the clothes make the vampire
characters and costume design in AMC’s Interview with the Vampire
Welcome to a special edition collaboration with Dress Rehearsals and Who is Ying Ying. As diehard fans of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire, we’ve combined Ying’s media literacy and eye for narrative with Prince/ss’s aesthetic sensibility into costume design insights for a greater purpose: to explore how the costumes on the show elevate the storytelling and character development.
Warning for spoilers ahead for seasons 1 and 2.
Prince/ss = Dress Rehearsals
Ying = Who is Ying Ying
Okay, just start the tape. Don’t be afraid, just start the tape.
Prince/ss: One of the most interesting things about Interview with a Vampire for me is that it’s a frame story. (A frame story is when the action, the meat of the story, is not told to us directly but rather, through a narrator.) In IWTV, the frame story is presented through the interviews with Daniel Molloy.
Most of the story takes place within a storytelling device. We are seeing the events and characters in distortion, like looking at something through it’s reflection.
We don’t even know what Lestat and Claudia actually look like for basically the entire show, as we only see their image as described by other people. And so when we see what the characters wear, it’s through the perspective of the interviewer and interviewee.
This framing is so critical I feel to any analysis of the show. The only events that we are watching directly are in the present day, everything is narrated to us colored by the bias of the narrator(s) and as we come to realize, Louis’ memory isn’t entirely reliable...
Claudia: Clothing and Autonomy
Ying: Claudia is intelligent, driven, curious, and determined. Whereas Louis was manipulated into becoming a vampire, Claudia had no choice. Her actions are motivated by wanting a sense of self, a sense of agency, identity and community.
In season 1 we see Claudia going on her murder spree and collecting souvenirs. She’s writing in her diary, she’s collecting mementos, all things that every teenage girl does. Why do any of us collect things? To remind ourselves of who we are. We find out before Claudia kills each of these people, she is trying to make them into companions and recording their last words in her diary. It’s an attempt to understand herself through other people. But she also can’t age, so she’s grasping at different human experiences that she cannot have.
Claudia wears a lot of red. Red is a very passionate, very bold color. It suits Claudia, since she’s a very assertive character. She’s decisive. She’s bold. And she’s brave. She took care of Louis after Lestat dropped him. She tried to convince Louis to run away together. Despite being the youngest and turned as a teenager, out of all of these toxic vampires she’s arguably the most mature (which is crazy considering she’s collecting kill souvenirs, yeah the bar is low).
Prince/ss: Claudia has less control over her clothing because she’s a woman and in a child’s body.
The most significant relationship she has in the show outside of Louis, Lestat, and the coven is with Madeleine, who as we know, is a dressmaker. Their relationship starts with Claudia buying a dress from her, an important exercise of agency and self-assertion for Claudia. She’s in a child body but she can now dress like an adult, which is not an option that is normally available to her.
Not long after this, Armand punishes Claudia by forcing her to wear the little girl’s dress all the time, even when she’s not performing.
She and Madeleine become closer to each other while she’s being fitted. And there’s that vision that Louis sees when he turns Madeline into a vampire -- he sees Claudia from Madeleine’s point of view, being fitted for a dress in a sunlight that she couldn’t possibly survive.
Clothes are a very important part of Claudia’s story.
White reveals the vampire’s true nature
Ying: I have a theory about the color white. When vampires wear white, they often just fed, so they have blood all over them, and you can see the red more clearly against the white. Like in season 1, Louis, Lestat, and Claudia wear white costumes when they’re dancing at the Mardi Gras party, and when they murder everyone afterward.
Prince/ss: Yes, and Louis was also wearing a beautiful white suit when he met with the politician making underhanded racist remarks. These were things that Louis simply had to bear as a human. But as a vampire, he decided, “I can’t deal with this shit anymore,” and attacked.
In season 2, when the theater cast members close in on the victim, they wear ugly potato sack-like clothes, and those are also white. This may have been a theatrical production design choice, as they want to show the audience, “Look at us, we are consuming the blood,” and play up the reality as fiction.
Ying: I would argue that white has become symbolic of them revealing themselves as vampires. Like when Louis first meets Daniel, he has a blue jacket over his white shirt. But then when they go back to Louis’s place, he takes it off. That’s when proves he’s a vampire.
