The dramatic Chanel gown blurred the lines between gothic romanticism and fantasy. The design featured a structured corset that plunged into a voluminous white skirt draped underneath waves of ruby-red velvet. Behind her, a waterfall of crimson fabric, punctuated by the occasional chunk of frilly scarlet feathers, cascaded down the gown’s long train.Robbie continued her scarlet streak with her choice of accessories, opting for a thick velvet choker necklace in a similar shade of red as her dress. At the center of the necklace sat a massive champagne-colored gemstone, framed by a halo of smaller stones and embellished with a dangling teardrop-shaped crystal. (Chelsey Sanchez)
A clip of Jacob Elordi's very chivalrous act towards co-star Margot Robbie at the Paris premiere of Wuthering Heights on Monday has fans in a tizzy.In footage that has since gone viral, the Australian heartthrob, 28, can be seen rushing ahead of Margot, 35, as they arrived at Le Grand Rex for the VIP screening.After reaching the stairs leading to the stage, Jacob turns around and helps Margot carry the train of her velvet, Georgian-inspired Chanel gown.At one stage, Margot looked down from the top step and thanked her colleague for the romantic move.While Jacob's act was indeed very kind, fans are asking one very valid question: Why didn't someone else help her?Surely organisers would have known that Margot would be wearing such a dramatic gown, and that she would be required to climb a set of stairs prior to her arrival.Further, there seem to be a number of staffers present in the video who could have lent a hand, rather than forcing the film's A-list lead actor to step in.Alongside a video of the moment, fans gushed over the moment with one writing, 'What a man.'Perhaps Jacob's gentlemanly display was part of a planned campaign to continue selling the chemistry between himself and Margot. (Monique Friedlander)
Has a press tour wardrobe ever deserved an Oscar nomination? Margot Robbie and stylist Andrew Mukamal might require the Academy to create a new category. The pair reunited on February 2 as Robbie arrived in Paris wearing a Chanel gown designed by Matthieu Blazy for the occasion, signalling that the Wuthering Heights press tour would be anything but routine.Margot Robbie famously put method dressing on the map during the Barbie promotional cycle, but with Wuthering Heights she has elevated the practice into something closer to high art. Mukamal has drawn on both the novel itself and a range of historical periods, blending antique silhouettes with modern fabrication and fantasy flourishes to create a distinctly baroque effect. [...]Still, it is Mukamal’s conceptual approach that pushes this tour beyond celebrity styling and into the realm of fashion performance art. A history major who, as Robbie has noted, “really enjoys delving deep,” Mukamal has mined Brontë’s 1847 novel for specific passages that inform each look. The result is a series of visual Easter eggs that reward close attention, transforming the press tour into both a promotional campaign and a kind of literary annotation. (Ruby Feneley)
For this edition, Johnson spoke with Siân Miller, the hair and makeup designer for “Wuthering Heights”, who gave Allure an exclusive first look at the film’s biggest beauty moments.Siân Miller knew this would not be a traditional take on Wuthering Heights, the classic dark romance novel by Emily Brontë, when she signed on to design its hair and makeup looks. Directed by Emerald Fennell and starring Margot Robbie as Cathy alongside Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, the film adaptation includes the same themes of love, revenge, and social class but renders them through an entirely different lens.“What [Emerald] was really clear about from the beginning is that this was to be seen through the imagination of a 14-year-old girl—this was Emerald’s imagination,” says Miller, who previously worked on Saltburn with Fennell, Elordi, and Robbie (who produced the film). “It was clear that it would be a kind of fever dream.”A BBC costume drama this was not—nor was it a literal, by-the-book adaptation. “I can't say I'm making ‘Wuthering Heights.’ It's not possible,” Fennel said in a recent interview with Fandango; that’s why she decided to put those quotation marks in the movie’s title. “What I can say is I'm making a version of it. There's a version that I remembered reading that isn't quite real. And there's a version where I wanted stuff to happen that never happened. And so it is 'Wuthering Heights,' and it isn't."While the film features some period-accurate wardrobe, hair, and makeup, it also incorporates imaginative elements, not unlike Sofia Coppola’s blend of modern and classical references in the 2006 Marie Antoinette film. Having seen “Wuthering Heights” myself, the best way I can describe it is a smorgasbord of visual decadence: surrealist art paired with dreary gothic