Costume worn by Christopher Reeve in Superman: The Quest for Peace (1987), designed by John Bloomfield, based on an original design by Yvonne Blake.

Blake designed the original Superman: The Movie (1978) and the sequel Superman II (1980) which established the super-hero film genre. The costume for Superman was one of the first Lyrca designs to be seen in a film. The lycra was created in Austria and the costumes made at Bermans in London. Mutiple suits were created for the films: for flying, close-ups and action sequences.

The British Film Institute (BFI) acquired its costume collection for display at the Museum of the Moving Image, which existed on the South Bank in London between 1988 and 1999. The collection is made up of British, European, American and Japanese films and covers the period from the silent film era to the mid-1990s. It contains a wealth of historic and significant film costumes worn by major performers and designed by some of the 20th century’s most important film costume designers. The collection was transferred to the V&A in 2015.