Personal style: what's in and out for summer 2018

The seasons have changed and so it's time to pack away what won't be worn (my "outs") and hang up what will be (my "ins").

IN: Black horn jewelry. I've been wearing gold and silver and bone for the past year, and I've missed all my black stuff!

Personal Style: what's in/out for fall

I'm packing away my spring/summer clothes right now and am kind of overwhelmed with how much stuff I have--it seems like my apartment shrinks more and more. I'm recycling a bunch of stuff with H&M's recycling program (you get a 15% off coupon!) and selling a few things on Poshmark, including this Victorian cybergoth dress I hate so much:

Dark Holiday Party Basics: Sequins

The holidays are here. Maybe you might choose to ignore the celebrations, but there may be a number of them, ending with the New Year. What to wear if you want to be festive?

Along with metallics and velvets, sequins always start popping up everywhere around this time of the year. Of the three, sequins scream that you are there to party.  I always think your outfit should match your surroundings, so sequins are an obvious choice since holiday decorations are always sparkly--whether the baubles or the twinkling lights.

http://lookbook.nu/look/7142832-The-Contrast

Cowboy Boots/Western wear

Pantone Fall 2014 Colors

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 2013 colors, click here)... for those of you in the Southern hemisphere, you can see the newly announced spring 2015 colors here at the Pantone website.

When I first saw these, I thought Pantone was fucking with us by re-releasing spring colors, but I'm a fan after I made a few polyvore sets.

Pantone Fall 2014 hats for all my dolls so they're nice and warm

New Rock Boots for Everyday Wear

Fee, from An Honest Drug (another dark fashion blogger who I think has a lot of great modern goth/nugoth styles) recently scored some New Rock Boots at a charity shop. And she bought the same ones I have!

Theme: Military-Inspired

I'd almost forgotten about the 50 Themes Fashion Challenge. Here's one of my favorite industrial looks, which I'm throwing into the Military category. Even though the internet has kind of rewritten what the industrial look was into this superslick cybergoth look, it was pretty much a cross between metal/military/punk.

(my doorbell rang at this moment). Also that lovely moment when your bullet belt gets caught in your fishnet shirt.

Red + Black Week: Baby Bats

left, not baby bat. right, baby bat.

In another time, in another place

read about the challenge here.

What would I wear if I didn't wear dark fashion? Well, I don't always. I just go full-out Williamsburg hipster: ridiculous glasses, plaid shirts...something between art school and lumberjack. stupid sweaters.

What would I like to wear if I didn't wear dark fashion? That's a different story. If I could think of a perfect, happy version of myself, I'd picture some prairie girl homesteader living in some cottage. Or out in the field. Whatever. So I'd probably say Mori.

Ethnic-inspired Septum Jewelry

I'm deciding to forgo my vow of only wearing pincers in my septum (pierced earlier this year) and saw these vaguely ethnic Tawapa septum clickers on sale at various sites:

I'm categorizing this as "cool, but not for me," especially when I saw that some of these were almost TWO INCHES long. What would that even look like?

Horror in Dark or Goth Fashion: The Uncanny

heady post today: the uncanny. Freud's uncanny, which I'd argue is the cornerstone of dark fashion. The Uncanny is also the cornerstone of Horror as a concept+theory. The definition:

an instance where something can be familiar, yet foreign at the same time, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange or uncomfortably familiar.

Corsets do this to some degree. Yes--she looks like a woman, but something seems slightly off. Even a basic corset is uncanny. Oh, her waist is exaggerated. "Cool! I love it!" says the dark fashion fan, who enjoys the uncanny more than most. But then you get to the more extreme corsetry, which becomes a form of body modification. Beautiful? If you like the uncanny, yes. If you're terrified of something appearing human and not at the same time, then probably not. 

When we talk about how "hardcore" someone is, we could be talking about where in the Uncanny Valley this person stands....literally:

Trend: shapeless black things

You know what I love? For real. Shapeless black things. looks great on men and women. if you're into unisex styles (I am).

don't know who the designer is. alas tumblr with nothing sourced.

