Zentai

A ''zentai'' suit () is a skin-tight garment that covers the entire body. The word is a portmanteau of ''zenshin taitsu'' ( ja, 全身タイツ, , full-body tights). ''Zentai'' is most commonly made using nylon/spandex blends.

Use

The costumes are seen at major sporting events in North America and the United Kingdom. They created internationally recognized personalities out of The Green Men, two fans of the Vancouver Canucks NHL team. Various professional street dance/hip hop dance groups use the outfits, such as The Body Poets in the United States, and Remix Monkeys in the United Kingdom.

Full-body suits are used for video special effects: the original colors offered enables the person wearing the chroma key suit to be lifted easily from a video image. Other applications have included music videos (Black Eyed Peas' song "Boom Boom Pow", including the live performance at the Super Bowl), breast cancer awareness, fashion modeling on an episode of ''America's Next Top Model'', social anxiety workshops, television ( Charlie Kelly as Green Man), a participant in public art project "One & Other", and social experiments.

File:Remix Monkeys Dance Clan group pose.jpg, alt=People wearing vibrant zentai suits with matching T-shirts and caps posing in a white room, UK-based Remix Monkeys is a dance troupe that uses Morphsuits in their street dance routines
File:Morphsuit in downtown Toronto 02.jpg, alt=People in coloured zentai suits with text and logos, Two brand ambassadors for the Toronto Transit Commission, with a sports fan
File:Female mannequin recoloured with a zentai facing its own shadowy reflection and the lit ones of its companions against the dark night behind the shopping window DSC6241.jpg, alt=red zentai wearing mannequins in a shop display, Red suits used to recolour mannequins to signal the winter sale

Legal limitations

Since ''zentai'' cover one's face, a fine of up to €150 may be issued to those who wear them publicly in France. Furthermore, some sports leagues, such as Major League Baseball, ban the use of the costume hoods.

Brands

Companies have created brands of the suits including ''RootSuit'' or ''Superfan Suit'' in the United States, ''Bodysocks'' or ''Second Skins'' by Smiffy's and Morphsuits in the United Kingdom, and Jyhmiskin in Finland. Morphsuits has achieved relative commercial success internationally. Between January and late October 2010, the company shipped 10,000 to Canada alone. The Morphsuits brand has actively tried to disassociate themselves from the existing ''zentai'' community. Superfan Suits acknowledges in interviews that the outfits have existed previously. The term "morphsuit" has become a generic term in the process; one New Zealand-based newspaper refers to competing brand Jaskins as "one of the main online morphsuit brands." Jaskins company founder Josh Gaskin says their origins are unclear, pegging the first usage with ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia''.

See also

* Bodystocking
* Black light theatre, which can use all-black zentai attire for its performances
* Catsuit
* Cosplay
* Dancewear
* '' Kigurumi''
* Spandex fetishism
* Morphsuits

Notable users of Zentai
* Pink Guy, musical artist
* Jonathan Bree, musical artist
* The Great Morgani, performance artist
* Pandemonia, performance artist

References

Further reading

* Will Doig,
Men Who Love Lycra
, ''The Daily Beast'', 3 March 2010.

External links

{{Commons category

Costume design
Fetish clothing
Minimalist clothing
One-piece suits