Why Do Final Girls Always Have Killer Style?

In I Know What You Did Last Summer, meanwhile, final girl Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) favors a simple, girl-next-door aesthetic. “Her final look is a midriff-baring [top], which is what most people think about when they remember that movie,” says Danny Pellegrino, a pop-culture aficionado and host of the Everything Iconic podcast. “She also uses her wardrobe at the end of the film to escape the killer, when she’s stuck in the boat—so the outfit becomes a useful piece to her survival.” In the film’s sequel, singer Brandy joins Hewitt as a final girl. “Brandy’s style was so great throughout that entire movie,” says Pellegrino of her character’s beachy dresses and cowboy hats. “I always felt we were robbed of not getting a third film with Brandy and Hewitt.”

Having stylish leading ladies in the horror genre isn’t super surprising, given that eerie motifs have always crept their way into the high-fashion arena. Designers frequently find delight in the macabre. For his spring 2000 season, Raf Simons designed an entire menswear line of Camp Crystal Lake tees, an homage to the setting of the classic horror flick Friday the 13th. Prada’s fall 2019 graphic prints served as a tribute to Frankenstein. For resort 2020, Moschino’s Jeremy Scott even designed a whole line of different scary-movie-inspired wares, including Dracula shirts and spiderweb-print dresses.

Just this past spring 2023 season, final girls were one of the main inspirations for Interior designers Lily Miesmer and Jack Miner. “If it has a pulse on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s high art to us,” Miesmer says. While designing their assortment of deconstructed separates, they took cues from the slashed pieces that final girls often sport.  “We’ve seen our fair share of final girls. The drama of the visuals are just priceless—a girl covered in blood, with only the whites of her eyes visible, is a forever favorite,” says Miesmer. “To a certain extent, we all feel like final girls these days, always narrowly escaping some chainsaw-wielding, apocalypse-grade monster. This beat-up, busted, mud-stained spirit of the collection reflects this feeling of always outrunning the devil.”