A TERRIBLE BEAUTY

How the costume designer Kate Hawley created Frankenstein's show-stealing gowns and jewels

- SOPHIE HAMILTON

Think of the story of Frankenstein and Mary Shelley's terrifying monster immediately comes to mind.

Yet in the director Guillermo del Toro's new film adaptation of the novel, it's the vivid dresses worn by the actress Mia Goth - who plays both the love interest Elizabeth Lavenza and the late mother of the monster's creator, Victor Frankenstein - that steal every scene.

The Emmy-nominated costume designer Kate Hawley is the mastermind behind the outfits, and for her, designing the costumes and selecting the accompanying Tiffany & Co jewellery for Guillermo's "big passion project" has been a dream come true.

Kate first met the director 15 years ago, in her native New Zealand, through The Lord of the Rings producer and director Peter Jackson, and went on to work with Guillermo on his hit films Crimson Peak and Pacific Rim.

"He's such a wonderful, deeply knowledgeable person to work with, and he's an artist first and foremost," Kate tells HELLO! in this exclusive interview at the Corinthia London hotel.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. It was Guillermo's massive fever dream and his lifelong project. That doesn't happen very often, that you're getting to work on someone's big piece."

Based on the 1818 Gothic novel by the British author, the film is set in the 1830s and 1850s, and Kate explains how the vibrant hues of Mia's costumes pay homage to the Victorians' love of colourful clothing, as well as the author's interest in nature.

"Guillermo was always clear about colour," Kate says, telling us that they were inspired by the Hammer horror films, the Italian filmmaker Mario Bava and the painter Caravaggio, whose work has "a deep, dark, romantic tone to it".