Gothic Subculture and Fashion

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The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in the United Kingdom and United States during the early 1980s in the Pan UK-US gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the Post-punk genre and an evolution of the batcave subculture.

The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify. Its imagery and cultural proclivities indicate influences from nineteenth century Gothic literature along with horror films and to a lesser extent the BDSM culture. 

    The goth subculture has associated tastes in music, aesthetics, and fashion, whether or not all individuals who share those tastes are in fact members of the goth subculture. Gothic music encompasses a number of different styles. Styles of dress within the subculture range from deathrock, punk androgynous, Victorian some Renaissance and Medieval style attire, or combinations of the above, most often with black attire, makeup and hair.

==Origins and development By the late 1970s, there were a few post punk bands labeled "gothic". However, it was not until the early 1980s that gothic rock became its own subgenre within post punk, and that followers of these bands started to come together as a distinctly recognizable movement.

The scene appears to have taken its name from an article published in UK rock weekly Sounds: "The face of Punk Gothique",  written by Steve Keaton and published on February 21, 1981. The opening of the Batcave in London's Soho in July 1982 provided a prominent meeting point for the emerging scene, which had briefly been labeled positive punk by the New Musical Express.

      The term "Batcaver" was later used to describe old-school goths.

Independent from the British scene, the late 1970s and early 1980s saw death rock branch off from American punk.   In 1980s and early 1990s, members of an emerging subculture in Germany were called Grufti[e]s (English "vault creatures" or "tomb creatures"); they generally followed a fusion of the gothic and new wave with an influence of new romantic, and formed the early stages of the "dark culture" (formerly called "dark wave culture").

After post-punk

After the waning in popularity of post-punk, the subculture diversified both musically and visually. This caused variations in the "types" of goth. Local scenes also contributed to this variation. By the 1990s,  Victorian fashion saw a renewed popularity in the goth scene, drawing on the mid-19th century gothic revival and the more morbid aspects of Victorian culture.

Current subcultural boundaries

    By the 1990s, the term "goth" and the boundaries of the associated subculture had become more contentious. New subcultures emerged, or became more popular, some of them being conflated with the goth subculture by the general public and the popular media.

This conflation was primarily owing to similarities of appearance, social customs, and the fashions of the subcultures, rather than the musical genres of the bands associated with them. As time went on, the term was extended further in popular usage, sometimes to define groups that had neither musical nor fashion similarities to the original gothic subculture. This has led to the introduction of goth slang terms that some goths and others use to sort and label members of loosely related or at times unrelated subcultures.

The response of these pseudo-groups to the older subculture varies. Some, being secure in a separate subcultural identity, express offense at being called "goth" in the first place, while others choose to join the existing subculture on their own terms. Still others have simply ignored its existence, and decided to appropriate the term "goth" themselves, and redefine the idea in their own image. Even within the original subculture, changing trends have added to the complexity of attempting to define precise boundaries.

The goth scene

The bands that began the Gothic rock and deathrock scene were limited in number, and included Bauhaus, Specimen, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Damned, The Birthday Party, Southern Death Cult, Ausgang, Sex Gang Children, 45 Grave, UK Decay, The Virgin Prunes, Kommunity FK, Alien Sex Fiend and Christian Death. Gloria Mundi, The Cure, This Mortal Coil, Dead Can Dance, mittageisen, early Adam and the Ants and Killing Joke have also been associated.

By the mid-eighties, the number of bands began proliferating and became increasingly popular, including The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission (known as The Mission UK in the US), Xmal Deutschland, The Bolshoi and Fields of the Nephilim. The nineties saw the further growth of eighties bands and emergence of many new bands. Factory Records, 4AD Records, and Beggars Banquet Records released much of this music in Europe, while Cleopatra Records among others released much of this music in the United States, where the subculture grew especially in New York, Los Angeles, and Orange County, California, with many nightclubs featuring "gothic/industrial" nights. The popularity of 4AD bands resulted in the creation of a similar US label called Projekt Records. This produces what is colloquially termed ethereal wave ethereal wave, a subgenre of dark wave music.

By the mid-1990s, styles of music that were heard in venues that goths attended ranged from gothic rock, death rock, industrial music, Psychobilly, EBM, ambient, experimental, synthpop, shoegazing, punk rock, to 1970s glam rock.

Recent years have seen a resurgence in the early positive punk and death rock sound, in reaction to aggrotech, industrial and synthpop, which had taken over many goth clubs. Bands with an earlier goth sound like Cinema Strange, Bloody Dead And Sexy, Black Ice, and Antiworld are becoming very popular. Nights like Ghoul School and Release The Bats promote death rock heavily, and the Drop Dead Festival brings in death rock fans from all over the world.

Today, the goth music scene thrives in Western Europe - especially in Germany, with large festivals such as Wave-Gotik-Treffen, M'era Luna and others drawing tens of thousands of fans from all over the world.  However, North America still sees large scale events, most recently, Chamber's Dark Art & Music Festival

     

Origins of the term

The original Goth were an Eastern Germanic tribe who played an important role in the fall of the western roman Empire.  In some circles, the name "goth" later became pejorative: synonymous with "barbarian" and the uncultured due to the then-contemporary view of the fall of Rome and depictions of the pagan Gothic tribes during and after the process of Christianization of Europe. During the Renaissance period in Europe, medieval architecture was retroactively labeled Gothic architecture, and was considered unfashionable in contrast to the then-modern lines of classical architecture.

In the United Kingdom, by the late 1700s, however, nostalgia for the medieval period led people to become fascinated with medieval gothic ruins. This fascination was often combined with an interest in medieval romances, Roman Catholic religion and the supernatural.

The Gothic novel of the late eighteenth century, a genre founded by Horace Walpole with the 1764 publication of The Castle of Otranto, was accountable for the more modern connotations of the term gothic.

He originally claimed that the book was a real medieval romance he had discovered and republished. Thus was born the gothic novel's association with fake documentation to increase its effect. Henceforth, the term was associated with a mood o horror, morbidity, darkness and the supernatural as well as camp and self-parody. The gothic novel established much of the iconography of later horror literature and cinema, such as graveyards, ruined castles or churches, ghosts, vampires, nightmares, cursed families, being buried alive and melodramatic plots. An additional notable element was the brooding figure of the gothic villain, which developed into the Byronic hero.

