The Meaning of Mia Goth’s Outfits in Frankenstein

If you pay close attention to Elizabeth Lavenza, Mia Goth’s character in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, you’ll notice that she is somewhat evocative of an insect.

Introduced as the fiancée to William, the brother of Frankenstein’s creator Victor, Goth’s expected role as the beautiful, obedient bride-to-be is immediately offset by her…alluring strangeness. Entering a grim, grey Victorian setting, Elizabeth infuses the film with colour and contrast. In her first appearance, her rich blues and greens shimmer like the shell of a turquoise beetle, and her crowning headpiece—a bright feathered accessory that frames her face—calls to mind two hardened forewings.

But perhaps the most striking element of this first-impression oeuvre is her bug-inspired Tiffany & Co. necklace. Clasped around her neck is a sapphire scarab chocker, a design based on a sacred beetle in Ancient Egypt, which is thought to symbolize rebirth. It was one of many precious pieces pulled from the Tiffany & Co. archive to bring Elizabeth’s character to life. In this ensemble, it not only reflects her love for insects but also the rejuvenation they represent.

Such rich symbolism is imbued in all her outfits, courtesy of costume designer Kate Hawley. Throughout the film, her bright colours are in direct contrast to the muted tones of the era, and her gauzy green veils—delicate swaths of soft tulle that drape over her face—obscure her appearance just so, acting as a form of protection (not unlike a shielding insect veil). Elizabeth’s affinity for tiny critters is a cornerstone of her kindness. She is often studying science and entomology, fascinated by their misunderstood beauty.

Elizabeth immediately pushes back on Victor’s narrow view of the world. Where he strives for power and control, she values nature and balance. Where he sees mortality as a playground for experimentation, she holds reverence for all life forms. Insects are written off as gross, unclean and sometimes scary, but Elizabeth sees them as gorgeous, pure and intelligent. The same goes for her understanding of the Creature (Jacob Elordi)—the lonely monster Victor abuses for being non-human. Throughout the film, she is the only person who gives him a chance and sees his softness.

Fittingly, there’s a naturalistic harmony to Elizabeth’s aesthetic. Her delicate demeanour is balanced by the intentional grandeur of her accessorizing. To conceptualize her eccentric 19th-century outfits, Hawley created watercolours and vivid drawings. When she shared them with Christopher Young, Tiffany & Co.’s Creative Director and Vice President for Global Creative Visual Merchandising, he says he felt he was “witnessing creative greatness.” A special costuming collaboration was born.

As such, the film is full of archival, custom and couture jewels from the storied Maison. “Mia’s depth of character and pure, authentic beauty seemed to energize the jewels we selected, like an electric charge,” Young says. Some pieces were pulled from the brand’s treasured collection—like the scarab designs by Louis Comfort Tiffany—while others, Young notes, were tailor-made for the film.

Take the red cross that Elizabeth wears in several scenes: a beaded, stacked necklace with a gothic intensity. “Based on Hawley’s research of early Tiffany crosses, including those of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Art Jewellery Department, the piece was constructed using period-appropriate materials and techniques, including enamel and hand-carved garnet to accomplish a powerful symbol,” says Young, adding that they worked with Tiffany’s Jewellery Design and Innovation Workshop as well as Tiffany’s gemstone acquisition team. Made in a bright Carnelian red, it ties together the film’s lasting themes of naturalism and religion. Like every piece Tiffany provided, it furthers Elizabeth’s emotional arc.

“Tiffany’s role in the film was so important to us culturally; we only offered up historic, important pieces that would attest to del Toro’s scale of production,” says Young. “We sought to contribute to this sweeping masterpiece with some of our finest historic jewels, some of which are rarely seen.” Perhaps the most breathtaking is the diamond garland style Wade Family necklace, designed by Paulding Farnham in 1900. Its precious stones drip with teardrop-like fluidity, encapsulating Elizabeth’s gilded-cage melancholia.

“This magnificent necklace has only been featured in our exhibitions or referenced in publications over the years but we were so convinced about the cultural enormity of this film that we offered to place it on Mia Goth for this incredibly rare occasion—we have never proposed it to be worn previously,” Young explains. “When Goth first tried it on and it fit her absolutely perfectly, it literally sent chills down our spine. The feeling that we were somehow fulfilling its destiny.”

In one pivotal scene, when she is rejecting Victor’s advances, she draws attention to a butterfly trapped in a glass crate. Choice is the seat of the soul, she tells Victor. From the moment she is introduced to her fleeting final hours, Elizabeth is not given much autonomy. But even in her smallest choices—including how she adorns herself—she always chooses empathy over alienation.