Unpacking the importance of costume design in Wuthering Heights

“I wanted to feel something, and oh boy did I feel something.”

This was the general consensus following the Irish premiere of Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” adaptation on Tuesday night ahead of its release. A hazy romance starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, it’s dark, tragic, and unapologetically toxic, yet oh-so hot! I was like a giddy teenager watching this film. It was steamy, it was messy and full of yearning, a word heard repeatedly at the premiere and a theme that cinema has been quite lacking in recent years.

Emerald Fennell first read the novel at the age of 14, and this adaptation is her version of what that novel meant to her all those years ago, not the faithful retelling viewers may expect. Heavy on the interpretation, this story follows the tragic, all-consuming love story of Cathy and Heathcliff. It’s obsession, desire, devotion and destruction, all those good things that make for great cinema.

As a fashion enthusiast, one of the most compelling ways the story is told is through costume design. The ways in which clothing creates the characters’ identities hint at fate and foreshadow what is to come. Costume design isn’t just about making the characters look incredibly beautiful; there are incredibly intentional decisions behind it all. For Cathy alone, I counted 53 different (!) costumes, not including repeated looks. Add to that the jewellery and make-up, and I found myself audibly gasping repeatedly in the cinema. We would expect no less from award-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran and her team, who crafted every piece exclusively for this film.

*This next part may contain spoilers, so if you want to be surprised going into the film, stop reading now. Don’t say we didn’t warn you! 

Some criticism has already emerged around the film’s costume design and its historical inaccuracies. I am not a fashion historian, and I am not approaching this film through the lens of academic accuracy. However, I have a deep respect for costume design and for the power clothing has to shape how we feel while watching a story unfold. When costume design is done well and aligned with the storytelling, veracity becomes secondary to emotion.

That philosophy is clearest when Cathy moves into the polished world of a wealthy neighbouring family, the Lintons. Her wardrobe shifts dramatically. We see rigid, synthetic materials like PVC and cellophane, fabrics that feel cold, restrictive, and unnatural against the body. These choices mirror Cathy’s discomfort within this life; there’s even a dress that represents an oil slick. Then there’s the contentious iridescent cellophane wedding night dress, visually striking and almost dreamlike, that reinforces that this is not her reality. We sat in on a Q&A with Fennell and Durran, during which they explained that their objective was for Cathy to appear less like a bride and more like a gift. She is packaged, presented, and handed over.

Red positions Cathy as the femme fatale rather than a romantic heroine. It signals control, desire, and obsession more than love. Against the muted greens and grey mist of the Scottish moors, her red costumes feel almost confrontational. She does not blend into the landscape. When Cathy returns to Wuthering Heights after her time with the Lintons, the contrast between her striking presence and the rundown castle feels powerful.

There’s one costume that stands out against the moors. Cathy appears in a black veil during a funeral scene, which would subsequently signal the beginning of Cathy and Heathcliff’s love affair. The symbolism is deliberately open. It’s unclear whether her mourning is for her father or her subconscious understanding that her great love is destined for destruction, “‘til death do us part”. I love both the use of the veil and the colour black in this costume choice.

The costume design in this adaptation may not necessarily be historically accurate, but it allows the story to feel contemporary and unsettling, all the while being set in the past. “Wuthering Heights” is a reinterpretation of Emily Brontë’s work, not a retelling. Emerald Fennell is taking the central tenet of a weighty piece of classic literature — which is an obsessive, all-consuming love — and layering it in latex.

As aspiring director, film buff and content creator Meg Hughes, who was on hosting duties at the Irish premiere, tells us: “Go into this open-minded and it will surprise you, like it surprised me.”

Photography by Jaap Buitendijk.

Wuthering Heights is in Irish cinemas now.