Even though ‘Wuthering Heights’ hasn’t reached British cinemas yet (it’s opening on Friday, 13th February), Emerald Fennell’s take on the Brontë literary classic has already created a massive buzz. Partially thanks to the masterful press tour that has followed Margot Robbie’s method dressing transformation into a sexy goth, but also due to the looseness of Fennell’s adaptation of the novel. The filmmaker and her team took classic elements of Victorian Gothic style, usually associated with the story, and embellished them with Georgian, Elizabethan, and even contemporary elements. The costume design, imagined by Oscar-winning Jacqueline Durran, definitely fits into the idea of imagination and creativity that some purists might find offensive. But when the film director explained that the film is in fact a “fever dream” homage to her personal interpretation of the novel she first read as a teenager, the extreme exuberance suddenly made sense.
Courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures
Following this approach of clueless creativity, the film’s costumes are a mash-up of different eras and geographical influences, executed perfectly for the TikTok generation, who are ready to transform themselves into their own version of Margot Robbie’s Cathy. The hero characters and their wardrobes are filled with Easter eggs that are eye-catching and referential to contemporary designers like Mugler and Alexander McQueen, though Durran insists she didn’t want any of these elements shown explicitly. It’s the kind of total world-building that makes the film an immersive experience, one you might want to incorporate in your everyday life.
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