The most famous gothic villain is the vampire, a folklore legend of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, best known from Bram Stoker's novel Dracula and the horror movies it influenced.

Certain elements in the dark, atmospheric music and dress of the post punk scene were clearly gothic in this sense. The use of gothic as an adjective in describing this music and its followers led to the term goth.

19th century

The Revolutionary War-era "American Gothic" story of the Headless Horseman, immortalized in Washington Irving's story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (published in 1820), marked the arrival in the New World of dark, romantic story-telling. The tale was composed by Irving while he was living in England, and was based on popular tales told by colonial Dutch settlers of New York's Hudson River valley. The story was adapted to film in 1922, and in 1949, in the animated The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. It was readapted in 1980 and again in Tim Burton's 1999 Sleepy Hollow.

Burton, already famous through his films Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice and Batman, created a storybook atmosphere filled with darkness and shadow.

Throughout the evolution of goth subculture, classic romantic, gothic and horror literature has played a significant role. Keats, Poe, Lovecraft, Baudelaire and other tragic and romantic writers have become as emblematic of the subculture as has using dark eyeliner or dressing in black. Baudelaire, in fact, in his preface to Les Fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil) penned lines that as much as anything can serve as a sort of goth malediction:

C'est l'Ennui! —l'œil chargé d'un pleur involontaire,

Il rêve d'échafauds en fumant son houka.

Tu le connais, lecteur, ce monstre délicat,

—Hypocrite lecteur,—mon semblable,—mon frère!

It is Boredom! — an eye brimming with an involuntary tear,

he dreams of the gallows while smoking his water-pipe.

You know him, reader, this fragile monster,

—hypocrite reader,—my twin,—my brother!

 

20th century influences

    The influence of the gothic novel on the goth subculture can be seen in numerous examples of the subculture's poetry and music, though this influence sometimes came second hand, through the popular imagery of horror films and television.

The powerful imagery of horror movies began in German expressionist cinema after the first world war and then passed onto the Universal Studios films of the twenties and thirties, and then to the horror films of the English Hammer Studio. By the 1960s, TV series, such as The Addams Family and The Munsters, used these stereotypes for camp comedy. The Byronic hero, in particular, was a key precursor to the male goth image, while Dracula's iconic portrayal by Bela Lugosi appealed powerfully to early goths.

They were attracted by Lugosi's aura of camp menace, elegance and mystique. Some people even credit the band Bauhaus' first single "Bela Lugosi's Dead", released August 1979, with the start of the goth subculture, though many prior art house movements also influenced gothic fashion and style, the illustrations and paintings of Swiss artist, H. R. Giger being one of the earliest. Notable other early examples include Siouxsie Sioux of the musical group Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Dave Vanian of the band The Damned. Some members of Bauhaus were, themselves, fine art students or active artists.

    Some of the early gothic rock and death rock artists adopted traditional horror movie images, and also drew on horror movie soundtracks for inspiration. Their audiences responded in kind by further adopting appropriate dress and props. Use of standard horror film props like swirling smoke, rubber bats, and cobwebs were used as gothic club décor from the beginning in The Batcave. Such references in their music and image were originally tongue-in-cheek, but as time went on, bands and members of the subculture took the connection more seriously.

As a result, morbid, supernatural, and occult themes became a more noticeably serious element in the subculture. The interconnection between horror and goth was highlighted in its early days by The Hunger, a 1983 vampire film, which starred David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon. The movie featured gothic rock group Bauhaus performing "Bela Lugosi's Dead" in a nightclub. In 1993, Whitby became the location for what became the UK's biggest goth festival as a direct result of being featured in Bram Stoker's Dracula. 

    A literary influence on the gothic scene was Anne Rice's re-imagining of the idea of the vampire. Rice's characters were depicted as struggling with eternity and loneliness, this with their ambivalent or tragic sexuality had deep attractions for many goth readers, making her works very popular in the eighties through the nineties.

    The re-imagining of the vampire continued with the release of Poppy Z. Brite's book Lost Souls in October 1992. Despite the fact that Brite's first novel was criticized by some mainstream sources for allegedly "lack[ing] a moral center: neither terrifyingly malevolent supernatural creatures nor (like Anne Rice's protagonists) tortured souls torn between good and evil, these vampires simply add blood-drinking to the amoral panoply of drug abuse, problem drinking and empty sex practiced by their human counterparts", many of these so-called "human counterparts" identified with the the teen angst and Goth music references therein, keeping the book in print. Upon release of a special 10th Anniversary edition of Lost Souls, Publishers Weekly—the same periodical that criticized the novel's "amorality" a decade prior—deemed it a "modern horror classic" and acknowledged the fact Brite has established a "cult audience."

Later media influences

    As the subculture became well-established, the connection between goth and horror fiction became almost a cliché, with Goths quite likely to appear as characters in horror novels and film.  For example,the crow drew directly on goth music and style.  Neil Gaiman's acclaimed graphic novel series The sandman influenced Goths with characters like the dark, brooding dream and his sister death.

Mick Mercer's Mick Mercer's release 21st Century Goth explores the modern state of the Goth scene around the world, including South America, Japan, and mainland Asia. His previous 1997 release, Hex Files: The Goth Bible similarly took an international look at the subculture.

Visual art influences

The Goth subculture has influenced different artists - not only musicians - but also painters and photographers. In particular their work is based on mystic, morbid and romantic motifs. In photography and painting the spectrum varies from erotic artwork to romantic images of vampires or ghosts. To be present is a marked preference for dark colours and sentiments, similar to Gothic fiction, Pre-Raphaelites or Art Nouveau.

In the Fine Art field, anne sudworth is a well known goth artist with her dark, nocturnal works and strong Gothic imagery. Often, goth visual art goes hand in hand with goth music, such as artist Nathaniel Milljour whose gothic artwork is predominantly used by bands and nightclubs.

Some of the graphic artists close to Goth are Gerald Brom, Nene Thomas, Luis Royo, Dave McKean, Jhonen Vasquez, Trevor Brow, Victoria Franes as well as the American comic artist James O'Barr, H.R. Giger of Switzerland is one of the first graphic artists to make serious contributions to the Gothic/Industrial look of much of modern cinema with his work on the film "Alien" by Ridley Scott.