fare. Prepared to be dazzled by the spectacle and overcome with jealousy over a myriad of things: the hair and the sex, for starters. Beauty connoisseurs will be in heaven.Miller shared details on the hair and makeup exclusively with Allure: The film features between 35 and 40 different hairstyles on Robbie, including archival Chanel jewelry used as hair adornments and early-2000s Sienna Miller references. Miller researched and recreated historically faithful nail art originally made with eggshells and beetle blood (though no bugs were harmed in the making of these manicures). There’s an entire montage of makeup looks that you’ll miss if you blink, showcasing silver leaf on the eyes and black lips, and inspiration pulled from Pinterest alongside makeup artist Pat McGrath’s work with designers like John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood, and Alexander McQueen.Miller describes the hair and makeup as a combination of ’50s mid-century melodrama and Victorian excess with fantastical elements. [...]Cathy’s Hair EvolutionAs a girl living on the farmstead of Wuthering Heights, Cathy is shown with untamed and unkempt hair—a symbol of her wildness and a depiction of her life growing up running across the moors. If you’ve read the book or have seen other adaptations, you know she inevitably leaves home for the Grange, where she lives with her husband and married family, the Lintons. In these scenes, her hair is noticeably more controlled and sculptural; even when her hair is down, its texture is smoother and more defined.During a pivotal scene at the Grange in which she taunts Heathcliff after his unexpected return, Cathy wears victory rolls Miller referred to as “horns,” an allusion to her devilish behavior. But as a viewer, it reads almost like a crown, insinuating her role as an evil queen. “It's where she becomes tougher,” Miller says. “She becomes a bit more of a bitch, she becomes harder. It's a more severe profile.”The Veil-Covered Bridal HairOne of Miller’s favorite looks is in Cathy’s wedding scene, where you actually won’t see her hair at all. It’s tragically concealed beneath her veil as she marches across the moors to marry Edgar Linton despite being in love with Heathcliff.But Miller shows us that beneath that veil is a grid-like lattice braid decorated with gemstones using a glue gun. “That lattice is symbolic of her being caged: She’s going to marry Edgar, but she doesn’t really want to,” Miller says. “It’s symbolic of her being trapped.”The Controlled Lady-of-the-House LookAfter Cathy arrives at the Grange and adopts the role of housewife, her hairstyles evolve too, as Miller explains, to reflect Cathy’s emotional state: boredom. With little to do, Cathy and her sister-in-law, Isabella, experiment with Cathy’s look.Some of the adornments she wears in her hair during these scenes are archival Chanel pieces sourced by costume designer Jacqueline Durran, while others are earrings and brooches repurposed for hairstyling during select scenes.The “Doll Braids”One of the most eye-catching hairstyles featured—which I predict will be replicated en masse—is a set of twin braids with a red ribbon woven between them and tied at the ends like a corset. Cathy wears these when she begins life at the Grange. In the movie, it’s Isabella who styles her hair this way; she sees Cathy as her own personal doll in more ways than one, hence Miller’s nickname for this style, the “doll braids.”Finding the right shade of blonde and the right style of braids for this look was a challenge. Miller notes that the goal was to avoid veering into Game of Thrones or The Witcher territory, which featured icy white-blondes and warrior styling references. While the front pieces of Robbie’s own hair were blended with wig pieces and wefts for scenes at Cathy’s home of Wuthering Heights, she wore full wigs for these scenes at the Grange.The Sweat-Inspired Makeup for Heathcliff’s ReturnOne of the film’s most modern looks took direct inspiration from the set design. In a tense dinner scene following Heathcliff’s return—now wealthy and in what Miller describes as his “Mr. Darcy era”—Cathy’s hair is adorned with pins and combs that Miller bedazzled by hand.Her face is covered in gems inspired by the silver walls in the background, which are studded with clear stones (you’ll notice the walls speak metaphoric volumes in this film, so keep an eye on them). “It was almost supposed to look like sweat,” Miller says.Everyone’s Blush and FlushFlushed cheeks are their own character in the film—everyone sports some kind of blush, including the men. “We wanted this weather-beaten look for the characters at Wuthering Heights,” Miller says. “Jacob [Elordi] had it, the younger versions [of Cathy and Heathcliff] had it. With Cathy, I was inspired by the ‘pomegranate girl’ TikTok trend of 2024; that clean, flushed look.”Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush in the shades Hope and Happy were applied for Cathy’s scenes at the Grange, as were Merit Flush Balm in Après and Postmodern and Pat McGrath Labs Divine Cream Blush. No.1 de Chanel Lip and Cheek Balm in Berry Boost was used for her looks at Wuthering Heights. Miller calls Kylie Cosmetics Hyrbid Blush in Winter Kissed, the shade used on Isabella, the “perfect baby doll pink.”Cathy's lipstick oscillated between Burt’s Bees Tinted Lip Balm in Rose and a discontinued Kiehl’s Men’s Lip Balm to avoid any apparent lip lines. For some of the looks at the Grange, Robbie wore Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Lipstick in Pillow Talk. (Kirbie Johnson)
