Happy New Year!

Thanks for all the great posts this past year! I've enjoyed reading them. Like last year  I've drawn a Tarot card for the following year. 

Ugly Sweater Holidays

Personally, I love how this decade's love of ironic humor has gifted us with a volcanic explosion of ugly sweaters. Seriously, I never knew what to wear to holiday parties (especially with my in-laws, who celebrate christmas and take it pretty seriously) and I couldn't live with myself if I pretended to be a Midwestern conservative.

Seriously, these ironic sweaters are pretty much made for those of us who have to "make nice" for family functions. Everyone loves them, and no one can say you don't have the holiday spirit.

(picture will take you to attributions)

Trend Predictions: 2016

Last year I thought 2015 would be a toned-down year, and it was. More of the same old-school, witchy, modern-goth look. Am I the only one getting tired of this? I made the below polyvore set 3 years ago and it still looks relevant today.

Trend Recap: 2015

And now the year's almost over! Flew by, right? Miss the tattoo necklaces and raw minerals? See last year's Trend Recap 2014. Here's the Trend Reap for 2015.

I feel like the trends from the past few years (occult symbols, printed leggings/body suits, cutout dresses, 90s shit) continued to this year, and nothing new has replaced them.

2014 Trend that continued to 2015: Moons

hope it continues to 2016!

Trend: Unusual Hair Accessories

So, at the end of the year 2013, I predicted that unusual hair accessories would be big for 2014, and I was totally wrong. But that's not the case this year! Crowns (and not just the stupid flower crowns) and headpieces were in during the summer, but I was absolutely delighted to check out the creative designs going on at Free People.

Unusual hair accessories featuring free people hair accessories

There are all kinds of strange accessories I've never seen before, like rings, braid beads, something called a "bun cuff" and a "half-up holder." And they're pandering to all my on-trend love of crystals and moons. And hair buns, of course.

As you know, I love hair sticks, so I'm happy to see some of these. I pretty much just wear hair sticks these days. Elastics get weak over time and, since I've got super long nails, end up breaking my nails when I tie my hair up in a ponytail.

have you seen any cool unusual hair accessories lately?

Styling for Short Legs: Skirts

It's not so bad being short. I never have a problem with legroom. I have excellent balance. I can squeeze through crowds. But buying pants is a lost cause and petite sections are so lame.

Moreover, clothes aren't designed for us short-legged people. I don't know how many times I bought a "knee-length" skirt only to have it reach my shins, or, even more common, a maxi skirt that I could wear as a full-body dress.

Personally, I think it's a great time to be a short-legged person, as we have a lot of style options to create an optical illusion of longer legs:

(shorter paper dolls represent short person, whereas the left-hand doll is the tall/average height. I noticed that I'm about a head shorter than most people my size, so I just chopped off a head-length from the legs above)

Happy Halloween!

Red and Gold weeks

The past two weeks have been strange at work since my group was folded into a larger group. I'm in a new bigger department...my job's still the same but the work that my lean team of 3 is now being done by like 15 people. The levels of bureaucracy are amazing. I inherited an assistant and I now attend meetings with the other managers, so I'm suddenly very visible. To introduce myself to the group, I've been wearing a flashy combination of red and gold (lol and participating in the meetings). It's easy to disappear in a corporate setting. For better or for worse, I've chosen not to.  

For one thing, I now wear my septum, which I've never worn to the office. The hoop earrings are ridiculously flashy and cheap looking, but I like em.

Pantone Fall Colors 2015

It's that time of year again, when I spend way too much time going through mainstream fashion's "it" colors. Here's fall 2014 (If you want to see my post on last year's fall 2014 colors, click here)... for those of you in the Southern hemisphere, you can see the newly announced spring 2016 colors here at the Pantone website.

Halloween Tag

I've been tagged by The Everyday Goth, whose posts on the fundamentals of goth are a joy to read whether you're new to the scene or if you've been in it since the beginning. (BTW I've got some ASCII art in this post, so it might look funny on some browsers)

THIRTEEN QUESTIONS HALLOWEEN TAG!!!
    

