The Modern Woman Is Embracing Her Inner Witch
On February 24, 2017, thousands of witches across the country gathered to cast a binding spell on Donald Trump. Singer Lana Del Rey took part in the mass hex, and encouraged her fans on social media to participate too. The gatherings have since become a monthly ritual, taking place at the stroke of midnight on a night of the waning crescent moon.
Time was when witches were burned at the stake-or, at the very least, relegated to the margins of society. But in recent years, witchiness-as a personal style, a philosophy, and, yes, even a form of self-care-has not only gone mainstream, it’s taken on a patina of cool. Stores like Urban Outfitters are lousy with crystals and candles. On Instagram, influencers like Emma Roberts are as likely to show off an aura reading as they are a new outfit. And in the beauty world, many of the hottest skin-care ingredients (snail mucus, bee venom) sound like they’ve been formulated in a steaming cauldron instead a lab.
Witchcraft has also spread its wings into the bright halls of fashion, with Gucci leading the way. After Alessandro Michele’s much-discussed fall collection, which included a procession of dragon bearers and cephalophores-saints who are depicted carrying their own severed heads-the artistic director ushered in Resort 2019 with a collection that can best be described as a goth teen’s wildest dream. The show took place in a Roman necropolis in southern France, accompanied by smoke and candles and a dramatic 17th century musical composition sung in Latin. Fashion’s elite surrounded by the dead-and, by extension, reminders of their own mortality. And the clothes were anything but breezy holiday fun. There were crucifixes, lace, brooches, tall boots, capes, veils, crushed velvet, spikes, high collars, long sleeves. Other brands showed similar inclinations: Picture Louis Vuitton’s bone-white Victorian gown, Vera Wang’s jet-black tulle, and Max Mara’s ethereal capes.
"Modern witchiness reveals itself through fashion in clothes that articulate joy and express a healthy relationship with mortality while also being difficult for the male gaze."
Modern witchiness reveals itself through fashion in clothes that articulate joy and express a healthy relationship with mortality while also being difficult for the male gaze. It’s not about dressing to please an amorphous other but yourself: Grey Gardens meets Wednesday Addams meets Stevie Nicks meets nuns. Luxe meets feeling yourself meets fuck off.
Today’s witches couldn’t care less about outward approval: Their focus lies in their own pleasure and craft as they carefully construct their identities, one aesthetic and/or metaphysical choice at a time. The titular witch in Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita becomes that way by rubbing a cream from a demon all over her body and then taking off, flying, into the night. The rest of us? We’ve donned our capes, we’re right behind her.
This article originally appears in the November 2018 issue of Harper's BAZAAR.
Model: McKenna Hellam; Hair: Joey George for Hairstory; Makeup: Yuki Hayashi for Dior Beauty; Manicure: Mar y Soul for Chanel Le Vernis; Production: Heather Strange; Set Design: Andrea Huelse. Special thanks to Moondance Ridge Bed & Breakfast, New Paltz, New York.
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