Okay, this is, perhaps, a controversial take. And quite possibly one which will make a lot of people angry at me. But, for some reason, this is a hill (or, perhaps, a moor) I am willing to die on: Wuthering Heights is not that hard. And, yes, you should be able to read it. And yes, the number of people openly struggling to get through it is concerning.Recently, my FYP has filled to the brim with a similar brand of video – videos of grown women who, after seeing the sexed up trailer for Emerald Fennel's version, have dashed to Waterstones to pick up their copies (Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi smouldering on the cover, naturally), perhaps expecting a BookTok-worthy rom-com, only to find that it is, in fact, a novel about class, inequality, racism, abuse and generational trauma.There is also another genre of videos that sees people sharing guides to reading the book. Tips like highlight it within an inch of its life or, even worse, go to Sparknotes after each chapter for a summary.Let's be real. Wuthering Heights is, compared to many classic novels, not all that difficult. Sure, a few characters have the same first names, but keeping track of the various Earnshaws and Lintons is a walk in the park compared to some of the Russian classics.It is also a relatively simple narrative. It is largely plot-driven and mostly linear, once you get to grips with the rather simple story-within-a-story format. This is not a novel that experiments much with form. It is not, for instance, a work of poetic stream of consciousness. Try reading The Waves and get back to me.In fact, Wuthering Heights is considered to be one of the easiest classics to read, so much so that it is (or was) often assigned to 16-year-old school kids.Now, before I am accused of sounding snobbish, elitist, or privileged, I would like to clarify: this isn't about being university educated, or being brought up in a house filled with books, or being encouraged to read as a child. I really think this is more about our education system and the general downward spiral into a largely anti-intellectual society. Ours is, increasingly, a society that simply does not prize skills like critical thinking or long-form reading. I don't blame any of the individuals posting about not being able to read Wuthering Heights; I mainly blame the world we are living in. A world that, over the course of the last decade or so, has slowly but surely been teaching us that intelligence, thinking and reading don't really matter anymore.In 2024, The Atlantic explored a growing trend of English students at top universities who arrived at their programs having never read a full novel. Why? Because apparently, their schools had stopped requiring it. Last year, The New York Times looked into the trend and found that, yes, teens are often now given only excerpts of books that they read on their laptops.It's hardly surprising that we are also seeing a rise of AI bots designed to turn works of literature into bite-sized, digestible summaries. “Reading an entire book takes time, but understanding its core message doesn’t have to,” one book summariser proudly claims. All of this considered, should we be surprised that countless young people are tossing aside their copies of Wuthering Heights in frustration after 10 pages?As someone who loves novels – not just for their plots, but, you know, for the actual experience of reading them cover-to-cover, I am disturbed by all of this. But even more so, I am concerned by the impulse to share it. I am reminded of my friend (who shall remain nameless) who, of late, has made her catch phrase “bring back shame.” Because honestly: WHY AREN'T WE ALL ASHAMED TO BE ADMITTING WE'VE ALL FORGOTTEN HOW TO READ NOVELS? Not only are people apparently unable to read books, but they also seem to be almost proud of it. Or at least proud enough to film themselves furrowing their brows as they gaze absently at the pages of their crisp new film edition of Wuthering Heights.Okay. Rant over. (Meg Walters)
While I think that Wuthering Heights is proof that the word “classic” is thrown around far too liberally, Brontë’s book does something more interesting than a generic bodice ripper. (Sarah Stewart)
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