Gabe Gordon AW26
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First, Timothée Chalamet declared his love for Susan Boyle, and now, the 30-year-old actor has bravely come out as a Twihard. This week, Timmy posted a mirror selfie on his Instagram stories, unmistakably wearing merch from The Twilight Saga’s third movie, Eclipse. Not only that, but his choice of t-shirt – featuring a large black-and-white image of Taylor Lautner’s face – strongly suggests he’s Team Jacob. Whether Timmy really is dancing with wolves, or simply poking fun at his friend and Dune: Part Three co-star Robert Pattinson, he’s not the only one referencing the supernatural shapeshifters.
At New York Fashion Week last weekend, there was something hairy about Gabe Gordon’s AW26 show. Titled Frostbite, the show was part inspired by 80s figure skaters, and part inspired by the cult 80s horror movie, An American Werewolf in London. Models carried vintage ice skates while claws grew from the end of their fingernails and tufts of hair sprouted from their wrists. If Gabe Gordon’s collection was one for Team Jacob, Collina Strada’s show was a nod to the Team Edward community: titled The World is a Vampire, designer Hillary Taymour used the mythical creatures as a metaphor for the world losing its humanity.
In the past few years, Twilight has crashed back into pop culture. For some of us (me), it never really left our consciousness, but with the book’s 20th anniversary last year, the viral “hoa hoa hoa” season trend, and Kristen Stewart admitting that she’d love to direct a reboot, it’s an exciting time to be a Twihard. And don’t think we’ve forgotten the Midnight Sun animated series due for release at some point this year, which will retell the Twilight story from Edward’s perspective.
While vampires have been the source of fashion inspiration for decades (see Alexander McQueen’s SS96 The Hunger, Jean Paul Gaultier AW14, or more recently, the work of Transylvanian brand ABODI), their canine frenemies have never been quite as popular. Still, the iconography of werewolves – or at least wolves – has made some interesting appearances throughout fashion history. Of course, if anyone was going to send actual wolves (or large dogs) down the runway, it was Alexander McQueen, which is exactly what he did for his AW02 show. Then there was the Schiaparelli SS23 couture collection, in which Naomi Campbell wore a wolf’s head on her shoulder, and Coperni’s AW23 collection campaign, inspired by Aesop’s fable The Wolf and The Lamb. In 2017, Olivier Rousteing even brought back those early noughties wolf t-shirts with his Balmain AW17 show.
In the great vampire vs werewolf debate, in the fashion industry at least, vampires have usually come out on top (they do have the benefit of actually wearing clothes). But the tides may be changing. Beyond Timothée Chalamet and Gabe Gordon, even director Robert Eggers has switched sides, closing his Nosferatu chapter and moving onto Werwulf – a period horror film about a lyncathrophic creature stalking a 13th century English village, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp and Willem Dafoe, and due for release at the end of this year. Less gothic was the 2024 film, Nightbitch, in which Amy Adams becomes convinced that she’s turning into a dog at night, while later this year, Alexander Skarsgård will star in the 19th-century gothic horror The Wolf Will Tear Your Immaculate Hands (fingers crossed for some wolfy red carpet looks).
Meanwhile, in the world of beauty, earlier this week Vogue declared that the wolf cut will be everywhere this spring, and transformational hair couture from designers such as Charlie Le Mindu and Evanie Frausto has also become an unexpected trend. “I think hair is such a personal material because it’s our fur,” Le Mindu told Dazed. We can even smell like werewolves now – late last year, DS & Durga released a fragrance called ‘Well Dressed Werewolf’. Our furry foes might be nocturnal creatures, but in fashion, it’s a bright new dawn for the werewolf.