ring motif from headdress.

BODY TYPE: Curvy/Athletic; she's a 'goddess' so a more voluptuous form makes sense, but she's also a street urchin that grew up on the streets of Cairo as a pickpocket and was depowered for a long time while leading the X-Men hence, a somewhat athletic build too.

ELEGANT VEST + CLASSIC CAPE: Evokes punk vest with added elegance. The main X-motif consists of a pair of crossed lightning bolts that also evoke both the punk choker and original cape top. The back features an X logo based on the anarchy symbol to inject more of a punk flair; it also drops down into the cape.

KENYAN ROSE: Ororo is from Kenya, which is a big global supplier of roses. I felt this lined up nicely with her love of plants and gardening. I originally had her only holding the rose but at the last minute decided to see what it looked like if the rose replaced the red medallion -- and boy am I glad I did since I feel like it is more intimately her compared to the gem.

GARTER SHORTS + CLASSIC THIGH HIGH BOOTS: The shorts are connected to the top by the mid-torso ring, like the original costume, and are in turn connected to the classic-inspired boots via a garteresque design. The heels resemble lightning bolts especially when floating.

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Visit www.artstation.com/artwork/LeE… to view several more variants including one based on actress Yetide Badaki

Description

Let's kick off my series of X-Men redesigns with one of the greatest leaders of the team,

Ororo Munroe -- STORM!

(Edited 12/4/23 - added classic red jewel & altered background color to match upcoming slew of X-redesigns; reworded/reordered the commentary on each design aspect)

The main point of this series isn't to reinvent the wheel, but to distill each character down to a design that I believe captures their core essence by combining all or as many of their iconic looks as possible, diversifying the silhouettes and overall designs by incorporating aspects unique and inherent to them as a character, and adding cohesion by incorporating some sort of X motif beyond the usual X-buckle, chest logo, or shoulder patch we so often see. While you can design any number of outfits that "work" from random individual designs to fully uniformed teams, I felt that for the X-Men in particular reflecting each person's uniqueness and inherent beauty just makes sense.

---

For Storm specifically, I had to somehow combine two wildly divergent personalities/aesthetics: the goddess and the badass punk. Let's go top to bottom!

ICONIC COLORS: Black (& White*) and Gold. While Storm's outfits are almost universally black with a dash of gold, the immensely iconic 90s Jim Lee design is bright white. Kris Anka's redesign in my opinion had the right idea of combining both color schemes.

PUNK MOHAWK: By far the most unique and visually striking hairstyle she's ever had. All I did was give it a natural texture and added some hair shaved into lightning bolts on either side of the mohawk.

CLASSIC HEADDRESS: Since I'm almost always Team Headdress, the original Cockrum headdress was always going to be thrown into the mix.

NOSE RING + EAR PIERCINGS: Adds more punk flair; matches ring motif from headdress.

BODY TYPE: Curvy/Athletic; she's a 'goddess' so a more voluptuous form makes sense, but she's also a street urchin that grew up on the streets of Cairo as a pickpocket and was depowered for a long time while leading the X-Men hence, a somewhat athletic build too.

ELEGANT VEST + CLASSIC CAPE: Evokes punk vest with added elegance. The main X-motif consists of a pair of crossed lightning bolts that also evoke both the punk choker and original cape top. The back features an X logo based on the anarchy symbol to inject more of a punk flair; it also drops down into the cape.

KENYAN ROSE: Ororo is from Kenya, which is a big global supplier of roses. I felt this lined up nicely with her love of plants and gardening. I originally had her only holding the rose but at the last minute decided to see what it looked like if the rose replaced the red medallion -- and boy am I glad I did since I feel like it is more intimately her compared to the gem.

GARTER SHORTS + CLASSIC THIGH HIGH BOOTS: The shorts are connected to the top by the mid-torso ring, like the original costume, and are in turn connected to the classic-inspired boots via a garteresque design. The heels resemble lightning bolts especially when floating.

---

Visit www.artstation.com/artwork/LeE… to view several more variants including one based on actress Yetide Badaki