News > Culture > Goth Is the New Black

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SATURDAY OCTOBER 29 2005 9:16 AM

The New York Times investigates the gothic aesthetic in "Embrace the Darkness." From "Corpse Bride" to Riccardo Tisci, pop culture is being permeated with gothic influences. While in part a nod to Halloween, the piece also posits that the rise of the macabre in the mainstream reflects an increased anxiety in the culture born out of contemporary calamaties. These days, even Barneys is going dark.

Douglas Little is a designer who has parlayed a lifelong affinity for skulls, Victorian curiosity cabinets, stuffed beasts and poisonous vapors into a lucrative career peddling wax effigies, skeletons, Ouija board tables and sickly sweet fragrances with evocative names like Thorn Apple. To him the popularity of these items reflects a growing taste for the eccentric and the exotic, which itself is a reaction, he says, to the antiseptically "clean design" that dominated interiors in recent years.

"People are tired of everything cold and sterile," Mr. Little said. "The seem to prefer things that are elaborate and even bizarre."

And mingled at times with a touch of the macabre. Among the treasures Mr. Little sells in the home department at Barneys is a 19th-century human skeleton, which he unearthed at a medical auction. When he first showed it to the Barneys merchants, they were taken aback, he said.

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Comments

Gage

SUICIDEGIRL

USA

NOV 05, 2005 06:06 AM

trevordbs said:
these kids and their black eye liner...
(15 yr olds) with drug free shirts.
make up
black nails
long hair.
man...people have been listening to AFI too much...

It kinda makes me mad though. i cant go to shows anymore with out getting pissed. Even though im out of the all black dress code. It pisses me off seeing it everywere. I remember when you were looked upon bad going to say..."Hot Topic"...now. im ashamed that i still have to go to get say, a shirt or belt. And the shirts now...gosh.

Everyone with Night Before Xmas stuff, they have dedicated stands for it at the malls now. thats just insane. They either were an AFI shirt, My Chemical Romance, or a Norma Jean shirt. thats all. nothing else.

And at shows, or even when i was at Warped Tour in seattle, kids are walking around with fake blood? What is happening to this world.

I bet none of them have even heard of say...KMFDM...or anything of that matter.
oh well.

i wear jeans now, so i dont care. ( Levi's Rock 501's man...im telling you, you dont know what you are missing ) haha

Lucky You, when I was at Warped Tour in Denver...I would rather of seen young kids dressed in goth. At least then they woulda been dressed in something! Most 12 year olds put the skankiest of crack whores to SHAME! "Were is you mother?"

desidia

Reunion

September 2002

NOV 05, 2005 02:42 PM

gtwr said:

AceTracer said:
I vote Nixon to be our new goth overlord...ess.

I second that. If Nixon doesn't think it's goth, it's not. And who would argue with Nixon

I do.

*note: I don't usually win*

[Edited on Nov 05, 2005 by desidia]

TheFuckOffKid

NEWSWIRE

Australia

NOV 05, 2005 03:47 PM

sometimes said:
HAR!

HAHA!

I've had some similar experiences with my platoon members here at Fort Hood. Whenever new soldiers arrive in the company, someone makes an effort to point me out. "That's *****. He's a good soldier, but he worships Satan on the weekend." "Watch out for that guy, he may wear green like us, but he only thinks in black." It's quite amusing and it manages to keep people away from my room when I'm trying to relax. My favorite so far has been, "Oh. Him? That's Private First Class Death. Don't talk to him. He only stares and smiles evilly."
-Nytwind

semyaza

Wildomar, CA

December 2004

NOV 05, 2005 04:00 PM

Weapon0 said:
Every Generation has a counter-culture. First the beatniks, then the hippies, then the punks, then grunge, and now goth. I just know 20-30 years from now, we are gonna see a bunch of aging goths looking like "Grandpa Munster" Al Lewis and "Lilly Munster" Yvonne de Carlo.

Goth has been around for almost 30 years. Look carefully, and you will occasionally see an old goth looking like Lilly and Grandpa!

BloodSpider

United Kingdom

June 2005

NOV 05, 2005 04:13 PM

Glad I m not home for this one, from what my mom says my lil sis is one of them. It going to be intresting going home in march and seeing this I remember seeing lil bits and pieces when I left but from the sounds of it its exploded. The fun thing is when you see one with an AFI shirt and you ask them if they know what that even stands for and they say it doenst stand for anything, just roll your eyes and walk away.

mamet

Charleston, SC

March 2005

NOV 05, 2005 04:30 PM

TheVampireSpider said:
The fun thing is when you see one with an AFI shirt and you ask them if they know what that even stands for and they say it doenst stand for anything, just roll your eyes and walk away.

It's an ode to the American Film Institute, right?

Blackwatch

Cleveland, OH

September 2005

NOV 05, 2005 05:03 PM

It makes me happy and sad. Those of us who have always liked Lon Chaney in the Wolfman("even a man who's pure at heart and says his prayers at night..may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms.......)...who have always enjoyed our female leads tied (spread eagled to a table) waiting for the hero to save her...who thought Mortica Adams was a goddess...okay we thought Marilyn was too but what can you do...?

I love stocking seams...I love Vincent Price, Bella Lugosi, black lace, old horror movies...I love the Adams Family, The Munsters, Ann Margaret in Black Tights, Christina Ricci, Long Dark Haired Girls, Anne Rice, Laurell Hamilton, Kelley Armstrong, black tights (in general not just on Ann..), oriental dresses, old mansions, ghost stories, and so many other things...

Should I be happy that it's main stream? I can buy way more T-shirts now that I would like... the playboy models have long dark hair...the strippers at the club wear collars and are pierced...suicide girls is becoming mainstream...

Did I like being a member of an exclusive club or is the wonder of availability overwhelming me?

Goth is cool. I was born in 1967. I have always liked the darkside. It's what I am. I'm not an old wanna-bee. I'm an original who grew up on Vincent Price and Bela. I watched Johnnie Soccko and his flying Robot defeat the Unicorn Gang...

Is it good that it's mainstream? If more people discover the subtleness, art, and wonder of the darkness that is true goth... how can it be wrong. If a few people understand that a movie from the 1930's -1950's can be better than a new movie... Even if a few lemmings jump over the cliff...it's worth it...

sixbysix

United Kingdom

December 2004

NOV 05, 2005 05:08 PM

PurePhase said:

Baletempest said:

These days, even Barneys is going dark.

Did anyone else misread that as barney... that stupid purple dinosaur... Goth Barney, someone has to do it.

Done.

Pumpkins shot on a 'Blad. So I guess that means I will discover time travel, after all.

artRob

I'm lost

January 2005

NOV 06, 2005 06:41 AM

mamet said:

It's an ode to the American Film Institute, right?

wtf is AFI? I must not be goth...

who gives a fuck. people should be able to be into or not into what ever they want. don't you think?

Their is no goth manual that i have ever seen, there's no manual for pursuing anything that people chose to be into. maybe there should be a college of goth, so that everybody is on the same page. they could issue goth licences...there could be titles and levels of goth...what about doctor of goth. a gothologist.

entry leven goth people could apply and hopefully get accepted into this formal goth program. this could lead to much more opportunity within the goth community...not to mention the fact that without proper licencing and registration, the untrained goth would have to practice his or her gothness underground...