Fashioning Frankenstein: How Kate Hawley Styled a Gothic Dream
The costume designer discusses her collaboration with Guillermo del Toro, searching the Tiffany & Co. archive for Mia Goth’s insect-inspired jewellery, and dressing Oscar Isaac like a rockstar
by Lana Thorn 4 November 2025
Courtesy of Netflix
There are few stories in literary history that articulate the sublime beauty—and horror—of creation as eloquently as Frankenstein. Fittingly, Guillermo del Toro’s lavish adaptation of the Mary Shelley classic is a panorama of handcrafted art, from Tamara Deverell’s vast sets to Mike Hill’s marble statue-esque design for the Creature (Jacob Elordi). And when you look at its Victorian characters, whether the arrogant titular scientist (Oscar Isaac) or the ethereal Elizabeth Harlander (Mia Goth), you can’t help but marvel at Kate Hawley’s costumes.
The New Zealand costume designer is no stranger to epic worlds, having stepped into the DCEU and Middle-earth with Suicide Squad and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, respectively. Before that, she worked on The Hobbit trilogy, where she first met one Guillermo del Toro when he was attached to direct. After collaborating on Pacific Rim and Crimson Peak, the Mexican director broached the topic of Frankenstein, a film that he had wanted to make since he was a little boy. And that fact was not lost on Hawley. “It was nerve-racking because this was Guillermo’s dream project,” she tells me at London’s Corinthia Hotel. “But it’s a rare opportunity, and you don’t say no to a visionary like Guillermo.”
Courtesy of Netflix
As usual, Hawley began with intensive research. “I re-read the book and started with sketches and mood boards,” she recalls. “I initially looked into the Age of Enlightenment, but Guillermo decided to set it during the Crimean War. And the period between the 1840s and the 1870s is so rich. The silhouette is constantly changing, especially for women.” Del Toro’s decision to transpose the action of Shelley’s novel from the 1700s to the mid-19th century was far from the only liberty taken, with Hawley looking to 1960s London, specifically Biba fashion and Carnaby street style by way of David Bowie. “In the end, historical accuracy wasn’t as important as Guillermo’s vision. This is his world.”
Reflecting on those early stages, Hawley beams as she describes del Toro. “It’s amazing to work with him because he is such a smart man. He knows his history and his literature.” After the initial discussions, the directive was clear—Frankenstein was going to be anything but a stuffy period piece. “From the beginning, Guillermo told me that he didn’t want a sea of Dickensian top hats. He didn’t want it all to be black.” Instead, the pair discussed Hammer Horror films and Caravaggio paintings, ensuring that even the most macabre images would be “evocative and colourful”.
Courtesy of Netflix
That vision comes to fruition in the film’s manically driven protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, who is never seen without a splash of deep red in his outfits, be it his plaid trousers, his velvet coat, or the inevitable blemishes from when things get messy in his laboratory. “I always see costume as an extension of the character,” Hawley says. “When we discussed Victor, Guillermo told me repeatedly that he was an artist. A Pablo Picasso or a Francis Bacon. So he doesn’t care if he gets blood on his clothes.”
Victor’s wardrobe had to reflect both his aristocratic background and his current status as an impoverished scientist, while being worn with the indifference of an artist and the confidence of a rockstar. The result is something like his striking emerald green dressing gown with burgundy lining, a stylish piece of loungewear that swallows him up in his depression after making the Creature, or his open shirts designed with Mick Jagger and Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev as references.
Courtesy of Netflix
While Hawley extends her care to each and every extra in the frame, there are two characters who most prominently showcase her work—and Mia Goth plays both of them. In a dual role loaded with subtextual significance, Goth is both Victor’s mother, Claire, and his love interest, Elizabeth. The former, whose traumatic passing sparks Victor’s quest to conquer death, makes a brief but haunting appearance in two red ensembles: a velvet dress with matching gloves, and a chevron-patterned gown covered by a ghostly, shimmering veil. “Victor’s mother is a very ethereal figure,” the designer explains. “And her translucent veil at the beginning of the film, the way it waved in the wind, we wanted to create a dream-like feeling.” The veil’s function in the story highlights how much del Toro values costume in his cinema: in Frankenstein, the characters are introduced through their clothing. As he does later with Heinrich Harlander’s (Christoph Waltz as Victor’s affluent patron) gold-soled shoes and Elizabeth’s blue gown, we see the light, red fabric of Claire’s veil gliding across the halls of the Frankenstein estate before we ever get a glimpse of her face.
With del Toro’s precise intentions in colour-coding the film, Hawley’s costumes became a symbolic, tactile means to tell the story—starting with Claire. She dresses the servants and little Victor predominantly in black and white, so that Claire stands out like a bloodstain. “Guillermo likes to revisit his work, and the red is almost a return to the image of the little boy in The Devil’s Backbone with blood streaming out of his head,” she says. “Red is also a motif in Crimson Peak, and in Frankenstein you see it all over Victor’s character: his gloves, his tartan trousers…” With the arresting visual of a scarlet-lined coffin at Claire’s snow-covered funeral, Hawley’s costumes and Tamara Deverell’s production design collaborate to reveal the complexity of Victor’s core wound: red is both the colour of his mother’s love and a reminder of her demise.
Courtesy of Netflix
While Claire wears almost exclusively one colour—you can find her immortalised in another red gown in a family portrait on the wall—Elizabeth Harlander, Goth’s second role, has an array of lush, saturated dresses. Reflecting on that palette, Hawley stops to correct a misconception. “It’s fascinating—Victorians actually loved colour. They had these gorgeous, vibrant patterns. We looked into specific colours used at the time, like absinthe green.” Green is crucial to Elizabeth’s character as far as colour-coding, with the character representing nature. “Elizabeth is the one who can see through what Victor is doing. She’s intelligent and fascinated by the natural world, but not in the same way as Victor is. We brought all of that out in her costumes, and Mia said they helped her find the character.”
And the character wouldn’t be complete without her expansive collection of jewellery. Hawley worked with Tiffany & Co., and the historic jewellery design house contributed 27 archival, contemporary, and custom-made pieces. “Working with Tiffany and [Vice President and Creative Director] Christopher Young was a dream collaboration,” she says. “The pieces complemented Guillermo’s world so perfectly.”
Courtesy of Tiffany & Co.
Elizabeth has a comfortable relationship with death that Victor sorely lacks—she’s introduced inspecting a skull, no less. Where he seeks to defy God and nature, she has a religious appreciation of the natural world. Hawley cites the 1802 book Natural Theology by William Paley, who argues the intricate design of natural phenomena is evidence of an intelligent Deity, as the foundation of Elizabeth’s philosophy. Goth’s character tells Victor that she sees God’s design in shapes and symmetry, and consequently, the costume designer realised her own version of vibrant Victorian patterns, defined by elaborate, figurative imagery evoking living organisms.
“Elizabeth Bride” sketch by Kate Hawley
Frankenstein is now playing in select theatres and will be available on Netflix from November 7th