Your sister and her friends are a little scary. They wear spiked neck-chokers together with black lipstick, home-dyed hair and clothing in every shade of black. They scorn stepping into the sun so much, that apart from vampire-pale skin, they suffer from a depression-inducing Vitamin D deficiency.
Your sister and her friends are a little scary. They wear spiked neck-chokers together with black lipstick, home-dyed hair and clothing in every shade of black. They scorn stepping into the sun so much, that apart from vampire-pale skin, they suffer from a depression-inducing Vitamin D deficiency.
Their facial expressions range from anger to despair; and the gyrating body movements they call ‘dancing’ are to bands like Slipknot. Some call them “emos”. You know the cold truth: They’re goths!
Stemming from the questionable fashion choices of hard rock’s poster boys like Metallica, Kiss and Seether, girls and boys around the world decided it was fashionable to dress for a funeral every gloomy day of the week. The black plague had struck!
At the same time, you see overtly indie wannabes dressed in ripped, stained and oversized clothing and military-style boots, with hand-rolled cigarettes dangling from their lips at school. They too turned a blind eye to presentably emo-neutral attire, adding their grey clouds to the gloom and doom in fashion’s sky.
Suddenly, the goth and grunge on the streets captured the eye of high-end fashion designers. An early pioneer was Marc Jacobs who created a goth-grunge collection in 1992. His ability to break the dull fashion deadlock of A-line skirts and structured blazers, creating fashion that looked like it came from post-Cold War Eastern Europe, set the catwalks and retail stores alight.
The great Jean Paul Gaultier said to Vogue in 1993 that “Grunge is nothing more than the way we dress when we have no money”.
Suddenly, your sister and her friends went from Darth Vader cultists to poor-looking Kate Mosses.
Who knew then that vestiges of poverty could be so fashionable? And now, 20 years on, goth-grunge collections are back.
Luckily for me, goth and grunge has evolved into a far more glamorous affair in 2013.
Elle’s May edition calls it ‘Romantic Goth’ – chunky knitwear, opulent berry colours, charcoal-coloured lace, suede ankle boots, textured scarves, velvet peplum skirts, studded top-handle bags, sheer black blouses, patterned leggings and gold crystal rings.
Goth’s gone glam; and it’s gorgeous!
