A Morticia Addams outfit is a long black silhouette that stays close to the body and runs to the floor, finished with a sleeve that flares at the wrist, a stack of silver rings and straight dark hair. To wear it every day, keep that outline and change what it is made of, so the dress moves when you walk and the waist comes from a corset top you can take off.
The walking has always been the hard part. Ruth Myers, who designed Anjelica Huston's costumes for The Addams Family in 1991, told ELLE: "To get the silhouette that was so necessary, she could not walk." Huston was built into the shape, with padded hips, a cinched waist and a lifted bust, and ELLE reports she was so stiff in the corset that gliding was all she could do. The glide is what everyone remembers. It is also the one thing a working week will not allow.
This guide keeps Morticia's line and hands your stride back.
Key Takeaways
- Morticia is one silhouette: long, black and close to the body. Ruth Myers designed more than 20 dresses for her in 1991 and kept every one to the same shape.
- The 1991 costume could not be walked in. Get the line from a knit with stretch, a hem with width below the knee, or a corset top over a long skirt.
- Myers imagined Morticia with a day dress, an afternoon dress and a dress for dinner, all on one silhouette.
- Under the hems, Myers put boots with a little Cuban heel and satin shoes encrusted with jet. Nobody saw them, so choose your shoes for the walk and hem the dress to them.
- Her jewellery was three rings, among them a gothic cross and a green stone, plus drop earrings, which makes it the easiest part of the look to wear on a Tuesday.
What makes an outfit read as Morticia Addams
Both costume designers quoted in this guide started from the same drawings. Myers based her sketches on Charles Addams's original cartoons for The New Yorker. For Netflix's Wednesday, British Vogue reports that costume designer Colleen Atwood looked to those same cartoons instead of to Huston, and wanted something more modern and less strictly structured. Myers designed more than 20 dresses for the 1991 film and, in her words, "it was always the same silhouette."
In a wardrobe, that silhouette comes down to four choices:
- The column. Black, close through the body and long enough to reach the ankle or the floor. Keep the whole length one colour so nothing breaks the line.
- The sleeve. Long, and doing something at the end. Atwood gave Catherine Zeta-Jones's costume godets, the flared inserts, on the sleeves and hem, "slightly shredded for a goth effect."
- The neckline. Open at the collarbones. The long line needs somewhere to start, and a high collar pulls the look towards her daughter.
- The finish. Straight dark hair, lips and nails in one colour, and silver on the hands.
Get the column right and the other three can be as quiet as you like.
How to keep Morticia's line and still walk
ELLE describes Huston's costume as a skin-tight trumpet dress. A trumpet stays close through the hips and thighs before it flares, and when it is skin-tight, your stride is only as long as the fabric allows. Three changes solve that without losing the outline.
Let the fabric give. Atwood told Vogue that Zeta-Jones's costume was "a rayon jersey and very slinky fabric." A knit with stretch follows the body the way corsetry does and moves when you do. A plain long black jersey dress is a better starting point than it looks. How each fabric holds black, from velvet to satin to mesh, is set out in our black gothic dresses buying guide.
Loosen where it flares. A fishtail or trumpet hem with real width from the knee down gives you a full step and still reads as the same shape from across a room. On a straight skirt, a back slit to the knee does the same job.
Split it in two. A fitted black top over a long skirt draws an identical line, and each half can be chosen for its own fit. The Dahlia Long Skirt is black, long and layered under a sheer lace overlay, $45.49 in XS/S to XL.
Morticia from morning to dinner
The best clue to wearing Morticia every day comes from the woman who dressed her. Myers told ELLE she always imagined Morticia with a day dress, an afternoon dress and a dress for dinner. "It was always the same silhouette, but there were slightly more subdued ones for the morning." One outline, turned up as the hours pass, is exactly how to wear it for a whole day.
Morning
Keep it plain and long-sleeved. The Mourning Gown is a black maxi gown with long sleeves, finished with petal-trimmed cuffs and a petal-trimmed hem that echo, gently, what Vogue called the "eerie tendrils" of Huston's silhouette. It is $63.70 in XS/S to XL. Wear it with flat or low boots and nothing at the throat.
If a gown before noon feels like too much, the Dahlia Long Skirt with a fine black knit tucked in is the same outline in separates.
Afternoon
"By the afternoon, she was getting more exotic," Myers said. This is where the sleeve and the neckline come in. The Velvet Widow Dress has a deep plunge framed in lace and bell sleeves, the two details that do the most Morticia work for the least effort, at $51.99 in XS/S, M and L.
For the waist without a gown, lace the Sin & Silk Corset over the long skirt. It is a black satin corset top that cinches the waist and ends in bell sleeves, $47.31 in S to 2XL. Our corsets collection has more to choose from.
Dinner
By evening, in Myers's words, "she was a peacock encrusted in jet and beautiful lace." Texture comes back after dark. The Garden of Shadows Gown layers embroidered florals on black tulle above a corset-style bodice, $89.99 in XS/S to 2XL. It sits on bow-tie straps instead of sleeves, so let the rings and earrings below stand in for the jet, and keep a long black wrap over your arms.
For more long black shapes to build any of the three on, start with our gothic dresses collection.
What shoes does Morticia Addams wear?
