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Wearing black and unique clothing, goths stand out from the crowd. So much that you would wonder why they need to have so much black in their fashion. Their style might be puzzling for the people who are not in the culture, but it actually has an extensive historical and meaningful root.
The goth subculture started around the 70s and 80s. It mainly stemmed from the punk culture fueled by the introduction of goth rock. As a result, goth has strong resemblance with punk.
At the time, punk was formed to retaliate from the prevalent hippie and disco population. While a majority were wearing colorful clothing and praising peace, the opposite was being done by punk. They were rebellious and wanted to go against the norm.
The difference between goth and punk is mainly on how they rebel. While punk seeks towards active anarchy, goth is more on being the outcast and mourning in silence.
Goths are not the only people wearing a fashion completely covered in black, because the color represents a lot of things, from death to rebellion to the unknown. It is a shade that is commonly associated with outcasts and the unwanted.
In today’s generation, wearing all black is a way to differentiate a goth from the crowd. One look and they stick out, further cementing the purpose of wearing the color.
While black may have deep roots in the goth culture, individual members living the lifestyle have each their own reason for embracing the fashion. For one, people who feel unwanted adopt the fashion to represent their pain and suffering. It expresses what they feel which is hiding in the darkness.
Some also identify themselves as being in pain or are mourning. Then, there are people who simply just like the style. There is no concrete or universal answer to why goths wear black. Instead, it has deep cultural roots which people adopt to symbolize personal reasons.
Goth fashion is mainly adopted from the Victorian cult of mourning. It is a collection of black velvets, lace, fishnets, corsets, gloves, and stilettos of the time. Until now, the key elements to goth fashion is still the same, but people each made their own revision.
To identify as being a goth, the easiest way is to wear black. However, black is not the only color they wear. It also incorporates shades of purple, red, pink, green, and etc.
The essence of goth fashion is to dwell in a concept of mourning and macabre. This means that the general fashion statement points to something like a funeral. Women wearing long medieval dresses, gloves, and headdresses.
Jewelry is also a huge part in goth fashion. Usually made from metals, they depict religious or occult themes. The most common symbol would be the cross and its different variations. You are also going to find the pentagram a famous choice among the people in the culture.
While goth may be a subculture on its own, a lot of cultures derive from it. They may look somewhat similar in fashion, but they have subtle differences.
Similarly, it is a culture that adopts the color black as the main fashion statement. However, the theme for the clothing is more on horror or deathrock bands.
When goth fashion became wide spread, it later was adopted by famous artists and brought to the runway. This later was known as Haute Goth which is a type of fashion very similar to the traditional goth, only that it focuses on being subtle. It skips on the excessive corsets and latex black garments, and intends to be more natural.
A mixture of goth and Lolita, gothic Lolita concentrates on black fashion but with hints of red and white. It aims to look cute instead of giving the essence of death and macabre. Gothic Lolita dresses tend to look more like average dresses only mostly colored in black.
An adoption from the fans of industrial metal and rave music. Cybergoth is a mixture of goth fashion and a dystopian, science fiction futuristic look. It is composed of leather pants, platform boots, chains, neon colors, goggles, and so much more.
Black is a color universally renowned to represent death, suffering, and pain. It is a color that symbolizes the culture that goth is based on. While that may be its major root, each individual person has their own reason for adopting the black goth fashion.
So, when you get the opportunity to stumble upon a goth, don’t be too fast to judge. There is more to the fashion than preference. It involves culture, belief, and struggles.
