The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice press tour is off to a characteristically eclectic start, with sparky rising star Jenna Ortega first out the gate with her vintage Westwood and Dolce pinstripes. But the method dresser, who has been praised for her authentic appropriation of the film’s sinister tropes, is no match for fashion’s favorite goth girl: Winona Ryder.
The OG Beetlejuice actor joined the ensemble cast—including returning Tim Burton favourite Catherine O’Hara and eccentric Deetz family newcomer Monica Bellucci—for a photo call in New York wearing an inky Elena Dawson coat dress and ginormous burgundy sunglasses. With her hair styled in a spiky fringe, per her character Lydia, this was Winona through and through: unexpected yet totally expected.
It says everything that Ryder’s stylist, Erica Cloud, calls herself a “treasure hunter,” rather than a conventional celebrity dresser. Instead of bagging her client the runway’s latest It-pieces, Cloud truffles out designers creating thoughtful pieces that are imperfectly perfect. “Flaws are the best part,” she says. Step up Dawson, who treats her deconstructed tailoring as a kind of fashion autopsy, leaving it unfinished so that its wearer can add their own touches to the unfinished seams and hanging threads. An asymmetric suit shedding stitches, and detailed with the word “Gena” in homage to legendary Hollywoodite Gena Rowlands, exemplified this ethos earlier on the Beetlejuice sequel tour.
That Ryder chose to wear the work of a quirky craftswoman operating out of East Sussex, as opposed to one of any number of luxury brands clamoring to dress her, says everything about her. This is the woman who swept onto the scene in the ’80s with nothing but a slick of wine-coloured lipstick and a crucifix to accompany her signature slip dresses. Audrey Hepburn found her so endearing she gifted the then-teenage Heathers star her hand-me-downs. But by the ’90s, Winona was doing the promo tours for Reality Bites and Girl, Interrupted in band tees (we’re certain she still listens to The Clash, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits), baggy suits and bruised brogues that were very much in keeping with her own poetic personal brand.