Wasp Fact — November 5, 2026

Today's Fact

Other heroes get a costume. Janet van Dyne got a wardrobe, a design studio, and a second career — all while chairing the Avengers.

THE WASP HAS DESIGNED OVER 100 COSTUMES FOR HERSELF — AND TURNED FASHION INTO HER SECOND CAREER!

The Featured Fact

Janet van Dyne is the only founding Avenger whose superpower came with a sewing kit. Across her publishing history the Wasp has worn more than 100 different costumes, nearly all of them designed and made by Janet herself — a running joke that artist George Pérez leaned into during his 1970s Avengers run, until the constant redesigns became a core part of her character.

It was never just vanity. Janet trained as a professional fashion designer, graduated from design school, and ran her own design business alongside her Avengers duties — supporting herself with her work rather than simply living off the Van Dyne fortune she inherited at twenty-three.

Her client list was the team itself. Janet designed clothes for her colleagues, including She-Hulk and Hank Pym, and earned genuine respect inside the fashion industry — the socialite the early comics treated as decoration quietly became the Avengers’ in-house designer, financier of her own life, and eventually its chairwoman.

Why It's Obscure

Plenty of heroes have a signature look. Janet’s signature is that she refuses to keep one — and Marvel eventually admitted the habit was a profession, not a gag.

The count

Triple digits — over 100 self-designed Wasp costumes across the decades, sometimes more than one inside a single issue.

The training

Design school graduate — Janet’s eye was credentialed, not inherited; she built a working career while leading Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

The clients

Dressing the roster — her design work extended to teammates like She-Hulk and Hank Pym, making her the Avengers’ unofficial outfitter.

The joke that stuck

Pérez’s wink — George Pérez noticed the endless costume changes and deliberately amplified them until they defined her.

Gallery

Three of Janet’s own designs — proof the wardrobe is the point — plus She-Hulk, one of the colleagues Janet dressed.

Wasp Janet van Dyne in red and black costume with wings firing her sting comic art — **Design one: red and black**Janet in a red-and-black suit of her own making, wings out and sting blazing — one entry in a catalogue of over a hundred.

Wasp Janet van Dyne in orange and black costume comic art — **Design two: burnt orange**A later Janet original in orange and black; the silhouette stays hers even when every colour and cut changes.

Wasp Janet van Dyne in yellow and black costume with cowl firing bio-electric sting comic art — **Design three: the cowl**The yellow-and-black cowled look — same designer, same hero, completely different drawing on the page.

She-Hulk Jennifer Walters comic art — **The client**She-Hulk, one of the Avengers Janet designed clothes for — tailoring for a seven-foot gamma lawyer is its own superpower.

Sources

Every fact on this page was checked against at least two independent sources before publication.

Bullpen Bulletins

Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) In Comics — Marvel.com Marvel’s official profile covers Janet’s design career and the business she ran alongside her Avengers service.
The Evolution of Janet Van Dyne — Nerdist Nerdist tallies the 100-plus self-designed costumes and Janet’s turn into a professional fashion designer.