 

Ideology

   Defining an explicit ideology for the gothic subculture is difficult for several reasons. First is the overwhelming importance of mood and aesthetic for those involved. This is, in part, inspired by romanticism and neormanticism.

The allure for goths of dark, mysterious, and morbid imagery and mood lies in the same tradition of Romanticism's gothic novel. During the late 18th and 19th century, feelings of horror, and supernatural dread were widespread motifs in popular literature; The process continues in the modern horror film. Balancing this emphasis on mood and aesthetics, another central element of the gothic is a deliberate sense of camp theatricality and self-dramatization; present both in gothic literature as well as in the gothic subculture itself.

   Goths, in terms of their membership in the subculture, are usually not supportive of violence, but rather tolerant. Many in the media have incorrectly associated the Goth subculture with violence, hatred of minorities, and other acts of hate. However, violence and hate do not form elements of goth ideology; rather, the ideology is formed in part by recognition, identification, and grief over societal and personal evils that the mainstream culture wishes to ignore or forget. These are the prevalent themes in goth music.

   The second impediment to explicitly defining a gothic ideology is goth's generally apolitical nature. While individual defiance of social norms was a very risky business in the nineteenth century, today it is far less socially radical. Thus, the significance of goth's subcultural rebellion is limited, and it draws on imagery at the heart of Western culture. Unlike the hippie or punk movements, the goth subculture has no pronounced political messages or cries for social activism.

The subculture is marked by its emphasis on individualism, tolerance for diversity, a strong emphasis on creativity, tendency toward intellectualism, and a mild tendency towards cynicism, but even these ideas are not universal to all goths. Goth ideology is based far more on aesthetics and simplified ethics than politics.

   Goths may, indeed, have political leanings ranging from left-wing to right-wing, but they do not express them specifically as part of a cultural identity. Instead, political affiliation, like religion, is seen as a matter of personal conscience.

Unlike punk, there are few clashes between political affiliation and being "goth". Similarly, there is no common religious tie that binds together the goth movement, though spiritual, supernatural and religious imagery has played a part in gothic fashion, song lyrics and visual art. In particular, aesthetic elements from Catholicism often appear in goth culture. Reasons for donning such imagery range from expression of religious affiliation to satire or simply decorative effect.

   While involvement with the subculture can be fulfilling, it also can be risky, especially for the young, because of the negative attention it can attract due to public misconceptions of goth subculture. The value that young people find in the movement is evidenced by its continuing existence after other subcultures of the eighties (such as the New Romantics) have died out.

Fashion

Goth fashion is stereotyped as a dark, sometimes morbid, eroticized fashion and style of dress. Typical gothic fashion includes dyed black hair, dark eyeliner, black fingernails, black period-styled clothing; goths may or may not have piercings. Styles are often borrowed from the Elizabethan, Victorian or medieval period and often express Catholic or other religious imagery such as crucifixes or or ankhs.  The extent to which goths hold to this style varies amongst individuals as well as geographical locality, though virtually all Goths wear some of these elements.

Fashion designers, such as Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, have also been described as practicing "Haute Goth".   Goth fashion is often confused with heavy metal fashion outsiders often mistake fans of heavy metal for goth, particularly those who wear black trench coats or wear "corpse paint" (a term associated with the black metal music scene).

Controversy

The gothic fascination with the macabre has raised public concerns regarding the psychological well-being of goths. The mass media has made reports that have influenced the public view that goths, or people associated with the subculture, are malicious; however this is disputed and the Goth subculture is often described as non-violent.  Some individuals who have either identified themselves or been identified by others as goth, whether correctly or incorrectly, have committed high profile violent crimes, including several school shootings. These incidents and their attribution to the goth scene have helped to propagate a wary perception of Goth in the public eye.

A compilation of three photos of Scott  Dyleski, run on the cover of the San Francisco Chronicle. The picture on the right, of Dyleski in the ninth grade, which shows him in makeup and long hair, was criticized by his defense attorney as unfair and misleading, because by fall 2006 Dyleski's appearance had become more conservative and mainstream. The Dyleski trial sparked controversy over the goth scene.

Public concern with the goth subculture reached a high point in the fallout of the Columbine High School massacre that was carried out by two students, incorrectly associated with the goth subculture. This misreporting of the roots of the massacre caused a widespread public backlash against the North American goth scene. Investigators of the incident, five months later, stated that there was no involvement between the goth subculture and the killers, who held goth music in contempt.

The Dawson College shooting, in Canada, also raised public concern with the goth scene. Kimveer Gill, who killed one and injured nineteen, maintained an online journal at a web site, VampireFreaks, in which he "portrayed himself as a gun-loving Goth."   The day after the shooting it was reported that "it are rough times for industrial / goth music fans these days as a result of yet another trench coat killing", implying that Gill was involved in the goth subculture.   

 During a search of Gill's home, police found a letter praising the actions of Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and a CD titled "Shooting sprees ain't no fun without Ozzy and friends LOL".   Although the shooter claimed an obsession for "Goth", his favorite music list was described, by the media, as a "who's who of heavy metal.

 Mick Mercer author, noted music journalist, and world's leading historian of Goth music stated, of Kimveer Gill, that he was "not a Goth.  Never a Goth. The bands he listed as his chosen form of ear-bashing were relentlessly Metal and standard Grunge, Rock and Goth metal, with some Industrial presence.", "Kimveer Gill listened to metal", "

He had nothing whatsoever to do with Goth" and further commented "I realise that like many Neos this idiot may even have believed he somehow was a Goth, because they're only really noted for spectacularly missing the point." Mercer emphasized that he was not blaming heavy metal music for Gill's actions and added "It doesn’t matter actually what music he liked."

Another school shooting that was wrongly attributed to the goth subculture is the Red Lake High School massacre.   jeff weise killed 7 people, and was believed by a fellow student to be into the goth culture: wearing "a big old black trench coat," and listening to heavy metal music. Weise was also found to participate in neo-nazi online forums.

Other murders which are attributed to people suspected of being part of the goth culture include the Scott Dyleski killing, and the richardson family murders, although neither of these cases raised the same amount of media attention as the school shootings.

In part because of public misunderstanding and ignorance surrounding gothic aesthetics, goths sometimes suffer prejudice, discrimination and intolerance.  As is the case with members of various other controversial subcultures and alternative lifestyles, outsiders sometimes marginalize goths, either by intention or by accident.

Goths, like any other alternative sub-culture sometimes suffer intimidation, humiliation, and, in many cases, physical violence for their involvement with the subculture.

In 2006 James Eric Benham, a Navy sailor, along with his brother, attacked four goths in San Diego California. One goth, Jim Howard, had to be rushed to the hospital. The perpetrators of this attack were found guilty in August 2007 on four related accounts, two of which were felonies, though Benham only spent 37 days in jail. During the trial, it was made clear that the goths were assaulted due to their subculture affiliation. This can be otherwise known as a "hate crime" though the San Diego courts do not recognize this attack as such at this time.

On August 11, 2007, two goths, walking through Stubbylee Park in Bacup, Lancashire, England were attacked by a group of teenagers because they were goths.

Sophie Lancaster subsequently died from her injuries.  On April 29, 2008, two teens Ryan Herbert and Brendan Harris were convicted for the murder of Lancaster and given life sentences, three others were given lesser sentences for the assault on her boyfriend Robert Maltby. In delivering the sentence Judge Anthony Russell stated “This was a hate crime against these completely harmless people targeted because their appearance was different to yours.”

He went on to defend the goth community, calling goths “perfectly peaceful, law-abiding people who pose no threat to anybody.”  Judge Russell add that he “recognised it as a hate crime without Parliament having to tell him to do so, and had included that view in his sentencing.”  Despite this ruling, a bill to add discrimination based on subculture affiliation to the definition of hate crime in British law did not pass.

In 2008, Paul Gibbs, a Briton from Leeds, UK was attacked by three men. He and his group of about 20 young goths were on a camping trip in the vicinity of Rothwell when two 18-year-olds (Quinn Colley, Ryan Woodhead) and one 22-year-old (Andrew Hall) raided, stabbed four of the men and robbed two women. Quinn Colley had previously appeared in a homemade clip rapping on his love of violence.

Working mainly with ink and watercolour on paper, Liza Corbett embraces Victorian Gothic in her portrayal of strange ladies in hoop-skirt cages with the heads of dogs, and literary heroines confused by Venn diagrams. In her style, these jarring scenes seem not only plausible, but beautiful as well.

In addition to paintings, Liza also creates stuffed ‘beasts’, t-shirts and badges, all decorated with her beautiful, nightmarish drawings. She was kind enough to answer a few questions about her work.

Gibbs was offered a motorbike ride by the attackers who at first insidiously befriended the group. On their way Gibbs was knocked down from the bike, rendered unconscious by a helmet and had his ear sliced off. Afterwards, the attackers returned to the camp. Colley and Woodhead were sentenced to at leat 2.5 years of prison while Hall at least 4.5 years.

Gibbs' ear was found 17 hours later, thus doctors could not immediately reattach it. Instead, they stitched it inside his stomach with the hope that some of the tissue will re-grow. The ear could be reconstructed by using cartilage removed from Gibbs' ribs.

A study published on the British Medical Journal concluded that "identification as belonging to the Goth subculture [at some point on their lives] was the best predictor of self harm and attempted suicide [among young teens]", and that it was most possibly due to a selection mechanism (persons that wanted to harm themselves later identified as goths, thus raising the percentage of those persons who identify as goths). The study was based on a sample of 15 teenagers who identified as goths, of which 8 had self-harmed by any method, 7 had self-harmed by cutting, scratching or scoring, and 7 had attempted suicide. 

  The authors said that most self-harm by teens was done before joining the subculture, and that joining the subculture would actually protect them and help them deal with distress in their lives.  The authors insisted on the study being based on small numbers and on the need of replication to confirm the results.   The study was criticized for using a small sample of goth teens and not taking into account other influences and differences between different types of goth.

goth wedding present

The neo-Gothic influence in fashion history dress fashions was at its peak during the Romantic Era between 1825 and 1835. The romantic spirit in fashionable dress lasted until the late 1840s.

The silhouette for women during this time is characterized by a waistline moving down from under the bust to several inches above the natural waist, fuller skirts with increased decoration at the bottom, and a wide variety of sleeve types.

A notable feature in women’s costume of this period is the variety of sleeve styles that were popular. The types seen in this collection are the marie-sleeve (full sleeve tied at intervals with ribbon); the imbecile or idiot sleeve which is extremely full from the shoulder to wrist, and the demi-gigot (full from shoulder to elbow, then fitted to the wrist). The Beret sleeves were cut from a circle. There was an opening in the center for the arm and this was gathered and bound into a band. The outer circle was gathered and set into the armhole. Sometimes a sheer over-sleeve of silk embroidered shimmering gauze covered the beret puff. Generally the beret sleeve was worn for evening.

Hair was worn parted in the middle, with the back arranged in a knot, and side curls beside the face. Bonnets were popular headgear during the day. Men wore tight fitting trousers or pantaloons, coats nipped at the waist, and top hats. It was customary for the trousers, waistcoat, and coat to be different colors

Fashions of the 1920's

When you think of the 20's your mind immediately goes to the Flapper. But the Flapper style did not actual begin until 1926.

The fashionable Flapper had short smooth sleek hair, a shapeless shift type dress and a flat chest.

After the first world war the styles for women became considerable more "mannish".

Female dress became loser and less fitted. The bustline was suppressed by special designed Brassieres. One knows as the Symington Side Lacer. It laced on the sides so that it could be tightened for a flattening effect.

The Miracle Reducing Rubber Brassiere gave the "desirable flat lines" sought after by young women in the 20s. It was paired with the

Miracle Reducing Rubber Reducer, which molded the lines of the figure while reducing it. The garment was "scientifically designed without bones or lacings."

It is a common misconception that Hems were short throughout the 20's. Actually hem began to creep up to show a bit of the ankle in 1913. In 1918 hems were just below mid calf. Also around 1918 even thought length remained the same, at the calf, the waist actually dropped.

