I recently finished watching the first season of iZombie (THAT season cliffhanger…) and it got me thinking about zombie style.  Liv – the ironically named protagonist- goes through such a style overhaul after she is bitten and I quickly found myself thinking that she looked so much better undead.

In honour of Liv then, here are my 5 best dressed zombies in television :

***spoilers may be ahead***

1) ‘Little Walker Girl’ – The Walking Dead

I am nowhere if not at home in my pyjamas, and if teddy bears and bunny slippers were acceptable outside I would definitely rock it (I do actually have a panda rucksack which maybe bridges this gap?)  This walker made so much impact as she is the first walker to appear and be killed on The Walking Dead- and the fact she is mistaken for a survivor by Rick before she turns and reveals she is riddled, and walking, in bullets/ missing half her face, is a brilliantly shocking scene as Rick realises he’s going to kill a little girl.

10/10 for horror suspense and reducing men to tears with on-trend fluffy accessories

2) Pam Swynford de Beaufort- True Blood 

This may be a cheat since Pam is a vampire who gets cursed by a witch:

“corrupt unsanctified corpse that walks, behold your true self”

Since humans mistake Pam for a zombie and she is essentially a rotting undead corpse, I think Pam, if only temporarily, earns her place within the lineup.

Pam takes her decayed look right back to Victorian mourning fashion, which is ironic that she fashioning her death around the styles of when she was ‘truly’ living as a human.  The horror of her face beneath her black veil was shot perfectly between the lines of Gothic and camp.  She then turns to horrific beauty treatment/curse and lounges for an episode swamped in pink satin, her skin entirely removed.  Her only concern is her beauty, who cares about being dead?

 

8/10 for ironic costumes and ‘glamourising’ the zombie

3) Madison Montgomery- American Horror Story: Coven 

Oh Madison, this girl’s body goes through some serious stuff.  After having her throat slit by the Supreme, Madison winds up in a trunk belonging to the mute housekeeper who stays in the attic and uses her as ‘living’ doll at his tea parties.  It’s as bad as it sounds- hence all the lace.  Upon discovery, her fellow witches ‘push death out’ of her- cue her coughing up lots of nasty stuff on that dress.  No bippidy-boppidy-boo magic here but Madison comes back – she’s not the stereotypical rotting zombie, but she’s also definitely not human either.  Zombie Madison wears fabulously melancholy dresses to brood in, as she demonstrates that she can’t feel pain by burning her hand and concealing her scar beneath some truly nineties chokers.

7/10 for the many dead/undead transformations and for fashioning the ‘millennial Goth’ element in the modern zombie.

4) Liv- iZombie

Liv was a preppy summer dress, cardigan matching, brunette pre-bite, then she turns into an ultra pale, ultra white, dark eyed, hoody donning zombie.  I like how the stereotype of the pale zombie has stayed, but Liv still looks fairly ‘normal’.  She isn’t as brightly dressed, or hyper feminine as she was as a human but she’s grieving for her humanity so I think some comfort dressing is allowed?  There is also something deeply satisfying about a zombie in a lab coat- it’s like Frankenstein’s monster taking the power back.

7/10 for undead power dressing and flying the flag for the fair-skinned girls

5) Angela Mason – Supernatural 

Sometimes I just like to see the gothic girl in a white dress still going strong- Angela’s also a zombie.

7/10 for keeping the gothic tradition of the white dress alive