Superheroes and comic books have long been studied for their influence on fashion. But it's not the capes and the masks that made Watchmen so fashion-relevant. Rather it's the showcasing of looks from the 1980s, which have been slowly but surely making a revival over the last year.

While there had been much talk of updating the setting for Watchmen, it soon became clear there was no way to tell this story of an alternate mid-80s world filled with masked heroes, nuclear dread (not to mention a Richard Nixon who, thanks to the repeal of term-limits, keeps getting re-elected) without the 1980s backdrop.

The film uses both music and clothes to make sure everyone knows exactly what time period it's set in, even if the political landscape of the film is a bleak, alternate universe fantasy. From leggings and sweatshirt dresses to big hair and bigger earrings and giant shoulder pads, Watchmen takes place in both a past era and a time that never quite was.

It's also a great showcase of how we can borrow fashion ideas from the 1980s and make them work for the 21st century.

What was one of the great lessons of the 1980s? Men can and should wear color. Okay, maybe that bright purple jacket that Adrian Veidt wears is more than a little over the top, but vibrantly colored ties and dress shirts are definitely in right now. Forget about white collar or blue colors and look to burgundies, purple, dark greens and more.

For women, you can create a great 1980s look and still skip the legwarmers. Think brightly colored leggings under dresses, brightly colored high heels and bold patterns. If you wear eye glasses, consider owning more than one pair so you can have frames in multiple colors. And while blues and pinks were overused in makeup in the 80s, a hint of vivid color in your eye make-up can be fun to play with for evening looks.

Speaking of evening, the 1980s were all about metallics, and they're making a resurgence now. Look for cocktail dresses in silver, gold or copper, but be careful of some of the weirder 1980s silhouettes, which might not necessarily flatter every figure.

Public Enemies, the upcoming new film from Michael Mann about the battle between law enforcement and legendary gangsters of the 1930s, John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd is sure to be full of amazing retro-styles that will only reinforce the current trend towards styles inspired by the 1920s and '30s.

While we've been seeing a resurgence of fashion from this era for about a year now, in what has largely seemed like a comment on the current financial climate, a movie this big and this gorgeous looking (the previews are available on-line and are not to be missed), will probably make the look go mainstream.

So what is the look you're looking for if Public Enemies gets your fashion appetite going?

Men should think pinstripes. Additionally, suit silhouettes are fairly narrow, so overly built up shoulders will not be as popular. Finally, trousers are a bit fuller than the mod-inspired super skinny look that has been popular in suits for the last several years. And of course, you'll need a hat.

For women, flapper fashion is the easy, but not exclusive answer. Think short, simple and fringe. But the 1920s had lots of other style elements going on too, including art nouveau-inspired prints, fitting dresses that can be considered the predecessors to modern shirt dresses, and longer evening wear combining sheer fabrics and drape.

Fashion in the 1920s and 30s was a struggle between structure and casualness. For women, that means fewer restrictive undergarments, and outfits with more natural silhouettes. And while men were definitely in the three piece suit, this was still a simplification over earlier forms of attire. Of course, many of these looks would seem sharply formal to us today; after all this was an era in which a tuxedo was worn for informal dining (white tie still being necessary for truly formal occasions).

This era of gangsters and turmoil is a great influence if you're looking to put some formality and structure back into your wardrobe while still showcasing a bit of personal flair.

Breakfast at Tiffany's is, of course, one of the most iconic films for fashion of all time. It brought us the little black dress and the conviction that anyone can pursue their dream of being a New York socialite no matter how unlikely and have an oddly great time in the process.

The story of the film's costumes, however, is one of legendary Hollywood revenge. Just like in Hepburn's earlier film Sabrina, Givenchy had been hired to design her gowns. After all, Hepburn was a former model of his, and he loved the idea of a rising star showing off his clothes. Givenchy became, of course, the creator of the little black dress for which Breakfast at Tiffany's is so famous.

