The mere mention of “gothic” kindles memories of Y2K: black-only outfits, pale complexions, and the Addams Family, of course! And, while it disappeared from the fashion seen for a while, it’s resurfaced with quite the bang – especially since 2022 where we saw gothic or ‘goth’ style reign supreme on catwalks and red carpets alike.
Gothic is back, baby!
The gothic style of clothing and makeup is no longer something reserved just for the spooky season because the gloomy and glamorous outfits have not only become chic on the runway but also quickly becoming a close second choice to the traditional formal office attire in women.
What’s really interesting about Goth, especially compared to other fashion trends, is that it never truly vanished from the fashion radar to begin with. In fact, it’s been around for decades and over time, it has simply evolved. You now have TV shows on Netflix like “Wednesday” that have solidified Goth’s return where it is quickly taking root in modern fashion.
If you see someone now dressed in an all-black outfit from head to toe, complete with dramatic, heavy eyeliner and jet black lipstick, you’d hardly see anyone raising an eyebrow. More and more Gen Z consumers are now going with Goth-style clothes with celebrities like the Kardashians and Rihanna are pushing the trend further through their highly customised outfits.
Singer and songwriter, Billie Eilish, and influencer, Alexa Black, have openly embraced the Gothic aesthetic, making it all the more popular among both Gen Z’ers and more mature women alike. It’s not unsurprising at all to see how mainstream fashion has opened its doors wide to welcome Gothic-style clothing with open arms.
If someone were to deny the Gothic fashion renaissance slowly edging its way back into mainstream fashion, we’d say that person has either been on the moon or simply vacationing under a rock. Goth is truly the rage now and not just on fashion runways or editorials, but also offices where you’ll see ‘Corporate Goths’ flaunting their dark side with beautiful ebony suits and elegant ties to match.
Meanwhile, it’s common to see ‘Casual Goths’ strut their getups downtown and American malls, including mesmerizingly flowing all-black dresses and chunky, less-than-feminine boots. We have to acknowledge the fact that Gothic style is no longer some strange or unorthodox fashion experiment that’s a niche subculture or only practiced behind closed doors in the wee hours of the night – but something that has created waves across pop culture over the years and especially in the last few years alone.
It would, therefore, be interesting to see how Gothic fashion has made a comeback over the years, wouldn’t it?
Stage 1: The Ever-Green Gothic
What we’re seeing today isn’t the first Gothic comeback. The 12th century Medieval architectural movement is where the style has its origins – imposing cathedrals and an underlying obsession with the macabre – it was definitely a complete departure from the Classical styles preceding it.
One way or another, Gothic confirmed its status as one of the most persistent and sought after styles in fashion, a real tour de force for over four centuries.
Stage 2: Epochal returns for the first time
During the mid-19th Victorian era, Gothic started to resurface. Throughout Europe and America as it was known then, Neo-Gothic architectural design trends spread like wildfire, with stained-glass windows, flying buttresses, and grandiose spires being some of the standout features.
This undying fascination and love for medieval aesthetics actually crept into Victorian fashion too around the same time. However, important to note here is that the typical Victorian Gothic style at the time never set out to directly imitate medieval fashion by any means. What it did was blend dark and romantic elements from the Middle Ages with fully contemporary Victorian sensibilities. Brilliant!
Women’s dresses would feature elegantly fitted waists and full skirts – sort of what we have today – but featured rich velvets such as dark-coloured silks in black, purple, and burgundy. Extravagant details like puffed sleeves, lace collars, and ruffles accentuated and dramatized the look even more, while accessories like black gloves, cameos, parasols and bejeweled cross pendants made for a truly stunning and complete look fit for a queen.