Leather Harnesses--still cool?

Remember the Alexander McQueen Fall 2011 show, with all the harnesses?

Amazing that was 2 years ago, right? 

and then came the imitations

Pantone Fall 2013 Colors

So, NYFW's covering spring looks...but summer hasn't even ended yet! For those of you in the southern hemisphere, you might want to look at Pantone's newly announced spring colors. (sorry: colours)

But I want to talk about fall. Here are the Pantone colors for fall 2013, and there'll be some looks after the jump.

What's Pantone? Well, it's basically the, um... only color company? Every that uses colors uses Pantone colors. You need something printed at a commercial printer? they're going to ask you for a Pantone color number. Ordering fabric from a textile manufacturer... going to need a pantone color for that too. I don't understand how they make their money.


Pantone Fall 2013 colors by ahp259 featuring a red sweater

Corsets?

Read more about the challenge here.

Who doesn't love the corset look? Who doesn't love wearing them? Well, if you don't plan on eating that night, lol. I'm not going to bore my knowledgeable readers with facts about corsets (history, kinds of boning, etc) they already know. I'm going to cover how I, personally, wear them.

Corsets are feminine and look good with the more classic goth/aristocratic looks. They provide an almost armor-like structure to your look, which also looks great for industrial styles. Personally, I think they look better on curvier girls, but I do what I can with my no-curves.

First off, for my more traditional goth looks, this is my favorite stuff to wear underneath a corset. The shirt is from forever 21 (I think I got it in 1999ish) and is my favorite! The skirt was a hand-me-down from mom, from the 80s.

Recent Hypes

Just wanted to share a few looks I liked. 

http://lookbook.nu/look/5321808-Bike-Polo

I love how her hair matches her bike...and how (except for the hair...too vivid!) Brooklyn-five-years-ago this is.

Yellow and wine

Her red hair and that yellow-orange really look nice together for the fall. And I don't think berets got enough attention last fall!

I've got an eye on you

This is awesome. I love these eyes! DIY denim was the rage early spring as were the denim shorts. Can't summer last a little longer! also love her makeup

White definitely

If you haven't heard of Zana Bayne, I don't know where you've been. He's wearing a Zana Bayne necklace harness, which looks great. One day I'll save some money and get a piece. I'm also inspired by a lot of the goth boys and what they're doing... and I absolutely love this look

Boy under the rain

Another look by the same dude. Those pants are awesome.

Elevator Love Letter

crop top and chiffon skirt.... this was my favorite look for work this summer

Trend: Clear/Hologram

So, you probably know by now that I'm pretty much ex-cybergoth/industrial, so naturally I'm loving the hologram trend and the clear trend that's been going on during summer. Now summer's over.... maybe some of this stuff will be on sale soon!

not my polyvore set... but why reinvent the wheel when someone's done it. click through to see the user's other sets.

I've got a pair of real beetle wing earrings that I got from Evolution in Soho that fit well with the trend: 

I don't know why exactly I'm liking the clear trend. I think because it's so odd. Like those clear platforms. Also ghostly.

Whatcha guys think?

How I Accessorize

Read about the challenge here

I love love accessories! Bigger is always better for me with accessories. It's probably why I stretched my lobes to a 4g. Seriously, no regrets with that choice.

cross from Panda Eyes (@ Big Cartel)

Trends I thought I loved, but now I'm not too keen on

Read more about the challenge here.

1. Leg warmers, short frilly skirts, goggles/gas masks with too much shit on them, hair falls. I'm pretty bored of it by now.

I used to LOVE LOVE this look--I used to wear this stuff every day--not just to the clubs. To show there's no hard feelings, here's an everyday look from me from 2002:

Trends I thought I would never get into, but I now love

Read about the challenge here

1. Nail art
Like everyone else hit in the recession/depression, for the longest time the only vain thing I could afford to buy was a new nail polish color. I used to do the nail art thing when I was like 12, and since then, I thought it was totally juvenile and silly... until a few years ago

my current "marble" nails. See #4 below. The transformation begins.