Gradually the skirt lengths on dresses gave the illusion of being first long and then shorter with dipping, scalloped and handkerchief hemlines in floating fabrics. It was only in 1925 that skirts rose 14 to 16 inches from the ground making the shorter hemline we associate with the era.

During this era was the first time there was a sense of nudity in stockings and arms were bare.

Fashion also became more accessible at this time. The lines were simplified thus making it easier for the home sewer to create her own styles.

You cannot mention the 20's without talking about Coco Chanel (pictured below in 1920). From her first millinery shop, opened in 1912, to the 1920s, Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel rose to become one of the premier fashion designers in Paris, France.

Replacing the corset with comfort and casual elegance, her fashion themes included simple suits and dresses, woman's trousers, costume jewelry, perfume and textiles.

Soon Coco Chanel was expanding to couture, working in jersey, a first in the French fashion world. By the 1920s, her fashion house had expanded considerably, and her chemise set a fashion trend with its "little boy" look. Her relaxed fashions, short skirts, and casual look were in sharp contrast to the corset of previous decades. Chanel herself dressed in mannish clothes, and adapted these more comfortable fashions which other women also found liberating.

Coco Chanel introduced her signature cardigan jacket in 1925 and signature "little black dress" in 1926. Most of her fashions had a staying power, and didn't change much from year to year -- or even generation to generation.

The Cloche Hat is a fitted, bell-shaped hat that was popular during the 1920s. If you were a cloche hat you told everyone you had short hair. It was only possible to get this style of hat to fit well if you have very short flat hair. It was essential that it cover the forehead. Foreheads were unfashionable at the time. This stykle of hat was very popular and continued to be worn and evolve into the 30's.













Michelle minidolls.com Doll Artist's Workshop

Pattern #2003 by Kathi Mendenhall La Petite Bell Patterns

The Edwardian period or Edwardian era 1907 - 1910  

in the United Kingdom is the period covering the reign of Edward VII of the United Kingdom King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 and the succession of her son, Edward, marked the start of a new century and the end of the Victorian period.

The Edwardian period was also known as the meaning beautiful era. Despite its short pre-eminence, the period is characterized by its own unique architectural style, fashion, and way of life. Art Nouveau held a particularly strong influence.

The Silhouette after 1890
The bustle disappeared from day dresses and the new day skirt style was flared smoothly over the hips from a handspan waist and then gradually widened at the hemline.

With the decline of the bustle, sleeves began to increase in size and the 1830s silhouette of an hourglass shape became popular again.

The fashionable silhouette in the early 1900s was that of a mature woman, with full low bust and curvy hips.

The "health corset" of this period removed pressure from the abdomen and created an S-curve silhouette. By 1895 the leg of mutton sleeves swelled to gigantic proportions and were also used on décolleté evening dresses.

The size of the sleeves was highlighted by the comparison of the tiny sashed or belted waist against the simple gored skirt that flared out all round to balance the massive sleeve heads.

In 1897, the silhouette slimmed and elongated by a considerable amount. 

Blouses and dresses were full in front and puffed into a "pigeon breast" or monobosom shape of the early 20th century that looked over the narrow waist, which sloped from back to front and was often accented with a sash or belt. Necklines were supported by very high boned collars.

Skirts brushed the floor, often with a train, even for day dresses, in mid-decade.

Around 1908, the fashion houses of Paris began to show a new silhouette, with a thicker waist, flatter bust, and narrower hips. By the end of the decade the most fashionable skirts cleared the floor and approached the ankle. The overall silhouette narrowed and straightened, beginning a trend that would continue into the years leading up to the Great War.

Hairstyles and Hats

Huge, broadbrimmed hats were worn in mid-decade, trimmed with masses of feathers and occasionally complete stuffed birds, or decorated with ribbons and artificial flowers. 

Masses of wavy hair were fashionable, swept up to the top of the head (over horsehair pads called "rats" if necessary) and gathered into a knot. Large hats were worn with evening wear.

By the end of the decade, hats had smaller drooping brims that shaded the face and deep crowns, and the overall top-heavy effect remained.

Orientalism in Dress

During the early years of the 1910s the fashionable silhouette became much more lithe, fluid and soft than in the 1900s. When the Ballets Russes performed Scheherazade in Paris in 1910, a craze for Orientalism ensued. 

The couturier Paul Poiret was one of the first designers to translate this vogue into the fashion world. Poiret's clients were at once transformed into harem girls in flowing pantaloons, turbans, and vivid colors and geishas in exotic kimono. 

The Art Nouveau movement began to emerge at this time and its influence was evident in the designs of many couturiers of the time. Simple felt hats, turbans, and clouds of tulle replaced the styles of headgear popular in the 1900s. It is also notable that the first real fashion shows were organized during this period in time, by the first female couturier, Jeanne Paquin, who was also the first Parisian couturier to open foreign branches in London, Buenos Aires, and Madrid.

Mid to Late Victorian Fashions - 1860 - 1901

After 1860 there were 3 big changes in Fashion: The invention of the sewing machine, Synthetic dyes would allow more intense colors and that the crinolines shirt flattened in the front and moved and softer towards the back.

Charles Worth thought the crinoline skirt unattractive. He is associated with a manipulation of this style resulting the shape soon changed to a new trained, softer bustled version, which only the really rich found practical.

1870s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by a gradual return to a narrow silhouette after the full-skirted fashions of the 1850s and 1860s.

By 1870, fullness in the skirt had moved to the rear, where elaborate draping was held in place by tapes and supported by a bustle.

This fashion required an underskirt, which was heavily trimmed with pleats, rouching, and frills. This fashion was short-lived (though the bustle would return again in the mid-1880s), and was succeeded by a tight-fitting silhouette with fullness as low as the knees: the cuirass bodice, a form-fitting, long-waisted, boned bodice that reached below the hips, and the princess sheath dress.

Daytime dresses had high necklines that were either closed, squared, or V-shaped. Sleeves of day dresses were narrow throughout the period, with a tendency to flare slightly at the wrist early on.

Women often draped overskirts to produce an apronlike effect from the front.

