Cautionary Women

All rise for the Golden Globes!  They're often treated as the opening act to the Oscars—less a crystal ball than an appetizer, but a glamorous one nonetheless. Over the decades, the Golden Globes have honored some of cinema's most memorable antiheroes and outright villains. From manipulative schemers to serial killers, these characters prove that audiences can't look away from a compelling bad woman. And the Golden Globes for Most Villainous Female Characters go to... Rosalyn Rosenfeld The only thing softening Jennifer Lawrence's unabashed chaos in American Hustle is her impeccable comedic timing. As the unpredictable Rosalyn Rosenfeld, Lawrence turns every scene into a disaster waiting to happen. The performance earned her the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress at the 2014 ceremony. Lydia Tár Cate Blanchett's Lydia Tár wields power as expertly as she conducts an orchestra. Brilliant but deeply abusive of her authority, she is one of modern cinema's most f...

A 3rd-century CE statue of Hecate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft, in the Vatican Museums. Credit: Mark Cartwright "Overpowered" is a word that gets thrown around a lot in geek culture, mainly for characters who are practically invincible.  But what do you expect when a character is supposed to be a deity? This god-tier chaos happens an awful lot in fiction. From comics to movies, deities arrive fully loaded, lusting for universal domination and doing damage to superheroes with ease.  Many fictional deities defy gender altogether. But when they are portrayed as goddesses, they're often in a league of their own. At times self-righteous, sometimes downright malevolent, female deities wield a kind of power that could be all too rare in the real world.  For this list of goddesses, we're skipping mythological figures like Athena, Eris, or Kali as well as overt depictions of them; they belong to a realm between folklore and religion. Instead, let's bow down at the alta...

It's hard to believe it, but Oscar-winning actor Octavia Spencer did not have her first lead role until 2019's Ma. While the movie, also directed by The Help's Tate Taylor, was no critical darling, it wasn't a waste of her phenomenal talents altogether.  The overwhelming consensus was that Octavia gave a solid performance as Sue Ann Ellington, a role that would have gone to a white actor.  Sue Ann is a twisted version of the Cool Mom, a larger-than-life parental figure with a hidden, murderous agenda. Here's how you can look like the meme-tastic, vengeful villainess for Halloween. How to get Octavia Spencer's Ma look  Octavia's Ma costume is easy enough to pull off. A veterinary technician, Sue Ann is seen in  floral scrubs  that she covers with a  purple knit cardigan . She pairs them with a pair of pink pants.  In one famous scene, Sue Ann is the life of the party with her newsboy cap and matchy-matchy maroon pants and blouse, with huge bangles...

Nurse Mildred Ratched is one of cinema's most famous characters, and deservedly so.  The big baddie of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has been ranked the second-greatest villainess of all time by the American Film Institute, the character even netting Louise Fletcher a Best Actress Oscar.  Let's just say this costume guide has been a long time coming.  How to make a Nurse Ratched costume The story of the Mildred Ratched costume is the also the story of the nurse uniform. It has evolved a lot since the 1975 movie, so much so that hospitals and healthcare institutions have abandoned the iconic  white cap-and-coat combo seen on Louise. Most have traded it for medical scrubs since the 90s.  Nevertheless, the nurse cap endures today as a Halloween costume staple . You can easily make DIY nurse caps with nothing but paper. Here's how.  If you want to copy the Sarah Paulson version of the villain, as seen on 2020's Ratched, get crafty with  blue-green ...

Do you want to be a Disney villainess for Halloween but not one of the thousands of Maleficents, Cruella de Vils, and Ursulas on the streets? Helga Sinclair has you covered.  The bad girl of Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) has one of the easiest villain costumes you can gun for (no pun intended) this season.   How to make a Helga Sinclair costume All you need to cosplay Helga is a white tank top , paired with olive-green military or cargo pants . Or a dark turtleneck , paired with tight-fitting tan pants . Earlier in the movie, she also wears a military-green coat. To complete Helga's femme fatale look, wear a buscadero or Western holster that will not look out of place in 1914.  You can also accessorize with brown or black gloves and knee-high boots .  How to do Helga Sinclair hair and makeup Helga has blond locks that she French-braids to the side, just like another strong female character who came out in theaters in 2001: Lara Croft.  Helga als...

