Styling the Bene Gesserit
What a futuristic class of elite string pullers would wear today
Against all odds, I became a reader in my late 30s. It started while I was between jobs, basking in a crypto windfall (something we can discuss at another time) and my wife and I took an extended honeymoon to the Bahamas. Much of that time we spent at very isolated house on the beach. We would read for hours a day on the beach or lazing around our living room. I only ever really did this kind of reading on vacation, but once I read Dune on this trip it was all over. The series gripped me like no other and I rifled through all seven of the original books in the next couple of months. Since then, I read often — though without a daily office commute I find it harder to carve out the time.
So Dune holds a special place in my heart and head. Naturally, any Dune fan will know the Bene Gesserit, a powerful group of women who pull the strings of the entire universe through mind control, exacting manipulation of bloodlines and by harnessing the memories of their ancestors. This is, of course, a very general description, but you get the idea. In essence, they are a highly evolved witch archetype. Their ultimate goal is to produce the Kwisatz Haderach, a mind that can bridge space and time and see the past, present and future. The Dune films by Dennis Villeneuve captured them brilliantly as strong and fiercely intelligent mystical figures cloaked in black, so calm and controlled that they become unnerving (above).
The David Lynch version from 1984 has an almost medieval take on them, somewhat mirrored in 1999’s Joan of Arc: The Messenger by Faye Dunaway’s Queen Yolande. (The HBO limited series, which charts the beginnings of this society follows Villeneuve’s approach almost exactly.)
Dress by Jason Wu Collection, shoes by Stella McCartney
Dress by Stella McCartney, jacket by Brandon Maxwell shoes by Louis Vuitton
Dress by Brandon Maxwell, belt by Brandon Maxwell, boots by Khaite
As you read stories, you form an image of the characters in your head. And when you’re seven books deep, you get pretty familiar with them. When I think of them I wonder what they’d be like if they were here today — that’s how this idea (a once popular Tumblr I ran) came about. Typically, this is an exercise in bringing somebody from the past to the present. But with Dune and the Bene Gesserit, it’s bringing somebody from an extremely distant future to today. Who knows, maybe there are Bene Gesserit out there today. I bet you Stella McCartney is one.