Gothic romance is everywhere—on runways, where designers are making couture for vampires, in homes with Medieval modern interiors trending, and, of course, in your Netflix queue, where projects like Frankenstein are leaning into the trappings of horror.
Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 classic novel starring Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, and Oscar Isaac drops November 7 on the streaming platform. Everything about the film—from Elordi’s full body makeup to the sweeping grounds of Gosford House—is richly layered, blending historical settings and steampunk fantasy for an aesthetic that’s equal parts beautiful and creepy. That goes doubly true of the fashion created by costume designer Kate Hawley.
Netflix
Mia Goth wears a red bonnet as Elizabeth in ‘Frankenstein.’
Goth, especially, gets the costume-drama treatment in her dual roles as Elizabeth, the love interest, and Clare, the mother of Frankenstein (the scientist, not the monster). “As both Clare and Elizabeth, Mia mirrors fleeting images of women—mother, madonna, angel, woman, bride, etc.,” Hawley tells InStyle. When dressed as the former, her looks reference the Romantic Period, with dramatic veils and transparent layers nodding to the fleeting nature of memory. For Elizabeth, the costume designer looked to scientific drawings of the 1850s: “Her palette is dominated by aniline greens, magentas, evoking their iridescence and those of anatomy to inform and allude to the patterns of beetle wings, cells, X-rays and the end papers of a Victorian book.”
Netflix
Mia Goth and Oscar Isaac star in ‘Frankenstein.’
All the costumes, including the majority of background actors and extras, were custom-made by Hawley’s team, with several of Goth’s pieces requiring intricate techniques and the work of countless artisans to achieve their desired effect. “There is a particular shawl Elizabeth wears in the film, based on a pelerine coat of the period,” says Hawley of the design she and her team are particularly proud of. “We created a design of fractal patterns that were evocative of insect wings.”
The team also tapped Tiffany & Co. for the film’s jewelry, working with Christopher Young, Vice President and Creative Director of Tiffany Patrimony and Global Creative Visual Merchandising at Tiffany & Co.
“Once [Young] had seen the world Guillermo was creating and some of my drawings and concepts, [he] basically opened up the Tiffany Archives to us,” explains Hawley. One such piece is an iridescent favrile beetle necklace made from the jewelry house’s signature glass techniques and designed by Meta Overbeck in 1914. “The favrile glass inspired the way we dyed and used our fabrics to create the iridescence of beetles,” adds the costume designer. Worn by Goth in her first scene as Elizabeth, the choker’s iridescent shades of blue and green perfectly complement her turquoise gown and feather headdress.
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A historic 40-carat diamond necklace from the Tiffany & Co archive appears in ‘Frankenstein.’
Another standout is the magnificent Wade Family necklace worn by Goth while playing the piano in a sparkling navy gown. With this scene, the garland-style design featuring 40.45 carats of European-cut diamonds makes its first public appearance in the modern era—the jewel was designed in 1900—and it’s film debut with Frankenstein. “The very moment it clasped perfectly around Mia Goth’s neck, we all felt a deep sense of a destiny fulfilled,” recalls Young.
Netflix
Mia Goth wears a ‘Frankenstein’ wedding dress and red crucifix in her final scenes.
According to Hawley, Goth’s final “bride of Frankenstein” look mirrors the bandages and exposed ribcage of “the creature.” She paired the look with brooches featuring the fictional Frankenstein family crests—created by Tiffany in sterling silver—which allude to “18th- and 19th-century Swiss Germanic traditional dress.” The character’s red crucifix piece (also custom-made for the film by Tiffany) is a symbolic nod to Frankenstein’s mother, who wears a sweeping crimson veil early in the film, and the director’s vision of a world laden with religious iconography.
One look, however, drew on more contemporary inspiration: Elizabeth’s completely sheer seafoam-green nightgown. “Guillermo wanted her style and silhouette very simple, showing her form,” says Hawley. “It was a nod more to the ‘60s horror trope, and luminous in that beautiful watery feeling set that Tamara Deverell [the film’s production designer] had created.” The resulting creation is a little Rosemary’s Baby, a little Sharon Tate, and immediately telegraphs the character’s vulnerability.
It’s also a welcome nod to the genre’s final girl trope—and Goth’s scream queen icon status. So, whether you’re a horror snob or a jewelry aficionado, trust that Frankenstein has enough fashion jump scares to keep any costume head seated.
Read the original article on InStyle