Margot Robbie’s press tour for “Wuthering Heights” has ignited a fascinating conversation about historical fashion—or rather, the playful interpretation of it.
While purists clutch their pearls over the film’s costuming choices, Robbie and stylist Andrew Mukamal are serving up something entirely different: a masterclass in fashion storytelling that cherry-picks from centuries of style.
This isn’t about accuracy.
It’s about creating a visual language that captures the essence of Brontë’s gothic romance while remaining firmly rooted in modern fashion sensibility.
Victorian Mourning Jewelry Gets a Red Carpet Moment
At the London premiere, Robbie emerged in a translucent slip dress by Turkish-British designer Dilara Findikoglu that perfectly encapsulated this approach.
The boned corset dress featured Victorian lace, but the real conversation starter was something far more macabre and meaningful: braided synthetic hair accents hand-dyed to match the dishwater blonde shade that belonged to Anne and Emily Brontë themselves.
This wasn’t just decorative flourish. The rope-like tresses drew direct inspiration from Victorian mourning jewelry—pieces crafted from the braided hair of deceased loved ones.
On Robbie’s left wrist sat a replica of a bracelet Charlotte Brontë had made after her sisters Emily and Anne died. Dark? Absolutely. Victorian? Completely. But this type of memento mori served a profound purpose: making mortality tangible while simultaneously celebrating life.
Historical References as Creative Prompts
Understanding Robbie and Mukamal’s approach requires abandoning expectations of historical accuracy entirely.
Historical references function here like prompts on dating profiles—fun jumping-off points rather than binding commitments. The Roberto Cavalli dress Robbie wore to kick off promotion last month perfectly demonstrates this philosophy.
Square neckline? Tudor England. Fausto Puglisi necklace with ruby pendant? Inspired by 18th century paintings. Mini-skirt hemline? Positively ’60s.
Throughout the tour, bustles, corsets, black lace, and chokers have appeared in various configurations. Never mind that bustles were more popular during Emily Brontë’s lifetime than during the era of her fictional character Cathy, who lived some 50 years earlier.
When Napoleon Meets Gothic Romance
Earlier during a London photo call, Robbie ventured into the late 1700s wearing 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—worn in lieu of a top thanks to ladder hook-and-eye fastenings—originated from Galliano’s seminal Spring-Summer 1992 collection.
While created in the ’90s, that collection drew inspiration from the romance between Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine. The French rulers lived from the late 1760s until early 1800s—roughly the same period Brontë chose for setting “Wuthering Heights.”
Layers upon layers of historical reference, filtered through contemporary fashion sensibility.
Literary Deep Dives Inform Fashion Choices
Mukamal hasn’t just been pulling looks from fashion archives—he’s been conducting close readings of Brontë’s novel itself.
On Instagram, the stylist documents his work with Robbie while including quotes from the book that illuminate his creative thinking. In January, Mukamal dressed Robbie in two feathered Victoria Beckham pieces—a white mini dress and black vest.
His caption quoted a passage where Cathy, deranged from illness, tears her pillows apart and plays with the down spilling out. Suddenly, those feathers weren’t just decorative—they were narrative.
When Robbie appeared in full red snakeskin corset, jacket, and mini skirt from Dilara Findikoglu, Mukamal let an impassioned Heathcliff speak, quoting the insult hurled at Catherine Linton in the novel’s second half:
I’d rather be hugged by a snake.
Fashion History as Living Text
Anyone seeking accuracy might find more satisfaction revisiting the 2023 “Barbie” press tour, where Robbie and Mukamal painstakingly recreated outfits worn by Mattel dolls over decades.
But for those interested in fashion history, these “Wuthering Heights” red carpet looks are key texts begging to be analyzed.
They represent something increasingly rare in celebrity styling: intellectual playfulness. Rather than simply putting actors in pretty dresses, Robbie and Mukamal are creating visual essays that reward close examination.
Each outfit becomes a conversation about how we relate to history—not as something to be perfectly preserved behind museum glass, but as living inspiration that can be remixed, reinterpreted, and made relevant for contemporary audiences.
Modern Fashion’s Relationship With History
This approach mirrors broader trends in high fashion, where designers increasingly treat historical periods as mood boards rather than blueprints.
Robbie’s press tour wardrobe asks provocative questions: What do we owe historical accuracy? When does respectful homage become stifling constraint? Can anachronism be its own form of authenticity?
The answer seems to be that fashion, like literature, thrives on interpretation. Just as every generation produces new readings of “Wuthering Heights” that reflect contemporary concerns, fashion can translate historical aesthetics through modern sensibilities.
Mukamal and Robbie aren’t trying to transport anyone back to Victorian England or Regency France. They’re building something new from historical fragments—creating fashion that feels simultaneously timeless and of-the-moment.
It might not be historically accurate, but it’s certainly fun. More importantly, it’s meaningful—demonstrating that red carpet fashion can be intellectually rich while remaining visually spectacular.
For anyone willing to look beyond surface-level accuracy, Robbie’s “Wuthering Heights” press tour offers a masterclass in fashion as storytelling, history as inspiration, and style as literary criticism.