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Spiders

spider bg leather leggings

Tiny spiders! From dolls kill

(Gratuitous eye candy while I post from mobile. Shopping and blogging while I'm on the bus....)

High Slits/Garters

high slits and garters featuring a maxi skirt

Hair Trend: Buns

Everyone's looking forward to fall. Maybe some of us are tired of the heat, tired of bugs, tired of the sun, tired of trying to do the braid styles that were popular this summer. You literally don't have the energy to pull the rest of your hair through the elastic to finish the ponytail. Maybe that's just me.

And the runways, and on tumblr, and outside. It's the style that isn't a style, but suddenly it's cool. Maybe because it's been overlooked.

Photo shoot idea: Retro-Trash

Part of this challenge

Personal style lately

So, I haven't been sharing as many photos of myself lately. Mostly because it's been outside the scope of this blog, which centers around dark fashion trends. The reason for this is that I'm growing my hair out, and it's in its natural ugly boring shade as I grow it out. Dark fashion is a total-body look, and while some people are fine with having one part of their look mismatching, it drives me crazy. and no matter how I try, I can't make my ash brown hair seem cool.

A Blogging Award

First off, shout-out to Just Keep Brains, who nominated me for a Sisterhood of the World Blogging Award. In our virtual goth club, she'd be the one up all night and still looking fabulous while I'd be taking a nap in a booth. I also want her glasses.

Trend Prediction: Bell Sleeves

click on the polyvore set for brand attributions 

Psychic photo series

Hair Trend: Clipper Design

hairsmart

Antique Reproductions DIY

90s artifacts I own that are out of style

(Sorry I've been away! From insanity at work (restructuring and layoffs, and all the going away parties from said layoffs. I didn't get laid off, but I did get moved to a new manager and a new department, and am now going to be doing different work...) to a recent trip to Montreal, I've been away from all social media except Instagram.)

So, I've moved around and each time I had to purge a lot of dark fashion stuff that I considered to be out of style. While a lot of alternative folks claim to "not care about trends," alternative people have trends of their own, whether they'd like to admit it or note. For my first move in Chicago, I threw out all my blinking rave stuff, neon plastic things, stuff with a lot of spikes in it, cybergoth hair falls. I kept all my velvets, lace, and leather...and my baggy jeans. When I moved again, all the baggy stuff went (well almost all of it!). When I moved to New York, I threw out all my Japan-related stuff (leggings, lolita-inspired, j-rock, ANYTHING with a ruffle on it) all the velvet, and most of the lace).

All that said, I kept a few things for nostalgia, and these are kind of hilariously out of style:

Jnco jeans  from 1998 that I turned into cutoffs. OF COURSE. Look at those fabulously long pockets. I seriously miss all the storage. I used to put paperbacks in those pockets. Or the entire long-sleeved flannel shirt. 

DIY gloves

Was walking around and stumbled into this higher end goth store (ODD style) and saw these $500 gloves with gold or silver fingernails in them. Of course I'd love them.

There's got to be a way to diy them. 

Suggestions?

I've got a collection to add to

Day Trip: Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

Open Studios

When I first moved to NYC, I used to love hanging out in the art scene in Williamsburg, which is now multi-million dollar condos and rich kids. All the artists are in Bushwick now and once a year, the artists open their studios to the public and there's a big block party and tons of free booze and amazing artwork. Honestly, seeing artwork in an artist's studio beats going to a museum any day.  I feel like art goes to a museum to die. 

here are a some photos from the two days I went. 

#carolinehayward

A photo posted by @axp259 on Jun 7, 2015 at 8:13pm PDT

Ear stretching

So this post will cover my personal stretching experience. I've only stretched my ear lobes. I've also had little problems doing it. My current size is 4g (5mm) and 8g (3mm).

Poser talk

I'm taking a stand and letting you know what makes someone a goth, as per this challenge and re "world goth day" posts (and how corp goth was that sentence)

I spent a really lame (...or awesome?) saturday night watching goths call each other posers on youtube.