Sabrina, however, had led to cruel results for Givenchy, when Edith Head, the costume designer who hadn't designed all of the costumes (or any of the real standout show pieces used in the Paris sequences) won an Oscar for Givenchy's work and never acknowledged his part in the film's look. The studio even helped her cover it up! So when it was time for Head and Givenchy to work on the same project again, Givenchy made a point to protect his interests. Head's credit line on the film wound up being merely "wardrobe supervisor," which was a huge demotion for her.

Don't feel too bad for Head though, not only did she win more Oscars than any other woman and garner an amazing thirty-four nominations in her career, she got her first costume design job in film using sketches she'd borrowed from someone else!

Luckily we can all borrow the idea of the little black dress from this classic film, and there's truly no better time than now, with the current resurgence of interest in late-50s and early 60s vintage looks thanks to the current crop of Hollywood period pieces, which should ensure that sophisticated simplicity is a major fashion statement for some time to come.

While The Golden Compass, based on the first of the books in Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, was not a huge box office hit and suffered from some negative reviews thanks to a critical detail left out of the ending, it was a gorgeously designed film and a spectacular showcase for costumes influenced both by the Art Deco period and the increasingly popular "steampunk" aesthetic.

With looks that range from the slinky evening gowns of a woman with political ambitions to the fur-lined parkas and goggles of adventurers, The Golden Compass does a magnificent job of showing up a full society in its wardrobe choices, including rich and poor, children and adults. It's a look that also makes us yearn for the past, while speculating about the future.

While steampunk wasn't a part of the mainstream lexicon at the point The Golden Compass was shot, it was an idea that sci-fi fans and culture buffs have been enamored with for some time. What would the Victorian era have looked like if it had high-tech, steam-based machinery, including airships? How would history have evolved from that point? Steampunk is a way of fusing technologies, real and imagined, with the elegance and formality of the past. It was a concept the film, which starts at an alternate universe version of Oxford University, latched onto brilliantly.

Despite some fantastic imagination and special effects, it seems unclear whether the other two films in the book trilogy will be made. With challenging and controversial themes about religion (the books are, in many ways, classifiable as fan-fiction based on Milton's Paradise Lost) and a rather adult narrative that is told through the lives of children, His Dark Materials was always an odd choice for a Hollywood film that was destined to alienate fans as some plot elements were watered down. But even if those fans didn't get the movie magic they hoped for, they still got to see a fantastic glimpse -- thanks to the costumes -- of the world Pullman created.

One of this year's leading Oscar contenders is The Curious Tale of Benjamin Button, a heart-wrenching story that spans 80 years. While the film's chronology is explicitly bracketed by 1918 and Hurricane Katrina, large swathes of the film rely on passing historical references, music and, of course, fashion, to help the audience get its bearings. Jacqueline West is the lead designer on the film, and some of her costume sketches and early test photos are available on the film's web site.

West's costumes don't just help the audience locate moments of the film in time; they help to delineate character by emphasizing class, age (a constantly shifting ground between body and mind in the narrative) and occupation. One key dress even had its vibrant red enhanced electronically after filming to make it the centerpiece of a highly charged moment of romance and desire.

While all of the film's period clothes are delightful, perhaps the most interesting work comes in the costumes worn by Benjamin and Daisy. West has not just had to reflect decades of fashion evolution but also the evolution of personal style. Body conscious clothes for the adult Daisy who retains the sensibilities of a dancer even once she can no longer perform is just one key example, while blue remains a dominant color in Benjamin's wardrobe even after he is no longer wearing the peacoat emblematic of his service aboard a tugboat drafted into WWII.

Where the movie's costume design really succeeds is in the degree to which is makes sure its clothes looked lived in as opposed to costume-like. It's easy to imagine pieces in various character wardrobes as a favorite sweater or a dress worn so much it is no longer retaining its shape quite right. Even a series of pajama and robe ensembles worn by Elizabeth, while looking expensive, also look slept it.

West could be a major contender for an Oscar for her costume design. While it's less showy than the ornate work of a film like The Duchess, the tasks it was charged with in the film are, in some ways, more challenging, especially when the modern eye understands most of the clothes shown on screen. Certainly, it's a fantastic study in the vocabulary of wardrobe.