Superhero costumes for TV and film used to be pretty cringe-worthy. Lately, however, super outfits are looking much better. Costume designers are learning new tricks, and using better technology, but there has also been a change in attitude. They are now constantly going back to the source material and incorporating that knowledge into the practice of designing with real materials on real bodies.

Producer Eric Molinsky spoke with costume designers Michael Wilkinson (Watchmen, Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman), Sammy Sheldon Differ (X-Men: First Class, Ant-Man) and James Acheson (Spider-Man trilogy) about the evolution of superhero costume design. Imaginary Worlds is a bi-weekly podcast about sci-fi and other fantasy genres, how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief.