Research

The look: Gothic fashion revived
We’re drawing from traditional notions of Gothicism, not the Gothic subculture of more modern times. It’s an important distiction: the look isn’t about smudged eyeliner and the addition of tough, punkish details. It rises up from the shadows with flawless, porcelain skin and blood red lips. The starting point is that cold beauty, paired with a sharply androgynous velvet suit or a vampishly feminine black lace number – and the imagination grows wild from there. If you look at the female archetypes in Gothic fiction and fairytales, there’s the virginal maiden and the evil queen. Fall 2012′s fashion trend can draw inspiration from both, but when we’re looking at dark, noir themes it’s the latter that wins out. Frida Giannini typified the theme with her fall 2012 collection for Gucci. Hair was wild and flowing with a twist, lips stained berry red. Billowy sheer fencing blousons, tuxedo jackets and capes were married to voluminous jodhpur pants and riding boots. The feminine contingent at Gucci was darkly ethereal: rich velvet off-the-shoulder gowns and creeping black embellished vines across sheer floor-grazing gowns were some runway highlights. Alberta Ferretti headed to the dark side for fall, but she took her trademark delicate touch with her. Black lace and textured gowns were constructed around structured – but not too strict – Victorian bodices. Black leather accents featured heavily, as they did for Diane Von Furstenberg. And who could imagine this list of neo-Gothic proponents without Givenchy? Enter the mind of Riccardo Tisci and you could lose yours in his dark imagination. Tisci’s collection was dreaming of Dracula, shadowy figures and brooding Victorian castles. The masculinity tailored outfits – more jodhpurs and riding boots, paired with silk high-necked shirts and pallid skin – rode in on a 19th century literary storm. Channel them, and you can too.