A black trench and dark sunglasses are always a bit mysterious, and sometimes end up being the markers of something sinister: See Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill (1980) with a wigged out Michael Caine, or this fall 2008 look from Salvatore Ferragamo.
LEFT: Orion Pictures Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection, RIGHT: Venturelli, WireImage/Getty
Carroll Borland plays the young vampire Luna Mora, daughter to Count Mora (played by Bela Legosi) in Mark of the Vampire (1935). We think Borland looks like a young Cher, and we might dress her in this Halston dress if she were hitting a red carpet today.
LEFT: Courtesy Everett Collection, RIGHT: Diane Bondareff/AP
Though Japanese horror auteurs produce some of the most exciting movies in the genre today, they have yet to find wide distribution in the U.S. At least, until they appear as the inevitable American remake. The stylish X-Cross (2007) pits a Gothic Lolita killer (Maju Ozawa) against two girls trapped in a creepy town. She wields scissors as her weapon of choice; no doubt an artfully slashed pink dress by Comme des Garcons would be found in her killer closet.
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Oh, Linda Blair. She went from being a caustic, possessed little girl in The Exorcist to a sassy, tap-dancing, priest-seducing telepath in The Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). She probably wishes she could turn back the clock and just have a normal childhood, which is why she would love anything by Erin Fetherston, whose dresses, like this one from fall 2008, channel the lost innocence of youth.
LEFT: Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection, RIGHT: Carlo Buscemi/WireImage, Getty
Vampyros Lesbos, ahoy. One year before that genre-defining classic took screens by storm, Roy Ward Baker's The Vampire Lovers (1970) introduced the world to the erotic realm of vampires with lesbian tendencies. Ingrid Pitt attacks men and women alike, recruiting bosom buddies with her vixen charms. Cleavage abounds, and no doubt the fiery Pitt would look delicate but dangerous in this robin's-egg blue gown by Marc Jacobs.
LEFT: Courtesy Everett Collection, RIGHT: Diane Bondareff/AP
Following in the footsteps of Dracula’s wives, Dracula’s Daughter (1936), the sequel to Dracula, showed Gloria Holden wearing dramatically draped dresses the way only a countess with a thirst for blood could wear them. She’d prefer to shake her curse for immortality, but she’s a vampire through and through. You need not be a bloodsucker to appreciate the twisted quality of this dress from Junya Watanabe’s fall 2008 collection.
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Cult horror movies like Blood and Lace (1971) give us laughs, but more importantly, ideas for our wardrobes. There’s little sartorial subtlety from Vic Tayback’s hatchet happy killer, but the lumberjack plaid he wears is getting plenty of play this season, from Ralph Lauren’s high-brow version seen here, to the version you can find at your local .
LEFT: Courtesy Everett Collection, RIGHT: Richard Drew/AP
Werner Herzog’s remake of Nosferatu (1979) features the devastatingly beautiful Isabelle Adjani as the foil to Klaus Kinski’s Count Dracula. Like most horror heroines, she’s often seen wearing flowing virginal gowns, but her gothic side comes out when she dons a dress like this one from Andrew Gn’s fall 2008 collection.
LEFT: Courtesy Everett Collection, RIGHT: Christophe Ena/AP
Russian silent siren Yuliya Solntseva plays a futuristic alien queen in Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924), where she wears mechanical headdresses and constructivist corsetry. Nothing says “woman in power” quite like a wardrobe composed of sharp angles. For contemporary royalty in spirit, Martian or otherwise, dramatic crinoline dresses from Alexander McQueen’s fall 2008 come served with respect and command attention, or at least an extra seat.
LEFT: Courtesy Everett Collection, RIGHT: Eric Ryan/Getty
