Guillermo del Toro reunited with “Crimson Peak” costume designer Kate Hawley to help bring the look of “Frankenstein” to life.
When Hawley, a Romantic enthusiast and former art history student, got the call, the first thing she did was dive into the pages of the book.
However, Holly admitted, “There were so many great things that happened when I found out I was going on this journey with Guillermo. I was excited but also nervous.”
In “Frankenstein,” Oscar Isaac plays a brilliant but selfish scientist who brings a creature (Jacob Elordi) to life in an experiment in an attempt to overcome death. It’s an experiment that leads to his undoing, and the question arises: Who is the monster?
Mia Goth also stars as Elizabeth. Ralf Ineson plays Professor Krempe and Christoph Watorz plays Harlander. The cast also includes Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley, Christian Cavalry, and Charles Dance, who plays Victor’s father.
The film is set firmly during the Crimean War in the 1850s. Hawley said del Toro “really wanted to make this world even bigger than it normally is.”
Here, Hawley breaks down the look of the characters she created.
victor frankenstein
Del Toro has had no shortage of references to Hawley when crafting his looks. “We talked about a lot of things. There were also more modern references, like Oscar mentioning David Bowie and Prince.”
Victor Frankenstein’s childhood is more appropriate for his age of enlightenment. Hawley says, “This is definitely more reflective of Mary Shelley’s own world and times.”
By the time the film was set in the 1850s, Hawley said, the era was more widespread. Director del Toro declared, “I don’t want a historical movie with a lot of black bowler hats. I want a modern feel that is very similar to what was going on during the war in terms of technology and time.”
Additionally, Hawley looked at Lord Bryon and said, “He’s an artist finding his muse. He’s not a scientist in the way we traditionally know him. This is art he’s building. We saw a bohemian irreverence, and all those references in the way he dresses.”
Victor comes from an aristocratic family. When the audience sees him for the first time, he is presenting his invention in the theater. Holly wanted to tell a story about the thick velvet she was wearing, but also wanted to show that a period of time had passed.
“The velvet is old and worn out. There are stories of people who are running out of money at this point and still have this lovely garment.”
He meets Harlander while giving a presentation, and the two begin courting. Frankenstein enjoys money. “His clothes became more flamboyant,” Hawley says.
elizabeth wedding dress
Holly knew the importance of Elizabeth’s wedding dress. She ties the whole story together. When creating the character’s arc, Hawley says it was one of the first things she created.
“That in itself had its own pressures,” admits Hawley, who knew there was a history of Bride of Frankenstein, but also needed to make the dress work within the confines of the Victorian world. Elizabeth’s wedding to Victor’s brother William takes place towards the final act of the film. At this point, she has formed a bond with the creature. Reflecting that, Hawley notes that “Elizabeth’s clothing, especially at this stage, begins to reflect the creature’s world more than the rest of the world.”
The bodice is boned and has a pointed hem, in the Swiss style of the time, and the ribbons on the arms and corset “suggest the skeletal components of the creature itself.” Hawley added, “We’re going back to anatomical language.”
All of Elizabeth’s dresses are connected to botany and the natural world.
Her blue dress is based on her X-ray shape. “We developed[X-ray photography]as a print that has a bit of a Victorian damask feel, but also feels part of the world and anatomy that we often use in our patterns, textures and motifs.”
It took Hawley and her team several months to build, as it was intended to be used in nighttime scenes. “We had to do a tremendous amount of work in the layers to maintain the saturation of the blue that Guillermo wanted.” For Hawley, the dress evokes Elizabeth’s ephemeral and ethereal nature. As for the fabric, she admitted, “The skirt was at least 60 meters long.”
Mia Goth as Elizabeth in Frankenstein.
Ken Woroner/Netflix
Partnership with Tiffany
Holly calls it her personal fairy tale. When creating Elizabeth’s jewelry, the company invited her behind the doors of Tiffany’s archives.
Hawley worked with the company to draw from its 200-year history.
Items included Elizabeth’s Wade necklace featuring over 40 carats of diamonds and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Scarab necklace.
“This huge, amazing resource became available to us, and the language of all of these elements began to fit into our storyline.”
nick sapel rand
living things
Jacob Elordi as the Creature in Frankenstein.
Ken Woroner/Netflix
Living things evolve. When he wakes up after the lab explosion, the first thing he takes out is a coat from the burial site of a Crimean War soldier. Hawley says, “As he travels and experiences warmth and love, his clothes alone undergo an ever-evolving transformation.”
When the audience first sees him, Hawley describes him as “a naked child underneath.” So she started from the inside out, recreating what prosthetic artist Mike Hill was doing with his sculptures. “My job was to echo that and maintain the value of the creature that comes through through the clothing. So when he takes the coat off the skeleton, the traces of the other man are still there.” She added, “I thought it was a very beautiful image, given that the creature is made up of other bodies, with traces and memories of another body. That was the motif.”
Watch the video above.
