While recent Disney+ Marvel series like WandaVision and Loki featured larger-than-life characters with incredibly flashy costumes, the characters at the heart of Hawkeye were shown to possess much more realistic fashion tastes. The series' co-lead character, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), was a realistic portrayal of a typical young New Yorker in many ways, but her outfits might have been the most accurate part of all.
As a wealthy twentysomething New Yorker, Kate would logically have had access to the latest fashion trends and designer lines. But time and again, Kate showed that she had much simpler tastes, but that she also knew how to cultivate her own distinct style and brand along the way with key pieces and color schemes.
Her Aunt's Silks And Furs
It was one of Kate's more unconventional outfits, primarily because it was one of the only outfits not from her own wardrobe. While briefly taking refuge in her aunt's apartment, Kate helped herself to some of her aunt's clothing - which included some elegant and very un-Kate-like silks and furs.
It's hard to imagine any other scenario that would have resulted in Kate wearing something like this, other than an absolute necessity. But that doesn't change the fact that this was still a look that Kate completely pulled off, especially when paired with her hair down.
The Maroon Sweatshirt (And Pizza)
A consistent part of Kate's wardrobe across the season was the decision to strategically introduce various shades of purple in her everyday attire. Purple, of course, eventually became the signature colors for both Clint's Hawkeye and Kate's Hawkeye, so this made for a great reference point for tracking Kate's progress to becoming Hawkeye.
An early episode finds a bruised Kate relaxing all bundled up in an especially cozy-looking deep maroon sweatshirt. With her hair pulled back away from her injured face, she unconventionally completed the outfit with a box of frozen pizza as she tended to her wounds.
Her Barton Family Christmas Outfit
The final episode of Hawkeye's 1st season proved an especially challenging one for Kate, given all that she learned about her mother and how it permanently changed her life. But by the episode's end, she found herself taken in as an honorary member of the Barton family - just in time to join their Christmas celebration, too.
When Kate arrived with Clint on the Barton family farm, she did so while wearing yet another especially cozy winter outfit, featuring a black shirt and a stylish red and black plaid fuzzy jacket.
The Purple Ribbed Sweater
As already mentioned, purple was one of the real staples of Kate's wardrobe. Even as she prioritized comfort and practicality above all else, Kate never shied away from including this familiar pop of color, even as far back as the series' first episode.
In an early scene between Kate and her mother Eleanor, Kate wore this incredibly flattering purple ribbed sweater shirt. Not only did it fit her perfectly, it also was well-suited to the chilly winter environment and the continued incorporation of the significant hue in her journey.
Black And Grey Plaid Coat
There were few pieces that Kate wore more than once across Hawkeye's six episodes, but arguably the best of them all was her black and grey plaid trenchcoat. In addition to helping keep Kate warm in the frigid New York winter, it also helped her cut the image of a real strong and streetwise hero.
Kate may have made many questionable decisions in Hawkeye, but the same could not be said for her commitment to wearing clothes that fit her desired aesthetic and comfort, no matter the scenario.
The Mock Neck Dress
Yet even though Kate almost always wore leisurewear and streetwear due to the gritty adventures she and Clint got caught up in, that didn't mean that Kate was incapable of wearing something a little flashier and more feminine, too.
Although she rebuffed her mother's attempt to get her to wear a dress in the first episode, in the season finale, Kate attended a holiday party in a stunning black mock neck dress. It was incredibly form-fitted and flattering, paired with a gorgeous hairstyle, and even managed to conceal her brand new MCU superhero costume underneath.
The Laika The Space Dog Shirt
Some of the best moments - and outfits - in Hawkeye's 1st season were ones that were taken directly from the comics themselves. Kate's t-shirt referencing Laika the space dog is one of the best examples of that faithfulness to the source material of the 2012 comics run of Hawkeye.
Beyond being a great tribute to the work that made this series possible, and also being an undeniably cute part of Kate's wardrobe, the shirt also served as a fun way of connecting key pieces of the series, from Lucky the Pizza Dog to the Tracksuit Mafia.
Her Ugly Christmas Sweater
As an unconventional Christmas series, it was really only a matter of time before Hawkeye introduced pieces of Christmas fashion into its characters' wardrobes. The obvious choice, of course, was the ubiquitous ugly sweater that has become quite the pop culture phenomenon in recent years.
Both Clint and Kate sported their own ugly Christmas sweaters in the series, but Kate's - featuring a large snowflake, and a dog wearing a crooked Santa hat - was easily the most scene-stealing fashion item.
Kate's Street Fashion
Hawkeye reminded many viewers of the Netflix Marvel series rather than the Disney+ Marvel series for many reasons, but the series' commitment to a real-world, grittier, New York vibe was easily one of the biggest reasons. As a result, the characters' outfits never feel completely unrealistic, and Kate's love of street-savvy fashion was further proof of that.
For most of the series, Kate wore wide-cut jeans, thick black boots, simple white or black t-shirts, and a long trenchcoat. She never focused too long on her day-to-day style choices, because she had much more important things to focus on. That might be the most realistic character choice in the MCU in a long time.
Her First Hero's Uniform
Even though Kate was a much more grounded character than most, given the fact that she merely watched the Avengers from the sidelines for most of her life, it was inevitable that she would get her much-deserved superhero costume sooner rather than later.
Thankfully, the purple and black archer's outfit did not disappoint. While Clint's costumes have generally been poorly received all throughout the MCU, the first uniform for Kate's Hawkeye was a much stronger showing and one that shows great promise for her character's growth in the future.