The deranged scientist Naomi Ackie plays in the upcoming DC film Clayface has been compared to Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes. The British actor, however, has not taken to wearing Homes’s smudged lipstick and black turtlenecks on the red carpet. Instead, she’s leaned into a high fashion take on a Gotham City baddie. Her red carpet outfits have been almost entirely all-black, and all sourced from some of fashion’s most exciting (and most macabre) designer.
Take her Dilara Findikoglu look at the London premiere. The twisted croc-embossed take on the skirt suit practically screamed “super villain.” Protruding shoulders, tattered edges, and bondage-inspired lacing added to the malevolent glamour. The outfit had originally made its premiere on the runway two years ago at a show Findikoglu staged in London’s oldest Goth nightclub with clothes the designer said were inspired by “finding beauty through destruction.”
For two back-to-back promotional events earlier this week, Ackie kept things dark while playing with proportion and perception. First, a Colleen Allen cut-out-filled cardigan with a gothic embroidered sheer skirt. Next, she went incognito in a bloated jacket from Issey Miyake’s fall 2026 collection, complete with sunglasses and a Grace Jones-esque hood.
Her press-tour kickoff look may have been the chicest of all: a severely slanted Gucci dress with one shoulder and a dangerously high slit.
Part of the extended DC Universe, the upcoming body horror tells the origin story of a shapeshifting B-list Batman villain. After a young actor becomes disfigured at the hands of a crime boss, he is left desperate to restore his appearance and undergoes an experimental treatment at the hands of the off-kilter Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Ackie). Things go awry on the operating table, and he loses his sanity in the process.
All in all, it’s an apt time for a horror-film antagonist inspired by the disgraced Theranos founder. Nathan Fielder’s You Can See Everything documentary has brought Holmes back to the center of the zeitgeist, and Ackie’s on-screen villain—though completely fictionalized—is only adding layers to the Elizabeth Holmes lore. Her outfits, however, are considerably more in vogue.