Look of the Week: Margot Robbie goes high-fashion Victorian for ‘Wuthering Heights’ press tour
By Leah Dolan, CNN
(CNN) — Since the first trailer dropped, outrage has surrounded the theatrical costuming of Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights.” But for any historical fanatics feeling short-changed, Margot Robbie and her stylist Andrew Mukamal offer a small consolation: by going period on the red carpet. Kind of.
It must be understood that historical references to this team are like prompts on an online dating profile — not under any circumstances to be taken seriously, but a fun jumping off point. We’ve seen bustles (a silhouette that was more popular during Emily Brontë’s lifetime than her fictional character Cathy’s, who lived some 50 years earlier, but who’s counting), corsets, black lace and chokers galore. Take, for example, the Roberto Cavalli dress Robbie wore to kick off the film’s promotion last month. The square neckline? Tudor England. The Fausto Puglisi necklace with a ruby pendant? Inspired by 18th century paintings. The mini-skirt hemline? Positively ‘60s.
Anyone looking for accuracy here will probably have more fun revisiting the 2023 “Barbie” press tour, where Robbie and Mukamal painstakingly recreated outfits worn by Mattel dolls over the years. But for those interested in fashion history, these red carpet looks are key texts just asking to be pored over. (Both “Barbie” and “Wuthering Heights” are distributed by Warner Bros., which is owned by CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.)
Most notable is the boned corset dress Robbie wore last night at the film’s London premiere, designed by Turkish-British designer Dilara Findikoglu. According to the brand, the translucent slip was made with Victorian lace — but it also harked back to the period in an unexpected way. The dress was accented by braided synthetic hair, hand-dyed to the same dishwater blonde color that belonged to Brontë sisters Anne and Emily. The inspiration for the rope-like tresses came from a classic piece of Victorian mourning jewelry — jewellery made of braided hair from the deceased. On Robbie’s left wrist was a replica of a bracelet Charlotte Brontë had made after Emily and Anne died. It may sound morbid (after all it is Victorian) but this type of sartorial memento mori made the concept of mortality real, and in turn, helped celebrate life.
Earlier this week at a photo call in London, Robbie also dipped her toe into the late 1700s by way of a John Galliano brocade frock coat styled with a black mini skirt, thigh-high scarlet red stockings and satin Manolo Blahnik pumps.
The archival fur-trimmed jacket, which Robbie wore in lieu of a top thanks to a ladder of hook-and-eye fastenings, was part of Galliano’s seminal Spring-Summer 1992 collection. While it was made in the ‘90s, the collection (which showed slip dresses, shirts with undulating ruffles, and jacquard silk jackets constructed to look permanently burst-open) was inspired by the romance between Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine. The French rulers lived from the late 1760s until the early 1800s — roughly the same time period in which Brontë chose to set “Wuthering Heights.”
Mukamal has been doing close readings of the Brontë novel, too. On his Instagram account, the stylist has not only been documenting his work with Robbie, but including quotes from the book to illustrate his thinking. In January, Mukamal also dressed Robbie in two feathered Victoria Beckham looks — a white mini dress and a black vest. In his Instagram caption, he quoted a passage in which Cathy, deranged from an ongoing illness, tears her pillows apart and plays with the down that spills out. When Robbie stepped out in a full red snakeskin corset, jacket and mini skirt from Dilara Findikoglu, Mukamal let an impassioned Heathcliff do the talking — quoting the insult “I’d rather be hugged by a snake,” hurled at Catherine Linton in the novel’s second half.
It might not be historically accurate, but it’s certainly fun.
The-CNN-Wire
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