A Salute to Helen Shivers, Style Queen of ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ [Final Girl Fashion]
Sometimes I regret calling this column Final Girl Fashion. Designed to celebrate the most memorable costumes worn by the women who make it to the end of horror movies, it has a great ring to it. But it is, by definition, rather limiting. What if I want to honor a fashionable character who croaks before the credits roll?
Ever since I started FGF, I have wanted to write about one character who is, unfortunately, not a final girl. But this late, great star is absolutely a style icon. And, to me, she is as instantly recognizable and memorable as Casey Becker in Scream. Oh, and she has much more screen time.
I am, of course, talking about Helen Shivers from I Know What You Did Last Summer.
NAUTICAL BY NATURE
Played by Sarah Michelle Gellar and styled by Emmy-winning costume designer Catherine Adair (Desperate Housewives, Perry Mason), Helen Shivers is someone who prides herself on how she looks. I Know What You Did Last Summer introduces her as she stands in the spotlight, wearing a nautical one-piece as she participates in Southport’s annual Croaker Queen pageant. While the other contestants look dated in their neon-colored suits that scream ’80s rather than later ’90s, Helen looks timeless, as if she could fit in any era.
After Helen wins the pageant, she is gifted a hefty tiara with bedazzled shells, seahorses, and other maritime touchstones on it. Immediately at home on her perfectly coiffed head, its addition emphasizes her status as the crown jewel of her otherwise typical seaside town. When she says tells the crowd that she dreams of taking on the New York stage next with a “goal to entertain the world through artistic expression,” you absolutely believe she can do it. Why? Because she looks the part.
Later that night, as Helen, her boyfriend Barry (Ryan Phillippe), best friend Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), and Julie’s boyfriend Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.) hit an afterparty, Helen makes her first costume change of the film, slipping into a slinky black mini dress with cutouts between and underneath her bust. It’s almost like a formal version of her bathing suit, tastefully provocative in a way that would make it stylish to this day.
As the night goes on, and Helen and her friends end up on the beach, she adds Barry’s leather letterman jacket to her ensemble. She pulls off the look effortlessly, the juxtaposition between the short dress and the oversized jacket giving her an extra layer of coolness that girl next door Julie will never achieve.
It is in this outfit that Helen’s life will change forever, as she, Barry, Julie, and Ray end up in a car accident that, seemingly, results in the death of an unidentified man. She almost loses her crown as they attempt to dump his body in the water, Barry jumping back in to get it before they all vow to take the dirty secret to the grave.
BUSINESS/CASUAL
We don’t see Helen again until a year later, when Julie returns to town and seeks her out after receiving a threatening letter that reads (you guessed it): I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. While she never made it to the Big Apple after all, Helen still dresses like she did, upholding her big city dreams through her carefully curated wardrobe.
As she works the perfume counter at her family’s department store, Helen dons another out-of-time outfit: a short-sleeved white blouse (tied up at the waist, of course), little black skirt, and a thick headband. The only thing that tells you she’s in the ’90s is the gold cuff on her arm (although, technically the “brassard” or “armlet” dates back to the Bronze Age as a symbol of power or rank). Long story short, she looks so good that every time Barry tells her and Julie that they “look like shit,” I wince because, for Helen at least, it’s simply not true.
Helen continues the fashion show as she and Julie go investigating, taking a road trip to talk to Missy Egan (Anne Heche), a woman they think is related to the man they may or may not have murdered one year prior. For the first time in I Know What You Did Last Summer, we see her in a casual look, pairing a neon green cropped tank top with cutoff jean shorts. Combined with a funky necklace, Helen gives a little bit more of her personality here, suggesting that she doesn’t just have to follow the classic femme formula to look stylish or like herself.
This part of I Know What You Did Last Summer is important for Helen’s characterization as it establishes that while she certainly hasn’t forgotten what happened last summer, she also hasn’t forgotten who she is. Unlike Julie, who alternates between form-fitting and loose garments (seriously, a baggy sweater in summer?) as she navigates her states of grief, Helen clearly wants to project her idea of perfection at all times. This is what makes the last part of the movie so heartbreaking for Helen especially, her sartorial autonomy ripped out from underneath her in a vicious act of revenge.
After she gets home from Missy’s, the film’s slicker-wearing villain gives Helen a makeover she never consented to, sneaking into her bedroom after she’s fallen asleep to chop her long, luscious locks into a long bob. In one of the most infamous scenes of the film, Helen screams into her vanity mirror as she sees the damage done, her former image of herself suddenly smashed to pieces by a stranger.
In the next scene, Helen reappears as a shadow of her former self. Hiding her new do under an uncharacteristic newsboy cap, she wears a sports bra as a top and what appears to be stretchy pants. She is hiding out in a less polished woman’s clothes, hoping no one from town notices her at this physical and mental low.
THE DRESS TO DIE FOR
Despite wanting to hide away from the world, Helen forces herself to embrace her new look as she takes part in Southport’s 4th of July parade, riding on a float as the reigning Croaker Queen. While she might feel uncomfortable sitting on an oversized clamshell and waving to the unsuspecting crowd, she looks incredible wearing the ensemble she’s perhaps best known for: a silver-grey gown with bejeweled spaghetti straps that cross at the back.
With her shorter hair, Helen actually looks even chicer than she did before. It’s similar to Buffy Summers’ transition from Season 1 to 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the shedding of hair allowing the rest of Helen’s outfit and accessories to take center stage. It’s a shame that, unlike Sarah Michelle Gellar’s most famous character, Helen doesn’t get the chance to experiment with this unfamiliar style more.
Alas, shortly after witnessing Barry get murdered during the Croaker Queen pageant, Helen loses her crown along with her life. The “Hook Man” chases through the streets of Southport before their final showdown in and around the Shivers family store, the sounds of fireworks masking her desperate cries for help as he hacks her to death. The whole scene is heartbreaking, but you have to admit it’s fitting that she spends her final moments in and around clothing.
In the end, Helen Shivers dies as she wanted to live: looking absolutely stunning. Sure, we all would have loved to see her survive the summer instead of Julie, who quite literally pales in comparison to her BFF’s radiant aesthetic and personality. But I think we are just lucky to have experienced her art first-hand. May she and her wardrobe rest in perfection.
Categorized:Editorials Final Girl Fashion
