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Burtoncore: How Tim Burton is influencing fashion and pop culture
After the “Office Siren”, “Brat Summer”, “Demure” trends, the “Burtoncore” aesthetic, inspired by film director Tim Burton, is in full swing since the releases of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and of the season 2 of the Netflix show Wednesday on August 6th. This is your chance to put on your most beautiful lace black dress.
par Violaine Schütz.
Published on 3 September 2025. Updated on 15 September 2025.
Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, a cult film that still influences pop culture
A surprise box office success, Tim Burton’s fantasy comedy Beetlejuice (1988) seduced audiences and critics alike. The very demanding Cahiers du cinéma praised a “typically American black humour that bases the gags on a very original way of making the fantastic ordinary and the everyday monstrous.”
With its mythical sequences, like the family dinner, its heady soundtrack, its cardboard special effects and its macabre jokes, the film has marked several generations. It has now established itself as a jewel in the crown of the Gothic aesthetic.
The feature has contributed to the popularity of Tim Burton. But also of its actors, such as Michael Keaton who starred in the Batman directed by Tim Burton a year later after playing the crazy, lecherous Beetlejuice, and Winona Ryder, the director’s muse and grunge icon of the 1990s. In the role of Lydia Deetz, the tormented, marginal protagonist in Beetlejuice, the actress seemed to represent a double of the filmmaker, his spiritual little sister.
Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images.
Bella Hadid and Anitta, disciples of Winona Ryder
When Tim Burton‘s film was released, many people were inspired by his aesthetic at the time. Today, there are still some people dressing up as Lydia Deetz or as the bio-exorcist – the frightening, yet comical character Beetlejuice, whose name should not be pronounced too many times. Two endearing characters who have had their own cartoon…
Model Bella Hadid, alongside The Weeknd at a Halloween party in 2018, and singer Anitta have already dressed as Winona Ryder in the film… Many others cite Beetlejuice as one of their favorite films. Before being the heroine of the sequel to Beetlejuice, Jenna Ortega had already mentioned this film among his favorite horror woks, alongside Prom Night and The Witch.
Queen of Method dressing, the actress now continues to wear outfits similar to those of Lydia Deetz to the premieres of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, released in September 2014.
The “Burtencore”: a popular trend emphasized by the series Wednesday
But the influence of Tim Burton’s dreamlike, romantic, dark and kitsch cinema extends beyond the film Beetlejuice. The series Wednesday, partially directed by Tim Burton, has pushed many teenage girls (but not only) to dress in black dresses adorned with lace.
With the hashtag #Wednesday, millions of videos on TikTok offer a glimpse at how to dress up like the cynical teenager. Dark colors, surreal details, Victorian inspiration, whimsical hats, voluminous hairstyles, raven makeup, stripes, baroque jewelry, the Burtencore mixes gothic aesthetics, humor and fantasy to create a wildly eccentric silhouette.
The revival of the Gothic style
The ideal pieces to copy the look of one of the director’s heroines? Vivienne Westwood dresses, Schiaparelli accessories or Alaïa creations (which signs Wednesday’s ball gown in the Netflix series). Marc Jacobs and Rodarte also drew on the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).
This trend goes hand in hand with the revival of the gothic or “Succubus Chic” style that has been observed for several seasons in Kylie Jenner, Gabbriette, Amelia Gray, Julia Fox, Dove Cameron and Megan Fox. Among thin eyebrows, raven hair in the style of Morticia Addams and a total black look, they bring up to date a look that had the wind in its sails in the 80s (especially among new wave bands) and the 90s (Angelina Jolie had succumbed to it).
Eva Green, Jenna Ortega, Christina Ricci… Tim Burton’s muses inspire us
The ultimate icons of the poisonous “Burtencore” style? Weird girls named Eva Green, Lisa Marie, the actress of Mars Attacks! (1996) and Sleepy Hollow (1999), Helena Bonham Carter, Jenna Ortega, Winona Ryder, Christina Ricci (new Ganni muse) and Monica Bellucci. Tortured or fatal, they all defend the idea of a complex, mysterious and dark femininity far removed from the girl next door and the sweet and docile woman-object from the male gaze.
For inspiration, you have to look at the music video for Sabrina Carpenter’s Taste, in which the singer and Jenna Ortega play Burtonian heroines dressed in black dresses with balloon or leg sleeves, somewhere between the film Death Suits You So Well (1992) and Hollywood glamour.
The exhibition “The World of Tim Burton“, which took place at the Design Museum in London until March 28th, 2025, offered many twisted and colourful visual references as fashion inspirations for the summer.
The season 2 of the series Wednesday, created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar will come out on August 6th, 2025, on Netflix.
