Dressing the part: fashion, power, and female vampires
Women in horror don’t have a great track record. Just picture some of its most memorable women: Marion Crane in Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), Tina in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), or Laurie from the Halloween franchise. None have a great time of it.
But, while horror generally has a thing for making victims of women, there are some exceptions. Vampires are one of horror’s favourite characters and, interestingly, female vampires are some of the few, rare examples in the genre where women are actually in control, and even empowered, transcending both genre and gender stereotypes. Their secret power? Fashion.
Vampires are glamorous, sophisticated, cultured creatures. They love luxury and indulgence, and this is made most obvious through their clothing. As an extension of ourselves, clothing sends messages to the world about who we are, not only showing people how we see ourselves, but how we want others to see us, too. So, what does the clothing of female vampires show us?
First, let’s start with the original: Dracula. As the archetypal vampire and one of the most frequently reinvented characters in horror, Dracula is, in part, so memorable because of his truly remarkable clothing. Barbara Creed in The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis describes Dracula as “sensual, elegant and seductive”; while he’s associated with classic tropes like fangs, bats, and coffins, he’s also known for clothing that hints at sophistication and class. Think waistcoats, bowties, and floor-length capes in luxurious materials like satin, velvet, and leather. This monster is not like other monsters: it carefully crafts an image for itself using the power of clothing which, ultimately, allows it to manipulate, deceive, and seduce its victims.
But back to the women. Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) is one of the most famous renditions of the classic tale, memorable in particular for its incredible costumes. One of the most striking outfits is Lucy Westenra’s (Sadie Frost) wedding dress. A young, flirtatious Victorian socialite, she is unlike the typically repressed women of the period, exhibiting explicit sexuality and speaking openly and frankly about sex to the shock of others. The wedding gown she wears, once transformed, reflects this sense of liberation; lavish, decadent, and larger-than-life, it boasts an enormous lace ruff, long train, and exaggerated headpiece. Nothing is held back. Her friend Mina Murray (Winona Ryder) pales in comparison as a demure schoolteacher whose own wedding dress is modest, structured, and restrained. While Stoker’s novel emphasises Lucy’s sweetness and purity, Coppola’s film presents a woman unashamed of lust and desire and, despite showing next to no skin, her gown, as exuberant and unapologetic as its wearer, encapsulates this perfectly.
But there’s more to the story than lace collars and puffball sleeves. 1971’s cult classic Daughters of Darknessintroduced us to a completely different side of female vampires. This visually striking film is based on the true story of Countess Elizabeth Báthory, a prolific murderer who allegedly killed hundreds of young women and bathed in their blood, in addition to Sheridan le Fanu’s novel Carmilla, the classic tale of the lesbian vampire. Upon arrival at a hotel, the mysterious Countess Báthory (Delphine Seyrig) and her ‘secretary’/lover Ilona (Andrea Rau) become instantly enamoured with a pair of young newlyweds, resulting in an onslaught of bloodlust and murder.
In an interview for the BBC documentary Horror Europa, director Harry Kümel explained that Báthory and Ilona were deliberately styled after Marlene Dietrich and Louise Brooks respectively, era-defining women who famously utilised the power of fashion and, as open bisexuals, became pioneering figures of female sexual liberation. Báthory sports Dietrich’s platinum blonde hair and pencil-thin eyebrows and, while the usual tropes of fangs and the like are entirely absent, a typically vampiric colour palette persists through her cherry-red lipstick and opulent outfits of black fur, netting, and PVC. Ilona similarly embraces these colours, with 1960s-inspired minidresses, Go Go boots, and a sleek black bowl haircut. Their clothing is bold and assertive, a visual affirmation of their dominance and control within the story. As Dietrich and Brooks once did, Báthory and Ilona likewise use clothing to control how they’re perceived and thus too, the narrative.
Daughters of Darkness triggered a tidal wave of films inspired by Seyrig’s unforgettable performance. One of these was 1983’s The Hunger, which Creed says “deliberately set out to update the vampire movie”. Starring Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie, the casting alone already hints at the fashion in store. Miriam Blaylock (Deneuve) and her companion John (Bowie) are a stylish vampire couple who end up in a love triangle of sorts with a doctor called Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon), but the clothes speak louder than the plot here. And while Bowie boasts fashion icon status in his own right, it’s Deneuve who truly takes the lead. Miriam is the dominant one in the relationship. However, she also pursues a sexual relationship with Sarah before choosing to convert her into a vampire. Like Báthory, Miriam makes the choices. She exerts and exudes confidence and control, and this is reflected in her styling, from the striking platinum hair to the red lipstick and dominatrix-esque outfits of black silk, netting, and leather. From the very first scene it’s clear that Miriam, with sharp-pointed cat-eye sunglasses, studded gloves, and blade-shaped earrings, unlike most women in horror, is not in danger. She is the danger.
Despite female vampires coming to prominence in the films of the 1970s, they’ve remained a constant well into the 2010s. However, recently, they’ve received something of a makeover and, in 2013, Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive took the core traits of the female vampire and gave her an aesthetic upgrade. In earlier films, outfits had been exaggerated, fanciful, and almost theatrical, but Jarmusch conjures a version that’s simpler, refined, and chicer than ever.
The film focuses on another vampire couple, Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton) – and clearly there’s value in casting a lead actress who’s already a confirmed style icon. Eve appears the more in control of the two, with one of the main plot lines involving her trying to prevent a suicidal Adam from taking his own life. Typically for vampires, Eve is also educated and cultured; we see her in her bedroom surrounded by books and, throughout the film, she indulges in art, music, and literature. But, unlike her predecessors, Eve’s style transcends time periods. Costume designer Bina Daigeler accomplished this by dressing Swinton in simple ensembles of luxurious white leather to match her alabaster hair and skin, embroidered pyjamas and ethereal caftans that hint at no particular era. In an interview with The Cut, Daigeler explained that the simplicity was a result of the fact that, “They’d already lived all the fantasies they could live.” Having lived through multiple centuries, Eve has seen all manner of styles and trends come and go but, by now eschewing any clear sign of time through her clothing, she becomes even more in control of her own narrative.
However, what Eve does share with her predecessors is the knowledge that fashion is a weapon to be wielded to one’s advantage. Female vampires truly disrupt the natural order of horror and it’s no coincidence that we see them all use clothing to achieve such a feat. The result: finally, women control the narrative and choose horror’s victims.
Robyn Schaffer is a London-based journalist and writer. She recently completed her MA in Magazine Journalism at City, University of London and writes mainly (but not exclusively) on fashion, lifestyle, and culture. You can find her on Twitter @robyn_schaffer
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