I started looking into the lands around ancient Greece, Scythia and Thrace. There were some countries, all in the same sort of area, which had women leaders, women rulers and – this was most interesting – women warriors, so we did a lot of research looking at their clothes.
We decided early on that the women would have as much of their bodies on view as the men would’ve in that same period – Greek men wore breast plates with their arms bare, with shin guards and helmets. There is hardly any reference to women’s armour through history, but it did exist and it did follow the form of the body, often made of leather with gold plates – looking at those artefacts was quite inspiring. We knew the legs were going to be exposed, so we didn’t want to have the breasts on view: why wear armour if so much of your body is vulnerable? We wanted to allude without revealing, not taking an underwear-as-outerwear path.
— Wonder Woman costume designer and Academy Award winner Lindy Hemming for Grazia, more detailed info here
