As someone who dressed like the character Starr from The Lost Boys from the time I was 12 till the time I was 17, I can tell you just how much our favourite movies influence our personal fashion choices. Most recently, I've been seeing copies of the style used in the movie The Love Witch. A clear throwback to the 1960's when women were still figuring out how to dress for themselves vs for the men around them. Granted, The Lost Boys was a movie of it's time, borrowing from the hippie culture it just removed itself from and tempted by the power suits the 1980's were infamous for. But, it still broke away from other vampire movies when it came to how the two main female characters were dressed. Each in their own preconceived role.
The character of Starr, who is one of the vampires, dressed in free flowing skirts of silk and lace. Constantly draped by multicoloured scarfs, dark boots, cami-tops and a suede jacket. Her hair wild and unkept. All to represent her nature of having abandoned humanity. The character of Lucy, the mother is a little more structured, but not by much. She shares a taste for the ankle length free flowing skirts, soft tennis shoes, but replaces the sexy cami-tops with heavy sweaters. Almost as if she's afraid of breaking from convention. Her character has just gone through a divorce, and is at the beginning stage of freedom from the expected conforms of the times, giving her a sense of being trapped in the in between of conformity vs freedom.
Up till the mid-1980's, the female characters in vampire movies tended to be over the top with their clothing choices. Either tightly buttoned with high collars and subtle colours, usually representing their virginal/pre-vampiric state; or dressed in risky chiffon nightgowns, usually representing them having been bitten and far removed from their humanity. Case in point, the very brilliant Fright Night from 1985. The character of Amy does just this, as she's represented as virginal in overalls and high buttoned shirts before the vampire seduces her. Then, just as she's about to feed for the first time on a human, she's shown wearing a dress styled after Marilyn Monroe's from The Seven Year Itch.
One movie that managed to blur this entire concept, was the 1994 version of Interview with the Vampire, in which we see the character of Claudia who is a child when turned. Her storyline deals with the dilemma she is facing as her body never matures while her mind does. The use of costuming for her is addressed in a line of dialog explaining that after a certain point, Claudia had dresses made for herself in the current adult styles but in child sizes, like that of some little people. The costume choice for her character represent both the time frame the story takes place and the lack of sexual awakening; as the character has to rely on other means to entrap her pray.
In the second film of the Subspecies franchise Subspecies 2 Bloodstone; the character of Michelle ends up having to scavenge for her clothes after waking up in a body bag. She then starts to dress in a very romanticized-punk version of a gothic vampire by stealing costumes from an opera house.
The Subspecies series began in the early 1990's around the same time Bram Stoker's Dracula and Interview with the Vampire had been released, planting it firmly inline with the rising goth aesthetic. This would become the entire costume base for the spin-off Vampire Journals a few years later, as every character vampire or not seemed to be part of the gothic subculture. In Bloodstone, Michelle's choice of costume also expresses a combination of what she thinks she needs to represent and who she was before being turned. In the first film, we learn that she's in a relationship with the brother of the vampire who turns her. She's already an independent woman in this point of her character arch. The layered lace dress she ends up choosing from the opera, shows the balanced nature between humanity (reality) and vampiric (fantasy). Of our list so far, Michelle's character is probably the most realistically and fully rounded out character. She is never portrayed as the helpless virginal girl, nor completely as the wanton seductress. There is a steadiness and structure within her story arch, which I think is represented perfectly by the design of her dress.
What does your favourite movie costume have to say about you?
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