You never see them, and they were made anyway. ELLE reports that every shoe in the 1991 film was handmade, and Myers described the ones under Morticia's floor-length dresses: "She had wonderful boots with a little Cuban heel. And she had a lot of satin shoes that were encrusted with beautiful jet."
A floor-length hem hides everything but the toe, so the shoe's job is to carry the walk. For an everyday Morticia:
- Pick a low, solid heel over a high, thin one. You will be stepping in and out of a long hem all day, and a small stable heel copes with that far better.
- Hem the dress to the shoe. Choose the boots first, then set the length so the hem clears the floor in them. A platform raises you, and your hem, by several centimetres, which is the gap between a clean line and a trip on the stairs.
- Ankle boots are enough. Under a long skirt nobody sees the shaft, so a knee-high adds warmth and nothing else.
- Let the toe continue the line. A pointed or almond toe carries the column past the hem, where a very round one stops it.
Our boots collection is the place to start, and the goth shoes guide covers platforms and Mary Janes if you would rather not wear a boot. If one pair has to do everything, buy the heel you can stand in from breakfast to dinner.
Morticia Addams jewellery, nails and hair
Myers had Morticia's jewellery made to her own design: three rings, which ELLE lists as a simple silver wedding band, a gothic cross and a green stone, and drop earrings with a metal hand at the end. Myers called them "slightly brutal." Nothing else in the look moves so easily into daily wear, because it is a ring stack.
Build yours the same way. Start with a plain silver band you already own. The Onyx Cross Ring is a textured silver-toned band with a black enamel cross, open and adjustable, at $24.99. The Zircon Steel Ring is stainless steel set with a zircon stone and comes in green, $33.18 in ring sizes 7 to 9. For the drop, the Sacred Cross Earrings are antiqued silver-toned huggie hoops with a cross charm, $19.99. The rest is in our gothic jewellery collection.
Hair and nails finish it. British Vogue describes Huston's Morticia with poker-straight raven hair, blood-red lips and crimson nails "sharpened to a sinister point", and notes that Zeta-Jones traded the red for a darker rouge noir. Either reads as her. Choose one shade and wear it on lips and nails together.
A Morticia Addams dress in plus sizes
The costume version gets its shape from construction: Myers padded the hips and cinched the waist. You need neither. What reads as Morticia is length and one unbroken dark column, and that works on any body. In a larger size, separates are often the easier route, because a gown has to fit bust, waist and hip at once, while a corset top and a long skirt can each be sized on their own.
Here is how far each garment in this guide goes:
- The Amelia Corset, a waist-cinching black corset top with ruffled trim and a satin bow, $50.70, S to 3XL.
- The Sin & Silk Corset, S to 2XL.
- The Garden of Shadows Gown, XS/S to 2XL.
- The Black Dahlia Dress, black with a shirred bodice and a ruffled lace hem, $45.49, XS/S to 2XL.
- The Mourning Gown and the Dahlia Long Skirt, XS/S to XL.
- The Velvet Widow Dress, XS/S to L.
Every one of these listings gives the model's height and the size worn, which is worth setting against your own before you order. For more pieces cut in larger sizes, browse our plus-size collection.
Morticia or Wednesday?
Mother and daughter share a house and very little of a wardrobe. Myers did give Wednesday "a mini Morticia dress for the ball sequence", but Wednesday's everyday look is its own formula, and our Wednesday Addams outfit guide covers it in full. Dressing as a pair, let Morticia have the length and Wednesday the collar.
If this is for a party at the end of October, wear the afternoon version, corset over the long skirt, and add the rings. The skirt goes back to work the following week.
FAQ
What does Morticia Addams wear?
In the 1991 film, a floor-length, skin-tight black dress in one repeated silhouette, across more than 20 versions designed by Ruth Myers. Catherine Zeta-Jones's Morticia in Wednesday wears slinky rayon jersey with flared godets in the sleeves and hem. Huston's version is finished with straight dark hair, red lips and nails to match, and three rings.
What shoes does Morticia Addams wear?
Satin shoes encrusted with jet and boots with a little Cuban heel, all handmade, according to Ruth Myers, who designed the costumes for the 1991 film. The hems hid them. For everyday wear, a low solid heel you can walk in all day is the better choice, with the dress hemmed to that exact pair.
How do you dress like Morticia Addams every day?
Wear the long, close black line in a version you can stride in: a jersey maxi with some stretch, a corset top and maxi skirt bought as separates, or a trumpet or fishtail skirt with room from the knee down. Start simple in the morning and add lace, bell sleeves and silver rings towards the evening, the way her costume designer pictured her day.
Is there a plus size Morticia Addams dress?
Yes, and separates often fit better than a single gown. At The Cursed Closet, the Amelia Corset runs S to 3XL, and the Garden of Shadows Gown and the Black Dahlia Dress both run XS/S to 2XL. Pair a corset top with a long black skirt and size each half on its own.
What jewellery does Morticia Addams wear?
Three rings and drop earrings, made to Ruth Myers's design for the 1991 film: a gothic cross, a plain silver wedding band and a green stone, with earrings that end in a metal hand. To rebuild the set, wear a silver band you already own beside a cross ring and a green stone ring.