Evening dresses had low necklines and very short, off-the-shoulder sleeves, and were worn with short (later mid-length) gloves. Other characteristic fashions included a velvet ribbon tied high around the neck and trailing behind for evening (the origin of the modern choker necklace).
1880-

As in the previous decade, emphasis remained on the back of the skirt, with fullness gradually rising from behind the knees to just below the waist. The fullness over the buttocks was balanced by a fuller, lower bosom, achieved by rigid corseting, creating an S-shaped silhouette.

Skirts were looped, draped, or tied up in various ways, and worn over matching or contrasting underskirts. The polonaise was a revival style based on a fashion of the 1780s, with a fitted, cutaway overdress caught up and draped over an underskirt.
Long, jacket-like fitted bodices called basques were also popular for daywear.

Evening gowns were sleeveless and low-necked (except for matrons), and were worn with long over the elbow or shoulder length gloves of fine kid leather or suede.

Choker necklaces and jeweled collars were fashionable under the influence of Alexandra, Princess of Wales, who wore this fashion to disguise a scar on her neck.

Fashionable women's clothing styles shed some of the extravagances of previous decades (so that skirts were neither crinolined as in the 1850s, nor protrudingly bustled in back as in the late 1860s and mid-1880s, nor tight as in the late 1870s), but corseting continued unmitigated, or even slightly increased in severity.

Early 1890s dresses consisted of a tight bodice with the skirt gathered at the waist and falling more naturally over the hips and undergarments than in previous years.

The mid 1890s introduced leg o'mutton sleeves, which grew in size each year until they disappeared in about 1896. During the same period of the mid '90s, skirts took on an A-line silhouette that was almost bell-like.

The late 1890s returned to the tighter sleeves often with small puffs or ruffles capping the shoulder but fitted to the wrist. Skirts took on a trumpet shape, fitting more closely over the hip and flaring just above the knee.

Corsets in the 1890s helped define the hourglass figure as immortalized by artist Charles Dana Gibson. In the very late 1890s the corset elongated, giving the women a slight S-curve silhouette that would be popular well into the Edwardian era.

Early Victorian Fashions 1837 - 1860

Windsor Castle in Modern Times by Landseer depicts the Queen and the Prince Consort "at home" in the 1840s.

The term "Victorian fashion" refers to fashion in clothing in the Victorian era, or the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901).

It is strictly used only with regard to the United Kingdom and its colonies, but is often used loosely to refer to Western fashions of the period. It may also refer to a supposedly unified style in clothing, home décor, manners, and morals, or a culture, said to be prevalent in the West during this period.

The broad silhouette of the 1830s was replaced with a triangular line with vertical emphasis. Shoulders became narrow and sloping, waists became low and pointed, and sleeve detail migrated from the elbow to the wrists.

Where pleated fabric panels had wrapped the bust and shoulders in the previous decade, they now formed a triangle from the shoulder to the waist of day dresses.

Skirts evolved from a conical shape to a bell shape, aided by a new method of attaching the skirts to the bodice using organ or cartridge pleats which cause the skirt to spring out from the waist. Full skirts were achieved mainly through layers of petticoats.

The increasing weight and inconvenience of the layers of starched petticoats would lead to the development of the crinoline of the second half of the 1850s.

Sleeves were narrower and fullness dropped from just below the shoulder at the beginning of the decade to the lower arm, leading toward the flared pagoda sleeves of the 1850s and 1860s.

Evening gowns were worn off the shoulder and featured wide flounces that reached to the elbow, often of lace. They were worn with sheer shawls an opera-length gloves.

Another accessory was a small bag. At home bags were often white satin and embroidered or painted. Outdoor bags were often green or white and tasseled.

The introduction of the steel cage crinoline in 1856 provided a means for expanding the skirt still further, and flounces gradually disappeared in favor of a skirt lying more smoothly over the petticoat and hoops. Pantalettes were essential under this new fashion for modesty's sake.

By the early 1860s, skirts had reached their ultimate width. After about 1862 the silhouette of the crinoline changed and rather than being bell-shaped it was now flatter at the front and projected out more behind.

Day dresses featured wide pagoda sleeves worn over undersleeves or engageantes. High necklines with lace or tatted collars or chemisettes completed the demure daytime look.

Evening dresses had low necklines and short sleeves, and were worn with short gloves or lace or crocheted fingerless mitts. Large crinolines were probably reserved for balls, weddings and other special occasions.

Princesse Albert de Broglie - 1853

Skirts were now assembled of shaped panels, since gathering a straight length of fabric could not provide the width required at the hem without unwanted bulk at the waist; this spelled the end of the brief fashion for border-printed dress fabrics.


Heavy silks in solid colors became fashionable for both day and evening wear, and a skirt might be made with two bodices, one long-sleeved and high necked for afternoon wear and one short-sleeved and low-necked for evening.

As the decade progressed, sleeves narrowed, and the circular hoops of the 1850s decreased in size at the front and sides and increased at the back.

Looped up overskirts revealed matching or contrasting underskirts, a look that would reach its ultimate expression the next two decades with the rise of the bustle.

Waistlines rose briefly at the end of the decade.

Fashions were adopted more slowly in America than in Europe.

It was not uncommon for fashion plates to appear in American women's magazines a year or more after they appeared in Paris or London.

1830's Gown

 

The neo-Gothic influence in fashion history dress fashions was at its peak during the Romantic Era between 1825 and 1835. The romantic spirit in fashionable dress lasted until the late 1840s.
The silhouette for women during this time is characterized by a waistline moving down from under the bust to several inches above the natural waist, fuller skirts with increased decoration at the bottom, and a wide variety of sleeve types.

A notable feature in women’s costume of this period is the variety of sleeve styles that were popular. The types seen in this collection are the marie-sleeve (full sleeve tied at intervals with ribbon); the imbecile or idiot sleeve which is extremely full from the shoulder to wrist, and the demi-gigot (full from shoulder to elbow, then fitted to the wrist). The Beret sleeves were cut from a circle. There was an opening in the center for the arm and this was gathered and bound into a band. The outer circle was gathered and set into the armhole. Sometimes a sheer over-sleeve of silk embroidered shimmering gauze covered the beret puff. Generally the beret sleeve was worn for evening.