A New French Manicure

Trend: Macrame

So as I've been faithfully reporting, the fashion gods have decided that we need 70s shit, so here it comes. Also I actually had some time to head to a few fast-fashion stores and noticed 1) damn, the 70s shit is here and 2) my 2014 trend prediction of unusual hair accessories doesn't seem to be a 2014 trend, but a 2015 trend. Maybe I'm so great at trend predictions, i'm TWO years ahead, baby. But that's another post for later.

So yeah, I saw a large amount of macrame stuff (a craft style that's based on knot-tying) at the stores. I feel like a few years ago that meant the trend is already over, but since those stores knock off runway fashion so quickly and efficiently, maybe it'll stay around.

macrame featuring a macrame wall hanging

Cowboy Boots/Western wear

Industrial Piercings

Since posting my recent industrial earring haul, I thought I'd share my experience about getting this piercing done. In the UK/Australia, apparently this piercing isn't called an industrial, it's called a scaffold piercing.

I've got a traditional shape

Random Things About Me

The Liebster award is back! I'm excited that Bien Aimeé nominated me...her blog is amazing. Her posts are relevant, thoughtful, informative, and she's an amazing artist too. I wish my own blog could have as much poise as hers. I'm always excited when one of her posts appears on my feed. 

I kind of like that she started with the questions first, so I'm doing that too.

The rules: 

1. Post the award on your blog.

2. Thank the blogger who presented this award and link back to their blog.

3. Write 11 random facts about yourself.

4. Nominate 11 bloggers who you feel deserve this award and who have fewer than 200 followers.

5. Answer 11 questions posted by the presenter and ask your nominees 11 questions.

Makeup Apps

By this point, most of us can spot a photo that's been photoshopped, but lately I've been seeing photos that are obviously manipulated--but was it our friend Photo Shop, or is it something else? 

The two photos below (photos are from we heart it...who knows where they were from originally) inspired me to start looking for something easier-to-use than Photo Shop (though I haven't used it since CS3). Makeup apps, I thought.

good way to hide photoshop is to rotate the photo to mess with perspective

Industrial bar earring haul

moooon

Pantone Spring 2015

It's that time of year again, when I spend way too much time going through mainstream fashion's "it" colors. Here's Spring 2015 (If you want to see my post on last year's spring 2014 colors, click here)... for those of you in the Southern hemisphere, you can see the newly announced fall 2015 colors here at the Pantone website.

Fossils

trilobite (not mine)

90s Goth Bangs

So while reading N. Finsternis's post on her favorite 90s fashion inspiration, I saw this picture of Lydia from Beetlejuice, and was thinking of 90s trends that didn't quite make it over to the current nugoth/90s rivival/soft grunge whatever. Namely, the super-duper gelled bangs:

Does anyone else remember doing this? I do.

Sorry...I couldn't find my photo album to share with you my glorious bangs. I was a huge fan of this. I mostly wore them like this Vampire: The Masquerade gangrel:

my god, v:tm is the most 90s thing ever

Oh, swoon!

Just a quick post. Was just reading a fantasy book and one of the corset-wearing characters had a pack of smelling salts just in case she fainted from "lack of breath." Maybe I don't wear super tight corsets, but I've borrowed a few constricting ones. I breathed just fine. Seemed bogus. I checked out a few academic sites and read the various discussions there. Academics get bogged down in references and literary examples, though. For the record, I'm not shitting on academics (I used to work at an academic press), but sometimes you want to just ask a real human being. Not a Victorian person, but there are plenty of people who tightlace today. Wear corsets daily for long periods of time. Might be interesting to see what they've got to say on the matter. (Also what about those weightlifters who work out in manly weightlifting belts...come on, those are corsets?)

knock-offs

left, real. right, knock-off

Few weeks back, FIT did an exhibit dedicated to counterfeits and knock-offs. While not visually their best exhibit, it was informative. I'm not disappointed... you see knock-offs every time you step into a fast-fashion store. Don't need to see it at a museum.

