Read about the original challenge here.
These days, I generally get gothed out when I'm going to a punk/metal bar or a club night or an art gallery. (I write more about these @ this earlier post.) Sometimes for tabletop game night, if I can find something that is mage/vampire/cyberpunk and can work at the office. My office is generally pretty ok with my outfits and it's my own choice to dress "office."
When I don't wear something 'gothic' and I mean that very generally, I feel pretty down and blah. A regular nobody going to work, lame and boring. I look in the mirror and I don't recognize myself. It's the same way a recently unemployed professional would see themselves if they looked in the mirror--wearing the same pjs for a week, unshowered, hair all messed up. You know there's a better version of yourself out there.
So why don't I? lol right now it's the weather. No one looks fabulous in snow boots and a shin-length down coat. I don't even try. No way I'm letting the salt and filthy snow mess up my nice boots. My work is super casual, but we pull it together for Very Important Meetings with department/company heads and look halfway professional. Other times I'm at home or running errands in the neighborhood, where I just wear whatever. I live in an area with a lot of drunks and the most aggressive cat callers I've ever seen, so the uglier I look, the better. It's safe, unlike other areas I've lived, but I just don't want to get hassled on the street. The scumbags just loiter outside my apartment and down the street.
But yeah, I love the style. I used to do a lot of writing (now that creative energy's been funneled into tabletop roleplaying) and my most favorite part of the process was creating characters. What a person wears, in writing anyway, describes who that character is. Dark fashion is who I am on the inside, and when I wear anything else, I'm just being dishonest.