Perhaps the only vampire we never see with blood on his face is Armand. But white carries the same symbolic meaning for him. The first time Armand joins the interview as himself instead of Rashid, he’s wearing a crisp white shirt. This stands out — Armand usually wears very dark clothing.
But there is a scene where Armand wears all white, that first time he visits their apartment in Paris, but there’s no reveal that we’re aware of. I wasn’t sure what to make of that.
Prince/ss: I wonder if there is there a metaphorical feeding that’s happening when they’re wearing white, even if they’re not actually sucking blood? Is Armand taking something from someone in the scenes when he’s in all white?
Character Analysis: Armand
Ying: Armand attempts to present a facade of being a suave, sophisticated leader, but he’s actually deeply weird, obsessive, and insecure. He was sex trafficked as a child and then continues to play different servile roles throughout his life. He’s manipulating people because he doesn’t really know any other way to act, but also he doesn’t truly know what will make him happy. Armand trying to figure out, what is it that I want? He’s hoping that someone else will tell him, because he’s so used to being controlled by people. Like damn, after all this time you still haven’t fully matured and carrying around 500 years of baggage with you?
I also think Armand is very woman-coded. He’s always cleaning up after men. “Ah, Louis, you made a mess again, and I’m going to clean it up, and I was waiting for you at home, blah, blah, blah.” Even the way that he exercises his authority over the coven—it seems he feels like he’s not respected, he’s not appreciated. Very similar to a lot of manipulative women. When they finally snap, they go full crazy. “You have not been listening to me for so long. You’re going to listen to me now, finally.”
Prince/ss: Armand’s costuming choices reflect the fact that he doesn’t really have a core sense of self. He just wears what is appropriate for the settings that he’s in. When he’s a cult leader, he looks like a cult leader. When he’s at the Paris Cafe, he’s dressed like he’s at a Paris Cafe. In general, his clothing choices are very classic cuts, neutral colors. He’s just dressing the part as a theater director. He’s just a foil aesthetically for all of the other characters in the troupe. They have more interesting outfits, and he disappears into the background often because he’s dressed to do so.
You can’t read anything about him through what he wears. There’s nothing about him that screams, “I’m fucking crazy.” When you look at Lestat in his clown costume, you think, “Dang, that guy has a lot going on.” When you see what Armand wears, what can you read about who he is? What do you know about him? What parts of himself does he celebrate? You don’t really read anything from his clothes. Louis’s clothes have a very strong sense of personality, it’s just shifting.
What do you think he’s looking for? Lestat is looking for someone to be his companion. He wants someone to be with him forever. Louis is looking for himself. Claudia’s looking for autonomy. What do you think Armand is looking for?
Ying: I don’t think he actually knows. I think he’s looking for someone to save him and give him a sense of self.
Prince/ss: I think Armand is looking for someone who will fully accept him for who he is.
Vampire eyewear
Prince/ss: I love all the sunglasses in this show.
Louis wears really nice sunglasses, his sunglasses in season 1 are the best of anyone’s by far. He’s hiding his eyes from his family, who are getting increasingly fed up with him. They’re thinking, this boy never comes around, and when he does, he’s wearing these fucking sunglasses. He really looks like a pimp—he’s wearing pinstripes, he’s wearing his circular sunglasses, he’s swaggering in.
We see Louis and Armand wear sunglasses, but not so much the other characters.
Ying: Lestat has never worn a pair of sunglasses in his life. He doesn’t care. Lestat is like, “You can see my eyes, so what?” He’s not hiding that he’s a vampire, he wears it proudly.
Prince/ss: Louis is the only one wearing sunglasses functionally. Because he has one foot in each of his lives: human and vampire. He’s trying to maintain his relationship with his family and interacting with the public in a way that Armand is not. Armand wears sunglasses because he’s a character who’s concealing himself.
Ying: He’s a character who pretends that he’s cooler than he is.
Prince/ss: Well, also that. And he’s always lying.
Ying: Here’s something else I’ve noticed. Do you remember the outfit that Armand wears to the motorcycle ride to the mansion back in Paris? He wears a very similar outfit when he chases down that guy for lunch in Dubai. That long trench coat, his hunting clothes. After a successful hunt, he came prancing back in with the sunglasses he stole from that guy. I think Armand really likes a long coat and sunglasses when he’s hunting because it makes him feel powerful.
