Dante's Inferno Inspired Designs - Each illustration/design represents a part of Dante's journey through the nine circles of Hell

(In depth essay description of designs at very bottom)

The Dark Woods - foreshadowing what is to come 

Circle 1 - Limbo

Circle 2 - Lust

Circle 3- Gluttony 

Circle 4- Greed

Circle 5- Wrath & Sullenness 

Circle 6- Heresy 

Circle 7- Violence

Circle 8- Fraud

Circle 9- Treachery/Betrayal 

Fashion Inferno

Dante Alighieri’s Inferno was a complete inspiration throughout this semester. I found it to be a beautifully written piece of art as well as an interesting outlook on the concept of Hell., While reading Alighieri’s work, I was simultaneously up to my eyeballs in fashion design homework, so subconsciously, as Dante took me deep through the depths of Hell, I began to imagine how each circle could be represented as a design. Each one of my designs were strategically planned in correspondence to the journey through Hell. I created ten designs; the first inspired by The Dark Woods, and the other nine to represent each one of the circles. I wanted my final to bring my love of fashion and my interest in Inferno together as one. 

The Dark Woods is used to foreshadow what is to come during Dante’s journey. I imagined Dante to be covered in scrapes and wearing torn clothing, lost in a dark, mysterious forest that creates an atmosphere of fear. The design I made is torn, ragged, and the model sports cuts on her legs and face. She wears a leopard print scarf, and her boots have dark grey fur to represent the beasts that Dante encounters while in the woods. The She-Wolf is described as “by nature so perverse and vicious, her craving belly never satisfied, still hungering for food the more she eats”.(Alighieri 1497) By drawing inspiration from this quote, my design became fierce and untamed, just like the wild beasts that blocked Dante’s path. 

My design for Limbo (circle 1) is a neutral grey to represent the sorrow, yet acceptance of the souls who will never see heaven. “Now you should know before we go on farther, they have not sinned. But their great worth alone was not enough, for they did not know baptism”.(Alighieri 1475) Since the souls that reside in Limbo have not committed sin, I made my model innocent with pigtails. Her flowed dress symbolizes peace in the means of no physical suffering, but the longing to see God causes emotional turmoil. This dress symbolizes the unfairness of life, and how it continues even in death. 

The next design represents Lust (circle 2). I wanted the outfit to be very revealing and sexual, intensified passion.  “The infernal storm eternal in its rage, sweeps and drives the spirits with its blast: it whirls them lashing them with punishment”.(Alighieri 1479) this vivid description best represents my inspiration for the design. I included chains to symbolize the bondage or entrapment to “love” for eternity. “Love, that excuses no one loved, from loving”. (Alighieri 1481) The design illustrates the pain that passion has caused these sinners, chained to the “love that led [them] straight to sudden death together”.(Alighieri 1481)

The third circle, where the gluttonous suffer is filthy, and pungent in the stench of feces. The design I created for this one is brown and dirty to represent the “torture that-worse there well may be, but none more foul”.(Alighieri 1483) I made it a puffy bubble dress to represent the roundness of gluttony. The fingerless gloves and boots enhance the idea of dirt and shame. 

Those who suffer in the fourth circle, the circle of greed, “clash and turn and roll forever in their semi-circle joust”.(Alighieri 1485) This part of Hell is shared by the two types of greed: those who spend too frivolously on themselves (selfish greed) and those who never give their money away to keep it all to themselves (hoarders). They stubbornly shout at each other “Why hoard!?” and “Why waste!?”.(Alighieri 1485) Since the two types are opposites and clash with each other, I made the dress half black and half white. However, since in the end, they are the same evil, I made the lower part of the mermaid dress gold to symbolize their greed. 

The fifth circle is for the sinners of wrath and sullenness. Just like in the fourth circle, there are two “branches” of the same sin. The wrath portion of this circle fight each other in swampy marshes “not with hands alone, but [strike] with head, chest, and feet as well. With teeth they [tear] each other limb from limb”. (Alighieri 1487) Sullenness on the other hand lie beneath the mud and chant “Sluggish we were in the sweet air made happy by the sun, and the smoke of sloth was smoldering in our hearts; now we lie sluggish here in this black muck”. (Alighieri 1487) Where the sinners guilty of wrath were too outwardly open about their emotions, the sullen sinners keep their feelings too contained. For the dress I made the top red, pointy and jagged to represent wrath, since it is apparent. I made the bottom of dress blue and transparent to the represent the souls with repressed anger being easily forgotten since they were cowardly when alive. 

The sixth circle is for Heretics because they sought only pleasure throughout their lives since they believed their soul would die with their bodies. I made the design for this circle very futuristic since the sinners, or “shades”, were punished in the way that they can only see the future, but not present events. They are punished to only see distant things since they never thought ahead while they were alive. 

The seventh circle is split into three different sub-circles each representing a type of violence. The first being violence against neighbors which is a river of blood. The second being violence against oneself,which is in the woods with the souls turned into gnarled black trees.  The third sub-circle violence against God, which is located in the desert, but it is split into two separate zones that include the sodomites and the usurers. This circle is complex and consists of many branches. Since it has three main sections, I designed the dress to have three different colors on the pleats of the skirt. Red to represent the river of blood, black to represent the black tress, and orange to represent the ‘fire-rain’ in the desert. 

The eighth circle is by far the most complex ad intricate of the 9 circles. It is for sinners who commit “normal fraud”, or those who violate trust. It is separated into ten pouches called “Malebolge”. The pouches are make up of pimps/seducers, flatterers, simoniacs, astrologers/magicians, those who accept bribes, hypocrites, those who’ve robbed a sacred place, tricksters, schemers, and falsifiers. The tenth pouch, reserved for the falsifiers, is seperated into four zones, falsifiers of metal, other persons, coins, and words. The eighth circle of Hell is not where anyone would want to end up, it is violent and the punishments are relentless. For this design, I made a top consisting of ten circles to symbolize the ten pouches. I made the skirt very complex to show how intense the eighth circle is. There are many bright colors that are ‘in your face’ to enhance the idea of the eighth circle standing out above the rest of the circles. 

The ninth and final circle of Hell is for betrayal. The sinners that violate realationship of particularly special trust end up here. There are four rings in this circle, the first being traitors to kin (Caina) where sinners are frozen in ice. The second ring is for traitors of homeland 

(Antenora), where sinners gnaw each others’ flesh. The third ring is for traitors to guests (Ptolomea) where sinners lie on their backs in a frozen lake with only their faces poking out of ice. Lastly the fourth circle is for traitors to benefactors (Judecca), these sinners are completely covered in ice. In this circle, Dante sees Satan, but only long enough for his to pause chewing on Brutus, Cassius, and Judas for only a moment to tell him that he must leave. I made the dress red and blue to represent fire and ice. The dress is simple since the ninth circle was a let down. The final circle, should be mind blowing, but in comparison to the eighth circle’s complexity, it was a disappointment. Especially since the punishments weren’t nearly as bad as they could have been. Being trapped in ice does not sound fun, but throughout the journey their had been worse punishments. 

Overall, I had a great time with this project. Dante’s Inferno is an inspiration on so many levels. Being able to incorporate my love for fashion in a way that is different from anything I’ve done or seen anyone else do before is amazing. Figuring out how to represent each circle helped me to get the the core of Inferno since I had to pick up on little details. This project has inspired my way of thinking about literature as well as fashion that was a rare opportunity in which I am thankful to have had.