The Neo-Gothic movement, however, wasn’t met too warmly by the typical cold rationalism prevalent in the Industrial Revolution, instead, emerging as a stark backlash to it. Where the Industrial Revolution was synonymous with soulless machinery, Gothic Romanticism at the time was characterized by its creative imagination, unique individualism, and uncanny emotion. To further popularize this outlook, Gothic tales like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein emerged, both enticing as well as stimulating the general public to embrace the macabre and supernatural associated with Gothic clothes, jewelry and fashion.
Stage 3: The state of Gothic at the turn of the century
Fast forward less than a century later, and Gothic was a true subculture in its own. It coincided beautiful with the 1970s UK punk revolution, where many musicians who were considered pioneers of Gothic at the time popularized it to no end with their darker than usual and more atmospheric kind of music – The Cure, Bauhaus, Joy Division, and Siouxsie and the Banshees, just to name a few.
These musicians with their regular live performances, public appearances, and music video which were aired on every TV station you could imagine, propelled Gothic fashion into the mainstream. Siouxsie Sioux, the singer and songwriter from Siouxsie and the Banshees, would adorn herself in leather necklaces and bracelets, dark and dramatic eyeshadow, stark black hair, and distressed clothing for an added Gothic effect. The Cure’s Robert Smith was the one who pioneered the big black bouffant hairdo, raccoon-style eyeliner, and smeared lipstick. Not surprisingly, fans of the band followed suit and had a large hand in developing the early pre-80s Goth look.
During the 1980s, Goth took a turn and transformed into something more extreme and some might even call “sexualized”. Fishnet stockings, spikes, body-hugging black leather, crimped black or big permed hair and dramatic makeup, largely defined the 80s Goth look. Club kids caught on to the trend fast, sporting everything from corsets to latex to tall boots, for a truly sinister style.
As the 1980s progressed, Gothic started accumulating more glam features, elevating the style on high-fashion black runway collections from Thierry Mugler, John Galliano, and Alexander McQueen, as well as 80s rock band legend, Roxette.
Moving onto the 1990s, Gothic was toned down into a milder romantic Victorian revival, again, borrowing inspiration from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. ‘Vampiric’ elegance was all the craze, with people going to great lengths to imitate the look with frock coats, capes, waistcoats, lace blouses, and velvet dresses. The ones rocking it with such outfits could easily be mistaken for one of the characters from Edgar Allan Poe’s and Lord Byron’s stories.
During the early 2000s, Goth intersected without hesitation with Emo music and skin-tight jeans. Dark eyeliner, band tees, and washed out black hair coupled with skull jewelry and facial piercings were the rage, seamlessly connecting the two black-dominant subcultures. Japanese Gothic Lolita fashion was propagating around the world at a blinding pace – known for its doll-like black dresses and lace headdresses – diversified the Goth landscape immensely.
And we’re now full circle to the present moment. The pandemic re-triggered Goth and in the post-pandemic world of today, it’s still going strong. In the middle of the pandemic, for example, we were dead sure that hoodies and sweatpants would stick around forever but as a direct reaction to the pandemic, feelings and sentiments were displayed broadly through fashion, and that fashion or style happened to be Goth.
If we look at the world’s history, every time there’s any kind of upheaval or ‘Earth shattering’ calamity across the word, a fashion hurricane in some form or the other has always emerged, particularly with younger generations. For the past 100+ years, that fashion disruption has been Goth. Being “goth” today is akin to letting your external aura reflect what you feel or represent inside, and under no circumstances, worrying what others might say or think.
Plus, more and more people are waking up to the fact that being Goth doesn’t mean that you have to embrace all things dark, gloomy, and depressing. People who do choose Goth simply stand apart from the crowd, that’s all there is to it. They just prefer a darker aesthetic and prefer things that are more extraordinary and less mainstream. And that’s totally fine!
A deeper look into the Goth Renaissances after the pandemic
The pandemic managed to cast a long, looming shadow over the world. Like a big, dark and sinister crow spreading its giant wings over the earth and engulfing it like a little egg. Isolation, anxiety, and a heightened awareness of mortality got interwoven with the fabric of our lives. Naturally, during times of profound vulnerability and uncertainty, people tend to act on instinct and look for artistic venues to not only ‘ease the pain’ and shift their minds away from a certain sense of impending doom and uncertainty, but also navigate their own complex emotions while dealing with such situations.