Character Analysis: Louis de Pointe du Lac
Ying: Louis is a very smart, charismatic, talented guy. He is very concerned about his reputation and how other people perceive him. His sensitivity to others looking down on him is likely due to growing up gay and Black in the South. And perhaps because he’s not naturally a manipulative person himself, Louis is fairly easy to manipulate. He really wants to be honest. He wants to be himself, but he feels like can’t—with his family, with society, with men in power, with women when he was pretending to be into women.
As the eldest son, he feels the need to perform. Years and years of performing have (at least partially) led him to be the dramatic angsty little brat that he is. He needs to talk about his feelings because for so long, no one cared about his feelings. And now he can’t stop talking about his feelings.
When Louis is human, he wears a lot of brown and it washes him out. He just looks exhausted. But then as a vampire he’s wearing bold, flattering colors, like gray, blue, white.
Prince/ss: His clothes reflect who Louis is at different moments in the show. There’s the clothes he wears as a human before he turns. There’s the clothes he wears as a high-functioning member of society in New Orleans as a vampire. There’s the clothes he wears when they’re in Europe, casual button-ups and jackets that he can throw on while being a hobbyist photographer in Paris. Over time, Louis’s clothes represent he is, how he’s feeling, and what he’s trying to do in the moment.
Ying: Think back to when Lestat came to New Orleans. Man didn’t know how to dress, looked crazy. By contrast, Louis is always able to adjust his style to the era, seemingly without having anyone tell him. Paris 1940s, he fits in. He’s wearing what other men “his age” wear in Paris at that time and blends in like a normal human. San Francisco 1970s, his hair and his clothes, everything fits. In Dubai, does he look like a stuck-up, new-age techie billionaire with his black silk outfits? Yeah, but also, that’s what people in Dubai wear. So, he also adjusted there, too. Louis is a natural at sensing what the fashion is at the time.
Outfit compatibility: Louis and Lestat
Ying: I think it was intentional that Louis and Lestat were very well-dressed throughout the entire first season.
When you see Louis and Lestat, they just look good together. Their clothes are very flattering to their different skin tones, so they look good and they look good together. In my opinion, Louis and Armand’s outfits always kind of clashed, because they were always a bit too similar to each other. But Louis and Lestat had a harmony with each other.
Prince/ss: I love this outfit especially of Louis, he looks really good here. The full pinstripe vest and trousers with the solid-color white suit jacket, it’s so good.
Also, how do the outfits fit together when it’s the three of them? The three of them being Louis, Lestat, and Claudia. I was just looking at this one image where Lestat is reading out of her diary (which is so messed up) and Louis is wearing a dad cardigan in this scene. I thought that was funny because it really matches the vibe of his role in the household with Claudia.
Ying: And Lestat looks like a male wife.
Prince/ss: This is the first time I’ve seen Lestat wear stripes. Louis wears pinstripes a lot, but with Lestat he’s usually wearing solid colors. Lestat does a lot of vests over button-ups with the suit jacket off, whereas Louis is usually in a full suit.
Ying: I think that’s probably indicative of how Lestat can relax more easily, going back to Louis being very concerned about other people’s perception of him.
Prince/ss: Well, and it makes sense that Lestat can relax because he’s a white man.
Ying: I also really like this one where Lestat’s wearing a cardigan. I don’t remember what scene this is…they might be looking at Claudia. There’s like a softening of their outfits after Claudia arrives. Which makes sense, they’re wearing more comfortable, cozy clothes with softer textures because they’re parents. They’re domestic now.
Prince/ss: They’re like the by-the-book gay couple in the neighborhood.
Lestat’s good-bye suit
Prince/ss: A call-out costume moment for me is the red suit Lestat wears when Louis gives up his hallucination of him. When Lestat asks, “Why this suit?” Louis says that it was his favorite suit of his, even though we rarely saw Lestat in this color. In season 1, Claudia frequently wore red while Lestat wore a lot of dark blue.
There’s the detail, “I had my tailor sew your initials into the back of my breast pocket, so it would c--[radle my heart]” which Louis doesn’t let him finish saying. That scene is so interesting because that’s a hallucination. So we don’t know whether it’s true or not [that Lestat actually sewed his initials there].