There have now been 14 actresses who played Wednesday Addams, the notoriously stoic, helplessly truth-telling daughter of Gomez and Morticia Addams.  Little more than an editorial cartoon character on The New Yorker in the 1930s, Charles Addams' creation has taken on a life of her own and become a style icon over the years. With her bewitchingly funereal looks, Wednesday has inspired generations to wear their gothic fits with pride, on and beyond Halloween.    The Gen-Z Wednesday Addams, Jenna Ortega, has only added to the character's diversifying legacy of fashion statements. Let's see how the 2020s Wednesday differs from her predecessors.  How to make Jenna Ortega's Wednesday Addams costume Lisa Loring and Christina Ricci are tough acts to follow as Wednesday, but Jenna still made the character her own. Costume designer Colleen Atwood went beyond the cartoon's famed peter pan collars and dressed Jenna in a wide array of OOTDs to last Wednesday and every day of th...

Bianca and Bernard might be mice, but Madame Medusa is a rat.  Or a crocodile.  Or both. The pawnshop owner that everyone loves to hate is probably one of Disney's most underrated villains. This, despite the House of Mouse calling her "the world's wickedest woman" during promo for The Rescuers.  She does have a wicked sense of style. What she lacks in infamy compared to villains like Cruella de Vil, she more than makes up for in the looks department.  How to make a Madame Medusa costume  If Madame Medusa reminds you a bit of Cruella, that's definitely not a coincidence. The animators initially considered reusing Cruella's designs for Madame Medusa, so this could explain the latter's similarly short fuse, reckless driving, and great penchant for abduction.  The diamond-crazed kidnapper is known for her red halter dress and pink high heels (with the occasional fur -trimmed coat) that scream late 1970s. She also favors jade earrings .   For a dash o...

It's amazing how one dress can make or break careers. In the case of Sharon Stone, it only solidified her icon status.  Appearing on 1992's Basic Instinct as she did, all dressed in ironic white, Sharon's Catherine Tramell character played a dirty game in more ways than one.  How to recreate Sharon Stone's Basic Instinct costume The story behind the iconic Catherine Tramell look is less glamorous than you'd think. Writing for InStyle on the 30th anniversary of the film, Sharon confessed that she was paid far, far less than co-star Michael Douglas.  But at least Sharon was able to keep the outfits — she had asked for them in her contract. That  white turtleneck , complemented by a short white coat, up-to-there white pencil skirt, and white slingbacks with stiletto heels, is really a keeper. The entire thing does make for a very easy costume. Sharon herself said she gets a kick out of seeing anyone channel Catherine Tramell on Halloween, so you better make mother pr...

In 2021, Idina Menzel stepped into the not-so-glass slippers of Vivian, the antagonist on Amazon Studios' reimagining of Cinderella.  Elsa as Evil Stepmother? That perfect girl is gone alright.  Unlike her Disney counterparts, Idina's version of the wicked foster parent has a terrific set of pipes, naturally. But the dynamic is still a tale as old as time. Just like Lady Tremaine before her, Stepmom Vivian likes to gaslight Camila Cabello's Ella into thinking that she's all that stands between her and a life on the street. How to make a Stepmother Vivian costume  Nothing about this movie sticks to any particular period in time. Ellen Mirojnick, she of Bridgerton fame, kept it ambiguous with her costume designs (a fairy tale is "any time," she insists).  In Idina's case, Ellen went 1980s Christian Lacroix and decked the actor in pussy bow blouses, jewel tones, and loud prints. The gown Idina wore to the ball, among many other memorable costumes, is hand-e...

Lady Tremaine's power isn't so much supernatural as a normal, everyday, human condition. She may not be able to turn herself into a dragon, crone, or leviathan , but, girl, is she wicked in herself.  Her power lies in her passive aggression and psychological cruelty, which she uses to secure wealthy sons-in-law for her daughters.  So imagine the consequences if she does get super powers. Let's just say everybody would be tripping themselves. (She ultimately got them in 2007's Cinderella III: A Twist in Time.) Whether it's the original 1950 movie or the 2015 live-action remake, Disney's Cinderella has everyone rooting for the titular underdog and all her mouse friends because Lady Tremaine, simply put, is a rat. Then there's the mending and the sewing. Let's get to the costume guide.  How to make a Lady Tremaine costume Madame Tremaine cuts a matronly figure in a mid-to-late 19th-century dress with a full skirt, probably with a crinoline or bustle. If you...

