The enduring influence of Frankenstein on fashion

Colin Clive and Boris Karloff in 'Frankenstein'

Imagine it. June 1816. A villa in Italy. A season soon to be dubbed “the year without a summer” already well underway – the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia the previous year playing havoc with the heavens. A ragtag set of writers and friends looking for ways to occupy themselves during endless storms. Intense nightly discussions of medicine, literature, poetry. One night, a challenge set by a member of the group, Lord Byron: the devising of ghost stories. A terrible nightmare suffered a few days later by the then 18-year-old Mary Shelley, there with her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley and their child. The bones of a book constructed from this nightmare. A book later to become one of the best known Gothic novels in the English language: a proto-science fiction epic depicting the destructive consequences of a doctor who plays at God and builds his very own being…

The creation story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein shares much of the drama of the novel itself, all gloomy skies and vaguely spectacular circumstances. It’s a story that’s been recounted plenty of times this year as we reach the bicentenary of the book’s publication and look back at the enormous impact Shelley’s work has had on the worlds of art and culture – and with fashion is no exception.

The Gothic novel has long held sway over the imaginations of designers – whether it's the decaying decadence of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations inspiring successive rounds of wedding gowns; Bram Stoker’s bloodsucking visions consistently embodied in black leather, assertive displays of sexuality and the odd vampiric party; or the gloomy glamour employed consistently by designers including Riccardo Tisci and Dilara Findikoglu. From unworldly creatures to unsettling locations, it’s obvious that the world of Gothic literature offers plenty of rich visuals – and ideas – to plunder.

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