Gothic fashion 126845 224852298 2008-07-10T18:28:19Z Lightbot 7178666 Units/dates/other {{Essay-like|article|date=December 2007}} {{POV|date=January 2008}} {{Refimprove|date=January 2008}} [[Image:Gothic girl.jpg|thumb|Gothic woman, traditional style, with spikes and piercings.]] '''Gothic fashion''' is a clothing style worn by both male and female members of the [[Goth subculture]]. It is stereotyped as a dark, sometimes morbid, eroticized fashion and style of [[clothing|dress]]. Typical gothic fashion includes black [[Hair colouring|dyed hair]] and black clothes. Both male and female goths wear dark [[Eye liner|eyeliner]] and dark fingernails. Styles are often borrowed from the [[Elizabethan]]s and [[Victorians]]. The extent to which goths hold to this stereotype varies, though virtually all Goths wear some of these elements. Goth fashion is often confused with [[heavy metal fashion]], and uninformed outsiders often mistake fans of [[heavy metal music]] for goth,<ref>[http://alternative-fashion.com/industrial.html //Alternative-Fashion.com//<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> particularly those who wear black trenchcoats or wear "corpse paint" (a term associated with the [[black metal]] music scene). Such misconceptions are especially rife in regards to the black metal fashion subgenre.{{Fact|date=January 2008}} == Goth fashion culture == Goth style's rejection of mainstream values, emphasis on freedom of expression, and challenging taboos makes it difficult to define its [[Gothic aesthetics|aesthetic]] principles. Goth fashion emphasizes transformation of the body, elements of beauty, order, conscious eroticism and 'otherness' that flouts conventions. While a member of the Goth subculture may or may not embrace [[nihilism]], many are drawn to the fashion or music due to a sense of [[social alienation|alienation]], which may explain the style's fascination with morbidity or [[vampire]] [[fashion|style]]. Wearing black eyeshadow and shroud-like clothing that refers to the dead or undead, may express grief, despair, mourning or deathwish. However, this is not necessarily an anti-life attitude. Rather, Goth fashion can be a positive transformation from [[Social alienation|alienation]] through self-expression via beauty and [[fashion]], and through a sense of belonging to a community that shares the same sense of alienation. Alternately, the choice to embrace this fashion may simply rise from a far less complicated [[psychology]], and reflect an attraction to [[Eros (mythology)|Eros]] through [[Thanatos]], an attraction to the 'darker' side of [[human sexuality|sexuality]]<ref>César Fuentes Rodríguez "Mundo Gótico" (Quarentena Ediciones, 2007, ISBN 8493389161), page 233 & ss.</ref>. The wearer may find the extremity, intensity or 'otherness' of the dark Goth look or preoccupations to be sexy or empowering. [[Image:ThedaBara.jpg|thumb|[[Theda Bara]]'s look has inspired some types of Goth fashion.]]{{Fact|date=September 2007}} One famous female role model is [[Theda Bara]], the 1910s 'Vamp' [[femme fatale]] known for her dark eyeshadow, curves and smoldering on-screen presence. {{Fact|date=March 2008}} Like the [[Urban Primitive]] movement, goth subculture rejects mainstream conventions and encourages reinventing oneself by transformation or physical modification.{{Fact|date=March 2008}} That one may take total control of one's image is a powerful individual response to a society dominated by [[Photoshop]] images that prescribe a rarely attainable ideal of a faked 'natural' beauty. Goth fashion is a calculated "unnatural" response to the unattainable "natural" [[California Girls]] golden [[Barbie]] (or [[Ken (Barbie)|Ken]]) image. Goth fashion can be recognized by its stark [[black]] clothing (or hair or makeup), often contrasted with boldly colored clothing, hair and makeup in strong shades of deep reds, purples, blues or emerald green, in fabrics and styles that evoke romantic eras as well as morbidity, that usually combine style elements that flow and drape as well as restrict or emphasize and sexualize a body part (i.e. corsetry or tight sleeves or trousers). Goth fashion further emphasizes the personal power of an individual, as the calculated juxtapositions of elements of the rugged accessories (i.e. metallic and leather), to that of the vulnerable, fragile and sensual restriction of body parts (i.e. lace, silks, and high heels for either [[gender]]). Like other fashions that embrace elaborate fashion choices and rules, goth fashion elicits attention from others, both goth or non-goth. == External links == * [http://www.darkfashionlinks.com Listing of Gothic Fashion Sites] * [http://www.paulhodkinson.co.uk Goth Fashion Cultural Researcher Paul Hodkinson] * [http://www.istasy10.com/goth/gothic-moda-goth-fashion/0/ Goth Fashion] {{Goth subculture}} [[Category:Goth]] [[Category:Gothic fashion]] [[Category:Subcultures]] [[et:Goot]] [[eo:Gotika modo]] [[fr:Mode gothique]] [[it:Moda gotica]] [[nl:Gothic kledij]] [[ja:ゴシック・ファッション]]