So, within this context, the realm of Gothic clothing and fashion tends to be a very inviting and compelling outlet. And, why not? Nobody said romanticized death imagery, the wail of mournful violins, and an abundance of black lipstick can’t be used to express some very valid concerns about both the state of humanity and where the world is headed. It can be said that through this aesthetic devotion to darkness and all things black, lovers of Gothic fashion can certainly find a way to calm and externalize their fears in a rather cathartic way.
Yet, it’s worth pondering over the fact that Gothic fashion, by default, isn’t an outlet for processing dire situations or turmoil – on the contrary, it’s one of the finest portals of escapism. In a world where we are often confronted by a stark and usually disheartening reality (far from what we envision it to be), the allure of mythical creatures like vampires, injects a nice dose of extraordinary into what would otherwise be considered mundane and all too ordinary.
Also, important to reflect is the fact that Gothic trends have historically shined through times of turmoil and cultural disarray. There are even examples throughout history that share this very perspective: the Black Death, for instance, was a direct precursor to the Late Medieval Gothic era, as it made mortality all the more frighteningly and vividly real; Victorian Gothicism took hold during rapid industrialization, and; the 1970s punk rock era capitalized on economic downturns, sparking moody “feel good” rebellion.
Today, we have the collective trauma of the pandemic which has prompted a strikingly similar revival of Gothic fashion. Amid the senseless loss of life for no apparent reason that one can think of, people have found tremendous solace and comfort in the overall aesthetic painted by mortality. As a result, the melancholic elegance as well as the allure of graveyards and ravens typically associated with Goth is as prominent as it has ever been.
Political Instability: Fuel for the Gothic Fire
The pandemic isn’t the only inspirer for Gothic clothing, with global political instability also playing an equally prominent role. From authoritarianism to inept leadership, human rights violations to ongoing wars – all have left the vast majority of people disillusioned. The seemingly never-ending stream of bad news has taken a toll on their nerves, leaving them with a desire to undergo a deep chain to, perhaps, break away from all the negativity.
Gothic has, therefore, emerged as a bit of a rebellion challenging the status quo. Wearing dark ensembles has become a symbolic statement of discontentment, anger, and resentment in societies that are backward, unfair, or lack purpose. All the while, the ‘romanticization of death’ concept prevalent in Goth represents a yearning to leave a world behind which is broken and where there is little to no hope for humanity to return to being ‘human’.
The young especially who share this sentiment are quick to resort to Gothic fashion to find a better sense of community, comfort, and solace – hanging out in groups and bonding over films like The Crow or bands like Bauhaus, as such content probably helps them forge meaningful connections of relatability to find solace and tranquility deep within. In a world that’s largely hostile, such bonds act as picket fences of hope and solidarity.
It’s fair to say that until we see a world largely free of political instability and crises, Gothic fashion will continue to appeal to a broad range of individuals looking to have more purpose and meaning in their lives while continuing to rebel against injustice, indifference, and inequality.
Nostalgic past drives retro trends
Nostalgia is often seen as a driver of retro trends resurfacing. When we transitioned past the 2020s, for example, a stronger sentiment can be attributed to the pop culture taking inspiration from several decades back. The 1990s and 2000s especially can be seen as a major source of inspiration in today’s pop culture.
From music and movies to fashion, TV shows, and even videogames, the 90s Goth scene has a profound romanticism attached to it, particularly for millennials who were coming of age at the time. Rarely will you see a product where millennials are not catered to. It’s a period of innocent discovery and freedom, even for many adults today, with era-defining moments like Tim Burton movies and shopping at Hot Topic.
