“GLOW,” a 10-episode comedy created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, is a heavily fictionalized account of the creation of the “Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling,” a distaff answer to the World Wrestling Federation that ran on television in the ’80s. I can remember being a kid and watching that earlier series after the cartoons ran out, bored by the phony athleticism and phonier comedy sketches, but fascinated by the hair spray and the makeup, the skintight cheerleader outfits and the scrunched-down socks.

“GLOW” culminates in a televised bout, and the pleasure of the to-the-brow eye shadow and belted lamé is overpowering. But by that point the women have already turned themselves into TV-friendly caricatures — Liberty Belle, Welfare Queen, Fortune Cookie. So I have a soft spot for the costumes in the initial episodes, when the wrestling women aren’t yet playing their in-the-ring roles. If most of them are dressing for comfort, they’re also telegraphing how they’d like to be seen — Ruth’s serious blues, Arthie’s soft pinks — before they realize that the camera won’t want their real selves, Sheila’s pelt excepted. (That some of the women find their wrestling characters empowering while others don’t is one of the more interesting complications of the series.)

Ms. Morgan has said that she took inspiration from J.C. Penney catalogs and a couple of ’80s movies, including “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” The costumes are fairly true to the era, skating on the sunny side of parody. And with the leotards cut high on the thigh and the velour shorts riding low on the hips, these outfits are sexy, too. But not so sexy that they can’t survive an airplane swing or a double-leg takedown. Can Lululemon say that?