Anna Sui and Forever 21

Site Stats: February

I think, for my own amusement, I'm going to post some monthly information on the Google search terms that led people to this pretty insignificant site. I think it kind of shows trends and what people are searching for.

New York Style: Winter

I'm interested in what people around the world are wearing, so I'll post what the typical NYC person wears (in the winter, for now) with the hope that maybe you'll share what people wear in your city. All these pictures are from WWD street scene pictures.

NYC is the fashion capital of the USA, and all of our major brands are here. With stores like Century 21, Beacon's closet, and numerous sample sales, you could get runway clothing ($500-$1000+)for fast-fashion prices ($10-$100). Also, no-name designers who knock-off runway clothing also work in NYC, so our typical dollar store and ghetto fashion store will have some trendy stuff (I've got a post on knock-off fashion scheduled for next week) Bottom line is you could look great for not a lot of money.

The most NYC outfit ever. black-on-black, classic shapes, timeless pieces

Dark Workout

'20s Finger Waves

A while back I styled my hair in finger waves for a model train show at the New York Botanical Gardens (read on...it was awesome). Gardens, cocktails, ice sculptures (you know an event is fancy when there's ice sculptures), and model trains--I felt like dressing up. I really hate my hair right now...growing it out blows. So I decided to do some very 20s-30s finger waves. 

worn with my vintage Arts & Crafts-style earrings (read about them in this post)

Throwback Thursday: treasures from my geocities page

I've mentioned a few times that there are no pictures of me in high school and my early days because those were all on geocities. So, back in 2001, I made my first website on geocities. In 2009, geocities was deleted all the content gone. Maybe it was archived, but if it wasn't, tough luck. But I just found out that some people independently archived it. So if you want some old school magic, go to http://www.oocities.org/

Haute Goth Report: Spring 2015, Early Fall 2015

The runways are just filled with dark fashion, it seems.

Undercover RTW Spring 2015
(there are those sheers...I like this super-duper sheer)

Undereye Cat's Eye

These days my hair's just going wild, my eyebrows have grown out, and I'm bumming around in a sweatshirt (I took some vacation time). Maybe a new makeup look will cheer me up. Since I really don't like how a regular cat's eye eyeliner looks on my eye, I decided to try out an undereye cat's eye. I also tried out my new Maybelline gel/cream eyeshadow. I'm not sure if I prefer it over liquid eyeliner. It's hard to do Kohl eyes with a brush and it's not as smooth an application as liquid. You can get much thinner lines than a pencil though.

The thing about about only using black eyeliner is that it  always makes your eye look smaller. This drives me crazy. It reminds me of the kind of "dark" makeup you did in junior high because you didn't know any better...since I don't want to shame these kids, here's a picture of a celebrity to illustrate my point:

So maybe doing the bottom half will look better? Eh:

emo werewolf is hunting you

new logo

Got a new logo for the blog. The original one that's been up since the beginning (2010) was something that I hand-drew and took a photo of and photoshopped it to look pixelated. Yes, this is what my real-life handwriting looks like:

2015 Pantone Color of the Year

The color gods at Pantone have declared their 2015 color of the year. BEHOLD the glory of pantone number 18-1438: Marsala. (Red-brown.)

Pastel goths were lucky last year with Radiant Orchid (link will take you to my post on it). This year, Mori girls rejoice for your time has come. From the press release:

Much like the fortified wine that gives Marsala its name, this tasteful hue embodies the satisfying richness of a fulfilling meal while its grounding red-brown roots emanate a sophisticated, natural earthiness. This hearty, yet stylish tone is universally appealing and translates easily to fashion, beauty, industrial design, home furnishings and interiors.

Death Becomes Her: Victorian Mourning Exhibit

Saw the Victorian Mourning Exhibit at the Met last week. The exhibit was great, but smaller than past fashion exhibits. Really great selection of artifacts though, including a dress worn by Queen Victoria. Stark white walls and curtains showed off the dresses nicely. Sad period-appropriate music also played. I took photos of some of the captions. In this post, the captions are below the thing they are describing.