Hair was worn parted in the middle, with the back arranged in a knot, and side curls beside the face. Bonnets were popular headgear during the day. Men wore tight fitting trousers or pantaloons, coats nipped at the waist, and top hats. It was customary for the trousers, waistcoat, and coat to be different colors. Michelle

Georgian Period of Fashion 1714-1811

The richly decorated gowns worn by wealthy Georgian women were often adorned with an "eschelle stomacher" (a fancy corset designed to be worn in public and adorned with bows of decreasing size) above the waistline and an embroidered and trimmed petticoat below.

Ladies' skirts were supported by wide hoops made of cane or rattan, and sometimes laid over quilted under-petticoats. Under the hoops and corset, ladies wore "shifts" (knee-length undergarments with elbow-length sleeves adorned with a froth of lace).

Properly dressed ladies also wore stockings gathered at the knee and made from rich silk fabrics with woven patterns or embroidered motifs, and high-heeled shoes covered with silk to match the gown.

Women's tresses of this period were gathered and piled high, with wildly enormous hairstyles emerging near the turn of the century. In addition, elaborate and often frivolous caps were fashionable.

Men of the period dressed plainly for sports and country life, but adorned themselves in high fashion at court. Their suits were made from rich velvets, silks and satins, and decorated with braid, embroidery, and buttons of gold, silver, and jewels.

A gentleman's suit consisted of a long and flared coat, sleeveless waistcoast, shirt adorned with lace ruffles at the wrists and neck, and knee breeches. Men also wore silk stockings with embroidered designs at the ankles and high-heeled shoes.

A cravat made of soft fabric and tied at the neck or a stiff neckcloth buckled at the back completed a properly dressed gentleman's outfit. Men's hair of the period was worn shoulder-length and tied at the neck, or powdered with tight curls.

Powdering hair consisted of applying a sticky substance and flour dyed in brown, gray, white, blue or pink! Men also wore wigs for formal occasions. In addition to powdering hair, fashionable men of the period applied makeup (pale powder, rouge, and lip color), as well as carried fans and embroidered silk handkerchiefs drenched with perfume. Michelle

Empire Period of Fashion

Fashions of the time reflect the Empire style (1795-1820). The fashion trend in the late years of the 18th and early 19th centuries was influenced by Classical Greece: high waisted gowns with long thin muslin skirts and long stoles. For more about this period check out this link to Wikipedia and The Costumer's Manifesto, they are sure to inspire you in your doll making endeavors. Michelle

Paris 1811 Day Dress

Paris 1812 Day Dress1812 Seaside Costume London

  1500 1550

Anne Stafford wears a black fur-lined gown with turned-back sleeves over a dark kirtle^[9] She wears a soft sash at her waist and a sheer partlet over a square-necked chemise, c. 1535.

Albrecht Dürer's Young Woman of 1507 wears hat called a barett, popular in the German states.

Portrait of Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII of England c.1600s depicting Anne in c.1533, wearing a French hood trimmed with pearls, and a square-necked black velvet gown decorated with the same pearls and embroidery

1550–1600

 1600  - 1650

1650 - 1700

click to page 2 of gothic subculture and fashion

1700 - 1750

1750  - 1795

The Bliaut

 Things were kind of hectic in the last half of the eleventh century A.D. In 1066, there had been a great upheaval in the British Isles. Ethelred, the Anglo-Saxon king, died without naming an heir in 1066. The Thing elected Harold of Wessex king. Harold Hardrada, the King of Norway, thought he should have the throne, but Harold of Wessex killed Hardrada (along with his own rebellious brother Tostig) in a battle at Stamford Bridge (in the north of England). Two weeks later, after marching his men three hundred miles from Stamford Bridge to Hastings, he fought William, the Duke of Normandy. Harold was killed in this battle, and William I became king. (French fashion enters the British Isles!)

For 20 years, King William I protected his possessions in England and Normandy. His son William II succeeded him in 1086. Pope Urban II pronounced the First Crusade in 1095, urging all good Christians to take the Cross and march to the succor of Constantinople. The Crusaders were gone from their homes and families until about 1100, having spent 1096 and 1097 near Constantinople and in Asia Minor, and 1098 and 1099 in the Holy Land. 

 In 1100, William II died in a hunting accident in England, and his brother Henry I (no slouch at recognizing a good opportunity) rushed back to Westminster to declare himself the king. Henry had only two surviving legitimate children, William and Maud. William died in the wreck of the ship the White Rose, leaving Maud the sole heiress. Henry, knowing it would be difficult for a woman to be accepted as sole ruler, required his vassals to swear their loyalty to her while he was living. Unfortunately, as soon as Henry died in 1135, the vassals wavered and split their loyalties between Maud and her cousin Stephen of Blois, the son of Henry I's sister Adele and the grandson of William I. The entire period of Stephen's reign, 1135 through 1154, was a period of constant warfare between Stephen and Maud, which makes it even more amazing that fashion history was made in his court.

The Bliaut:

The bliaut qualifies as a fashion "freak" because it is so different from what came before or after. It was most popular between 1140 and 1160. Prior to 1140, most clothing was based on the loose T- or cross-tunic, worn in one or two layers. The bliaut was unusual in that 1) it was form-fitting, 2) it included a tightly fitted corset-like girdle, and 3) it included an open "surcoat". After 1160, the bliaut morphed into a closed dress without an open front and with tight sleeves.

In England, this was the reign of King Stephen. You can also see that the bliaut was popular in France during that time, because the Kings and Queens of Chartres Cathedral (begun 1145, completed 1195; the Kings and Queens were finished about 1160) are wearing bliauts. Here are close-ups of the statues - you can clearly see the girdle and pleated skirt detail in these images. 

What is a bliaut, you ask? Rather than one article of clothing, the bliaut was a "fashion look." For women, it consisted of an underdress, a surcoat, and a "girdle" or waistband that went over both, and which was fitted from beneath the breasts to the top of the hips. Sometimes, it looks as if the woman is wearing a close-fitting sleeveless, hip-length vest instead of a girdle. The surcoat looks as if it was made of fine linen, with broomstick pleats throughout the entire garment. The word bliaut (or bliaus) technically refers to a loose, flowing overgarment, such as a robe or surcoat, so the entire fashion took its name from the surcoat piece of the ensemble. In addition, an open coat such as this is unique in Western European apparel up to this time.