Lim Ji Yeon on the Netflix K-series The Glory There were lots of villains in 2023, but few could claim having made us shake our screens in anger.  Park Yeon Jin from The Glory, the smash Netflix show filmed and set in South Korea, is truly one of the most enraging characters to have come out of K-drama.  But count on your fellow viewers' ability to compartmentalize their feelings. As maddening as The Glory's antagonist is, viewers can't help but crush on her fashion sense. She literally had clothes flying off shelves whenever she would appear on screen.  That's because of her outfits' relatability and — surprise, surprise! — how affordable they really are. How to make a Park Yeon Jin costume A Park Yeon Jin dress, affordable? To that, we say a big "예" Just because Lim Ji-Yeon is parading on TV with designer handbags doesn't mean the rest of her outfits are just as expensive.  Remember the ombre green dress she wore in one particularly bloody episode? ...

A scene from The Little Mermaid 2023, now on Disney+ The live-action remakes of the Disney Renaissance are now complete with The Little Mermaid swimming into streaming.  That means our beloved Ursula is made flesh-and-fishbone at last, with self-confessed fangirl Melissa McCarthy soaking up the role. How do you give justice to becoming one of the most awesome villains, not just of 2023, but of all time? Well, angelfish. The solution to your problem is simple. How to do Ursula makeup and hair Oscar-winning Peter Swords King got some flak from prominent drag queens who feel like the British artist's makeup on Melissa did not stay true to the spirit of the character. The sea witch is based on Divine, John Waters' muse on the films Hairspray and Pink Flamingo. To his credit, Swords King, who identifies as straight, gave props to drag artists for improving his paint, especially the art of erasing the eyebrows and drawing on a completely new one. "So thank you all drag queens ou...

Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh on the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Discovery Michelle Yeoh has been truly Everything Everywhere All at Once since her historic win at the Academy Awards.  She's off to bigger things, but one thing she would never be too big for is the Star Trek universe. She is reprising her role as the much-loathed—or much-loved, depending on which mirror universe you're looking at—Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek: Section 31, a spin-off movie from Star Trek: Discovery.  Of course our costume guide will not be all about Captain Philippa Georgiou. This post is dedicated to Her Most Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Kronos, Regina Andor, Emperor Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius. The fearsome ruler of the Terran Empire has such a badass lore that even Jobu Tupaki would be proud of. How to cosplay Philippa Georgiou Emperor Georgiou, like Michelle Yeoh herself, is of Malaysian heritage Michelle's star turn...

When Anne Rice released Queen of the Damned, the third in the Vampire Chronicles, in 1988, no one would have thought that a real music star would portray the titular character in a movie adaptation. After all, it was Lestat, the antihero of the novel, who dabbled in a music career, not Akasha, the progenitor of all vampires in the Anne Rice universe.  But Aaliyah, in her last starring role, really made the character her own. As Akasha, the R&B star was, ahem, "At Her Best," comporting herself like a regal serpent, her movements blurring the boundaries between movie and music video.  Anne truly left earth with one of the most bloody brilliant creations to grace fiction. Now that it's that time of the year, let's pay respect to the mother of all vampires, Queen Akasha of Kemet.  Akasha headdress Akasha's crowning glory doesn't require precious stones from primordial Egypt at all. Just be your bad crafty self.  Here's the paper plate route: This one invol...

Krysten Ritter trades superhero Jessica Jones for supervillain Natacha in Netflix's Nightbooks Krysten Ritter's costumes in Netflix's 2021 Halloween smash "Nightbooks" were, no pun intended, eye candy. In this modern stab at a well-known fairytale, most of the costume changes are the "Jessica Jones" alum's sweet burden to bear. Her character Natacha is, in her words, a "goth Barbie" who switches up her outfits almost as often as the hero Alex tells scary stories.  Let's see how you can steal children her look:  Natacha costume Image via List23 If a witch has gone punk rock, that's Natacha for you. This sorceress knows which outfits are the most spellbinding, and viewers would agree that her pearl cage neckpiece is one of the most bewitching yet. She paired this with pink platform boots that would shame the Spice Girls. For this outfit, simply pair a black long-sleeve dress with this pearl body chain bra .  You might not know this ...