The early 2000s Gothic revival also stirs up the same sense of nostalgia for elder millennials and younger Gen X’ers. Visualize playing Marilyn Manson or Korn full blast on your amp or Walkman, staying up past your bedtime to watch Queen of the Death of Underworld on home DVD or chilling out at a mall in ballchain chokers and Tripp pants. It was definitely an era which people in their 30s can easily relate to as it allowed them to express their angst at the time and comprehend the world around them, asking questions about why things were the way they were.
Fast forward a few decades, and this cycle of trends lets the current generation also reclaim their moody individualism. Headbanding to Type O Negative’s Gothic doom metal and curating a fine collection of black attire helps them to revisit their teenage self-discovery journey.
Nostalgia is a powerful emotion – it transforms what was new and edgy into something contemporary, all over again.
Gothic Clothing: Creativity Unleashed
On the subject of creativity, Gothic style is all about embracing the inner artist in oneself. It empowers people to break away from mainstream standards of conformity through rawer, more unfiltered self-expression. Cookie-cutter fashion trends are always trying to dominate stores, and so, the innate desire to experiment with something unique runs deep – Gothic fashion almost always satisfies that creative itch for distinction and uniqueness.
Whilst specific silhouettes dominate Gothic fashion like dark hues, the possibilities don’t end here, with one’s imagination being the only real boundary. By mixing different textures and colours, or combining Victorian corsets with futuristic metals, for example, personalization is the order of the day, with each piece becoming truly “yours” and yours alone.
Despite Gothic’s anti-establishment roots, it has seeped deeply into mainstream fashion brands. However, most of the innovation in Gothic fashion trends comes from either Etsy artisans or independent makers – where every Gothic piece of garment is carved, stitched and sculpted by hand, representing a true work of art.
Mainstream Minimalism Sparks the Desire for Drama
As of late, the fashion world has been mostly dominated by sleek, discreet, and neutral minimalism. Brands such as COS and Everlane, for example, embody this very aesthetic through muted tones of white, beige, and black. While sophisticated at first glance, this muted sensibility fails to create a spark or excite consistently.
In comparison, Gothic clothing absolutely shines with brooding drama. Vulpine grins, flowing capes, and melancholic gazes tell intricate visual stories, with the rich textures and beautiful ornate details giving each outfit a lot of depth and dimension. In an era of sterile sameness, Gothic welcomes all with just the right touch of mystery and individuality.
Transcending minimalist Scandi style, social media also loves polished and curated perfectionism. In this regard, Gothic has certainly become a force to be reckoned with, actively rebelling against the pressure to agree with feeds of homogeneity, just because everyone else does. And so, smeared black lipstick and unorthodox, disheveled hair styles openly spit in the face of typical facades.
Gothic’s Future: Is it here to stay?
Like a darkly menacing vampire, Gothic clothing and fashion seem immortal, destined to resurface again and again, taking a unique form each time. Despite its somewhat niche status, Gothic’s visual language captures imaginations across the world no matter where the cultural tide is flowing. It’s enchanting mix of melancholy, rebellion, fantasy, and unmistakable craftsmanship offers a rather alluring alternative wear that simply cannot be replicated or replaced.
With each revival comes a stylistic evolution as new generations leave behind a legacy for the next generation to get inspired by. What initially began simply as a medieval architectural grandeur has transformed into full-fledged cybergoth neon, punk anarchy, and a great form of self-reflection after the pandemic.
As long as people seek escapism and imagination, Gothic will continue to reinvent itself. Maybe one day, we’ll see Gothic aesthetic dominate not only fashion but other areas of life such as streets, roads, and even runways and taxiways – just like it did during the High Middle Ages. At present, however, it remains a subcultural concept, bubbling up every now and then when the mainstream pushes people away into experimenting with something that has more soul and edge.
Whether crushed velvet is the kind of Gothic attire you like to slip into on weekends or slipping into a pair of eye-catching fishnets for a night out is more your thing, Gothic’s symbolic power is here to stay for many decades more.