The man's bliaut also consisted of the underdress, the surcoat, and a belt. There's a very nice illustration about halfway down on this page from the theater department of the University of British Columbia. This outfit doesn't really sound unusual until you get to the details. The most unique feature of the men's bliaut was the very wide skirt either sewn to the waist of the tunic or cut as one piece with the tunic. This skirt was cut in a triangle, and gathered into the waistseam. The tunic was held in place by a belt; it was worn bloused over the belt, with the side skirts tucked up into the belt.

There is a theory that the bliaut was brought back from the East by the returning Crusaders (1100 A.D.). From its cut, it certainly could be a version of the Byzantine women's stola or tunica or men's dalmatica. (For an interesting discussion of Byzantine garb, try this link.) These two garments were very similar in cut and style, being long, flowing robes, with sleeves that had two variations - either they were narrowed to a wristband or the sleeve widened out to a "butterfly" style sleeve. In the East, the dalmatica and stola later developed into robes that were made of heavy fabric and heavily decorated. The simpler version of this coat is still being worn in the Middle East to this day. In the West, it appears that the bliaut was made of lighter fabric so that it could be gathered and pleated, to be held in place by the girdle. Although there is no evidence that the girdle of the bliaut was boned or corsetted, it was cut much larger than previously known, and was drawn tightly closed by lacing tied on the sides, holding the pleated surcoat in place.

Although 1140-1160 was the height of the bliaut's fashionable period, it was worn for some years afterward. Spanish costume, greatly influenced as it was by Moslem society, retained this open surcoat in both sleeved and sleeveless styles well into the Renaissance period. In addition, the surcoat - after having its open front seam sewn - developed into a form-fitting dress called the cotehardie. The cotehardie was worn either with a shorter underdress, or, in later years, as the form-fitting underdress with a sleeveless surcoat of its own.

Gothic plate armour (German: Gotischer Plattenpanzer) is a type of plate armour of steel made in the regions of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire during the late Middle Ages (15th century). The armour provided full-body protection to the knight who wore it.

"Suits of armour" were common during the 15th century in central Europe and influenced Italian and English plate armour.

Gothic armour, especially suits made under Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, were modelled with curves, flutings and ridges in order to enhance the strength of the armour and deflect arrows. Such armour was made during the 15th century and reached its peak in the 1480s, when it was considered the best in Europe. Its structure featured points and ridges influenced by Gothic architecture and Gothic art. In addition to steel plates it included mail to protect under the bevor, joints and crotch.

Gothic armour was often combined with a Gothic sallet, which included long and sharp rear-plate that protected the back of the neck and head.^[1] A bevor protected the chin.

During the 16th century, under Italian influence, Gothic armour evolved into Maximilian armour. This new armour was fashioned rounder and more curved and the ridges were narrower, parallel to each other and covered the entire armour

The Goths (Gothic: Gutans, Old Norse: Gutar/Gotar; German: Goten; Latin: Gothi; Greek: Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin who played an important role in the history of the Roman Empire after they appeared on its lower Danube frontier in the 3rd century. Their language, Gothic is the oldest attested Germanic language. Throughout their history, the Goths founded several powerful kingdoms in Europe, and played the major role in the defeat of the Huns and the initiation of the Reconquista.

The first recorded incursion of Goths into the Roman Empire took place in 238. Written records about the Goths prior to this date are scarce. The most important source is Jordanes' 6th-century, semi-fictional Getica which describes a migration from Scandza, believed to be located somewhere in southern Sweden (Gotland or/and Götaland), to Gothiscandza, which is believed to be the lower Vistula region in modern Pomerania (Poland), and from there to the coast of the Black Sea.

The Pomeranian Wielbark culture and the Chernyakhov culture northeast of the lower Danube are widely believed to be the archaeological traces of this migration. Centered around their capital Arheimar at the Dnieper, the Goths established a vast empire referred to as Oium, which at its peak under king Ermanaric stretched from the Danube to the Volga river, and from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea.^[1][2] In the mid 3rd century the Goths launched several raids against the Roman Empire in Anatolia and the Balkans, conquered Dacia and launched several amphibious expeditions into the Aegean, Mediterranean and the Black sea.^[3]

During the third and fourth centuries, the Goths were divided into at least two distinct groups separated by the Dniester River, the Thervingi, ruled by the Amali dynasty, and the Greuthungi, ruled by the Balti dynasty. In the late fourth century, the Huns invaded the Gothic region from the east. While many Goths were subdued and integrated into the Hunnic Empire, others were pushed towards the Roman Empire, sparking the Gothic war of 375–82, culminating in the Battle of Adrianople, which marked the beginning of the end for the Roman Empire. Meanwhile, the Goths were converted to Arian Christianity by the half-Gothic missionary Wulfila, who devised a Gothic alphabet to translate the Bible. The Goths formed the core of the army that defeated Attila at the Battle of the Catalunian Plains, and in 454 the Goths ended the Hunnic domination in Europe with their victory at the Battle of Nedao.

In the fifth and sixth centuries, the Goths separated into two tribes, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths. Both established powerful successor states of the Western Roman Empire. In Italy the Ostrogothic Kingdom was established by Theodoric the Great. The Ostrogothic nobles were defeated by the forces of the Byzantine Empire in the devastating 20-year-long Gothic war of 535–54 which ruined the Byzantine economy and caused millions of deaths, only to result in Germanic Lombardic conquest 10 years later.

The Visigoths under Alaric I sacked Rome in 410. Their fifth-century Visigothic Kingdom in Aquitaine was pushed to Hispania by the Franks in 507, converted to Catholicism by the late sixth century, and in the early eighth century fell to the Muslim Moors. Subsequently, under the leadership of the Gothic nobleman Pelagius, the Visigothic nobles managed to establish the Kingdom of Asturias and would later be credited with the initiation of the Reconquista and the Crusades with the victory over the Moors at the Battle of Covadonga.

While its influence continued to be felt in small ways in some west European states, the Gothic language and culture largely disappeared during the Middle Ages. In the 16th century a small remnant of a Gothic dialect known as Crimean Gothic was described as surviving in the Crimea.

wikipedia Gothic_alphabet
wikipedia Gothic_language
wikipedia Blackletter