His Dark Materials: Tim Burton's Wednesday Sparks a Gothic Fashion Revival

If you see a lot of Gen Z wearing black, braiding their hair in pigtails, and giving yourself a Kubrick Stare, it's because of their new hero anti-heroine on Wednesday. It's been just over a week since Tim Burton's new series Wednesday debuted on Netflix, but already tweens and teens are channeling the brooding and sardonic daughter of the Addams Family.< /p>

Set by the deadpan Christina Ricci in 90s movies, this time around Wednesday has been given a Gen-Z makeover. The series follows a now-teenage Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) as she is banished to Nevermore Academy, a creepy boarding school, after an incident involving a school swim team and a bag of piranhas. What ensues is an action-packed melodrama fusing the genres of murder mystery with horror and a dollop of teenage angst. It quickly became Netflix's most popular show, beating the last series of Stranger Things.

Refusing to conform to patriarchal norms and socials, Wednesday is Awkward, where much of its appeal lies.

"It's a fresh take on the trope of adolescence," says Shelley Cobb, professor of Film and Feminist Media Studies. "It appeals to Gen Z - those born between 1997 and 2012 - and their ability to talk about cultural politics and popular discourse around identity politics. Wednesday adds a voice to these things in an insightful way." p>

Since the character debuted in The New Yorker cartoons in 1938, Wednesday has had a very specific and defined sense of style . More than 80 years later, her black braided hair and black-and-white dress color scheme are still there.

Pinterest reports that searches for "Wednesday Addams costume " are multiplied by 50 per year -year. White shirts, knee-high socks and black nail polish are all in style. Meanwhile, clothing resale app Depop says searches for Wednesday-inspired outfits are up 1,000% since the start of the month.

It's the Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood, to whom we owe in particular Sleepy Hollow and Edward Scissorhands, to evoke the wardrobe for Wednesday 2022.

In the opening scene, we see Wednesday in her trademark look that since the 60s has been imitated at Halloween costume parties - a long-sleeved black dress with a white dot...