I don’t think I’ve ever worn a cape. Unless it happened when I was a little kid. But I’ve never seen any photographic evidence of such.
I love the line from the movie The Incredible when Edna says, “No capes.” Apparently, I have lived by this rule.
But many people do wear capes. I’ve seen them with my own eyes. Mostly women. I’ve never seen a dude walking down the street wearing one.
That is not true in other parts of the world and in other times. Kings and queens and royalty wear capes. Magicians wear capes. So do wizards. Superheroes. Then there are some notable characters, real or otherwise. Sherlock Holmes wore a cape. So did Little Red Riding Hood. Let’s not forget about Zorro.
But none of them may be as good at wearing a cape than the Prince of Darkness. Dracula.
We have seen good old Dracula, time and again, in his black cape with the satin red lining. He drapes it over his arm and holds it up to his face, just below the eyes. Yep. The guy sure can wear a cape.
But here is the thing. The high-collared cape associated with Dracula was not in Bram Stoker’s novel. Not a word about a cape in the entire book.
The cape persona was created for a 1924 stage adaptation. It was really done out of necessity for a practical special effect. The high collar allowed the cape to be held in place with strings while the actor playing Dracula disappeared down a trapdoor.
Bela Lugosi played the role on Broadway and then in the classic 1931 movie. He’s the guy who brought that high-collared cape into stardom.
Since that time, other actors have played the Drac. Some with the cape and some without.
Gary Oldman
Christopher Lee
Bela Lugosi
Frank Langella
Max Schreck
But, if you’ve never seen a Dracula movie, I think it would be best to watch them in this order:
Dracula (1931)
Horror of Dracula (1958)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Nosferatu (1922)
Nosferatu (2024)
Maybe.
But back to capes.
They’ve been around a long time.
I mean. Really, if you think about it, the earliest capes and cloaks appeared in prehistoric times. People draped animal skins over their shoulders to protect themselves from cold, and the rain, and the wind.
And they evolved from there. As weaving developed, the animal skins were replaced by woven wool and linen garments.
They worked their way through almost every culture, and they are still with us today.
But.
They’ve been around for thousands of years. Long before they belonged to vampires, superheroes, or magicians, they simply kept people warm and dry. From animal skins thrown over the shoulders of prehistoric hunters to the velvet cloaks of kings, the cape has managed to survive generation after generation.
Not many articles of clothing have that kind of reputation.
As for me? I’ll leave the capes to Dracula.
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“Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.” — Rachel Zoe
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“We are all storytellers, and what we wear tells a story.” — Tim Gunn
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“What begins as necessity often becomes tradition.” — Frank Jones
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