The Addams Family is known for their witty humor, strange customs and their classic gothic style. Most know them from Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1991 hit movie, “The Addams Family.” You may even be a super fan and know them from their 1964 sitcom.
But the Addams family didn’t start on television; our favorite gothic family actually started on paper. Charles Addams debuted “The Addams Family” in a single panel comic for The New Yorker in 1933, according to an article from The Society of Illustrators.
In the debut panel of “The Addams Family,” we see Mortica standing in the foyer talking to a vacuum salesman. Mortica wears her signature black mermaid dress with long black flounce sleeves. The man standing next to her seems to be an early version of Gomez, although some have speculated it's an early version of Lurch inspired by Morgan from “The Old Dark House.”
In later comics, we would see Wednesday’s debut, as she rocks her signature black dress with a white collar and white buttons trailing down the front. Her brother, Pugsley, wears a black and white striped shirt. We also see Gomez, sporting his classic striped suit with a white undershirt.
In the 1964 sitcom, “The Addams Family” maintained the exact outfits and personalities for the show.
It wasn’t until “The Addams Family” movie in 1991 that we began to see a few outfit changes. Wednesday’s black outfit now has a pattern of grey safety pins scattered around the dress, and Mortica’s signature style includes black fabric scraps hanging off of her shoulders with glittering black rhinestones sprinkled in. Her waist has a pattern made of black rhinestones that leads to a belt made of black feathers.
Gomez also receives some outfit upgrades. While he wears his signature black and grey suit, we also see him in several other suits, the most notable being the maroon velvet suit with a subtle white swirly pattern.
The next film in the series, “Addams Family Reunion,” (1998) was heavily criticized due to the change in casting and poor writing. At the same time, they tried to reboot the original Addams family sitcom—this also received poor reviews.
After the failures of “Addams Family Reunion” and “The New Addams Family,” we don’t see the family again until 2019 in their animated film. This film took all fashion inspiration from Charles Addams original comics.
The movie showcases the family in their original comic outfits. This time, though, Gomez’s suit is navy blue in place of the usual black. They also removed Morticia’s floused sleeves.
It wasn’t until Netflix’s original series, “Wednesday,” that fans and critics started to come around to a new version of this iconic family. Donning all black and taking inspiration from 80s goth trends, there couldn’t have been a better choice for the star of this series, Wednesday, than Jenna Ortega.
She wears several black dresses; one with grey stripes and one with white polka dots, which is a layered, poofy, acrylic dress with short frilly sleeves. We will see more Addams family fashion in season three of “Wednesday,” rumored to be released in 2027.
