‘Method dressing’ has become one of Hollywood’s favourite publicity tools. It essentially entails actors playing dress-up off set, extending their characters narrative by dressing in outfits on theme with the movie they are promoting. And no one does method dressing quite like Margot Robbie. During the Barbie press tour, Robbie wardrobe became either inspired by or directly taken from the pink-loving doll. This not only served as a creative, detailed, and incredibly expensive extension of the movie itself, it built a visual narrative around it.
The themes of Wuthering Heights, however, are a far cry from the glitter-filled world of Barbie. Robbie’s latest passion project is a darkly gothic depiction of trauma and abuse, social class prejudice, revenge, and the intense, all-consuming nature of love. Directed by Emerald Fennell, with previous credits including Saltburn and its infamous bathwater scene, Wuthering Heights is no exception to this theme. The film is heavy with sexual tension and emotional intensity, leaning heavily int sensual and gothic elements of the novel. I don’t even want to talk about the horse bridle scene.
Personally, I think it’s fair to say that Margot Robbie’s latest endeavour to method-dress her way through a press tour has somewhat flopped in comparison to her previous attempts. Whether it was the negative response to the erotic nature of the Wuthering Heights trailers, or just the fact that her stylist just didn’t execute the looks as well, Robbie’s method dressing this time round just didn’t generate the same amount of buzz and marketing frenzy as it did for Barbie. Quite frankly, the lack of consistency across the board between her own outfits, unless you count push-up bras and corsets as the common denominator, just created a confusing and half-done concept that didn’t really seem to relate to her character. While many of her press tour outfits incorporated corsets, dramatic silhouettes, and vintage-inspired fabrics, the references were often not clear.
The fact that Jacob Elordi and singer Charli xcx’s own press-tour looks didn’t follow method dressing 80% of the time just added to this lack of cohesion. That’s not to say I didn’t like a lot of Robbie’s press looks; the red and white Chanel she wore for the premier in France screamed regency era fashion and was beautifully clean cut. I also loved the Schiaparelli gown she wore to the LA World Premier, so it hasn’t been all bad.
Although the film has only be out since February 14th, public opinion has seemed overwhelmingly negative online. Despite being released on Valentines Day, the motion picture is slated as being a particularly poor valentine to those looking for a heartfelt love story, and an even worse one to fans of Bronte’s original work. Common denominators seem to be ‘shallow’ and ‘long’. One quote by Charles Koplinski on Rotten Tomatoes resonated particularly:
“This is the work of an immature artist, one who would rather shock her audience, than compel them to feel.”
After seeing the movie this week, I can’t help but agree with Koplinski. I haven’t read the book, so my opinion may not be as educated as die-hard fans of the novel, but the objectively the movie focused more on the aesthetic and reduced the story to a singular matter of vibes. It was shocking in a way that makes you want to gossip about it but then forget about it soon afterwards.
When executed well, method dressing is an excellent publicity tool and can generate lots of buzz on social media. Conversations are sparked by fashion looks and the viral content this generates online maintains speculation and talking points throughout a films’ promotion and long after its release. But when method dressing loses its story, it also loses the conversation that makes it so powerful. Wuthering Heights is an example of this – the outfits were stunning, but they lost their grip on the narrative and felt more like a collection of unrelated outfits rather than an extensive of Cathy as a character.
Words by Rhiannon James
Imaged credited to light li via Unsplash. Image licensing found here.