Ying: I think it speaks more to what Louis wants—that Lestat is still in love with him. But I also think that was very in character for Lestat, at least for what we know of him.
Prince/ss: I would totally believe it’s true that he sewed them on.
Before that moment, Louis explicitly says, “you say what I want you to say,” but he doesn’t let him finish saying it. The most critical part of the sentence, “so it would cradle my heart,” is the part that’s cut off.
Ying: It’s like he still desperately needs to know that Lestat loves him, even as he thinks, “I need to let you go.”
Prince/ss: Yes. He wants to know that Lestat loves him, but he also doesn’t at the same time.
Character Analysis: Lestat de Lioncourt
Ying: Fundamentally, Lestat is not afraid of destroying ways of living if he doesn’t see the point in them. While Armand manipulates others to get him out of situations, if Lestat wants to do something, he just fucking does it. He’s not thinking too hard, just prances in there and goes, “you’re afraid of a piece of wood, this is from a tree.”
Prince/ss: He’s very peacocking, he likes to show off. He likes attention. He wants to be seen. And also, desperately wants to be loved.
Lestat is also a very controlling character. In season 1, Louis chooses Lestat’s clothes. So what he’s wearing is now through multiple lenses. One, it’s not clothes he chose for himself, it’s clothes that Louis chose for him that he’s allowed himself to wear, but also as described by Louis to Daniel, which is fascinating. Actually, my recent substack is related to this. Your clothes are how you represent yourself to society and to the world and allowing someone else to choose your clothes is letting them have control over your identity, in a sense. It does tie in with Lestat’s character—someone who is controlling, but desperate for connection and fears abandonment—that the person that he loves, he allows to control his image.
Ying: I think we also need to keep in mind that Lestat is in a new city. He’s in New Orleans. This is a tale as old as time. A queer leaves their old town because they cannot deal with the mess there anymore. They’ve dated everyone there and they have too many exes. So they move to another place, get a new name, a new look, a new boo. Lestat is going through what many queers go through, a complete rebirth of his identity. On top of him craving love, I think that he’s very eager to become a new person.
Prince/ss: When we see him in New Orleans for the first time, when Louis first meets him, Louis thinks that Lestat looks ridiculous, so maybe that’s why we also think he looks ridiculous. His outfit is stylistically very different from the outfits we see him wearing in Paris. He’s wearing this weird scarf and this really long brown jacket that doesn’t look very good on him. It looks very old world, like a vintage vampire. Perhaps what Lestat is wearing when Louis initially meets him is the closest to a real representation of him, because Louis doesn’t know him yet.
When we see him in Paris, he’s dressed very differently. He’s wearing this magnificent dark red cloak as a statement of, “I’m a new vampire. Paris, are you ready for me?” This is my favorite Lestat outfit. The patchwork, the big, ruffly cravat, the cummerbund, the really large, white criss-cross. Blue is Lestat’s color, he wears a lot of dark blue. It’s all kind of garish, very “look at me!” and just so attention-seeking. It’s a clown outfit.
Ying: But also, keep in mind that we’re seeing him from Armand’s perspective in these scenes.
It makes sense that from Armand’s point of view, Lestat looks very handsome and extravagant, specifically because Armand has been living his life in squalor for the past 500 years. But also, Armand is very attracted to Lestat, even though he thinks Lestat is such a vain little bitch. “Using vampirism to serve your vanity? This is heresy,” Armand scoffs, as he stares at Lestat with longing.
In The Vampire Lestat, we’re going to see more of his own actual fashion sense. I fully expect him to be wearing much crazier shit since he’s dressing himself now.
Clothes are how we represent ourselves to others and on the flipside are a lens through which others perceive and understand us. In the fragile and fickle nature of memory, our perception of what people look can shift based on how we felt about them. This is the story of the clothing on Interview with the Vampire and it is a powerful one.
In The Vampire Lestat, we are going to see our favorite characters from Lestat’s perspective, the one character whose eyes we haven’t seen this world through yet. Different time periods, different perspective, our same beloved toxic boys.
Season 3, The Vampire Lestat premieres this Sunday, June 7. Will you be watching?
Screenshots sourced from Kinorium, Move Stills, and Lost in Time Graphics.
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