Tiếng ViệtThe beauty of Gothic style in fashion makes people feel frightened, yet it is also mysterious and deeply seductive, making people irresistibly fascinated. So what is Gothic? What is Gothic style? History and origins of Gothic style.
Let’s follow May Hop Phat through the information in the article below to have the most comprehensive view of Gothic!
What is Gothic style?
Designer Ann Demeulemeester once had a very accurate statement that: “Gothic style describes beauty in a way that can make us afraid.” Because Gothic always has a spooky exterior hiding within it countless melancholic and romantic nostalgic emotions, yet attracts others by that very unusual beauty.
In reality, in fashion, the applicability of Gothic style is not as high as other styles, but it always has a very strong attraction to fashion designers.
History and origins of Gothic style
The Gothic style trend originated in the 18th century in Europe, and there was once a view that this style was influenced by images revolving around the legend of Dracula.
Looking back at history, we see that Gothic style is very classical – outfits with gloomy black colors, or with sad color tones – perhaps they originated from the reign of British Queen Victoria in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Gothic style outfits at that time also had deep blood-red colors combined with very aristocratic lace and velvet materials, enhancing the spooky beauty expressed through dark eye circles and pale white skin resembling the image of vampires.
Gothic style was born and truly developed in the 1970s to early 1980s of the 20th century. At that time, music lovers knew about a rock music genre called Gothic Rock, which is calm, soft, and melodious music.
Therefore, people conquered by this music style imitated the way of dressing and makeup similar to the rockers – their idols.
At this point, Gothic was not only limited to music or architecture, but gradually became a living trend and distinctive fashion style different from the modern world. This fashion style is quite complex because it borrows mixed patterns from outfits from the Elizabeth or Victoria queen eras and imitates evil images in Christianity.
Around the 1990s of the 20th century, Gothic Lolita, a Japanese fashion style trend, made a strong impression on the community with beautiful young girls dressed like characters in classic English novels.
An interesting combination with many contradictions between somber Gothic and cute sweetness, but it is precisely this that created an extremely intense attraction when they appear somewhere on crowded streets.
Characteristics of Gothic style
Gothic style is characterized by designs with vertical, soaring lines with soft earth tones and combinations of patterns simulating medieval architecture like arrows or rose windows, etc.
We can also see many similar images in churches or places where the Gothic period once dominated architecture. Gothic in essence is not as dark and gloomy as we think. Because in reality, this school is very devout and has many different colors.
It is precisely the imagination that went too far, pushing people to have mysterious, dark, somewhat bizarre thoughts, associated with romantic old castles containing many mysterious stories, these things are completely wrong with the true nature of Gothic.
From the beginning, we were impressed by the extremely unusual things to the point of “oddity” that Gothic fashion style brings. We know outfits that are quite mysterious but loved by people with thick frizzy hair, black painted nails, mesmerizing eyes, pale white faces and black lipstick.
And they also wear black leather boots laced up over the knees and wear outfits of only black or dark colors, decorated with many sharp studs and wearing crosses. In short, the clothes on their bodies all have dark, gloomy tones that occupy most of the colors of this unique style.
Distinctive accessories of Gothic style
The extremely distinctive and important materials of Gothic style cannot fail to mention lace and sheer. Lace is a very distinctive material, this material has many patterns created from empty spaces.
The empty spaces on lace are created by removing excess threads, braiding or twisting fiber streaks. Sheer material is a very thin material characterized by lightness and smoothness. When worn on the body, this material can be seen through, so it is not widely used.
From these individual characteristics, when applying this material to Gothic fashion outfits, the owner needs to pay attention to using beautiful underwear appropriate to the outfit to create the most attractive effect.
In addition, people following Gothic style also add studs, sparkling stones or artificial fur to help the outfit be more luxurious and stronger.
Jackets with dark colors combined with delicate technical lines designed according to ancient architecture are also characteristic accessories of this style.
Besides, high-collar boots are also an extremely typical fashion accessory of this clothing line. Clothing suitable for Gothic style is clothing with dark stones and feather scarves, belts, gloves.
To help increase the mysterious appearance, you can combine Gothic outfits with deep red, black or purple-red lipsticks along with gray eyeliner.
Celebrities wearing Gothic fashion
Although Gothic fashion is a different fashion trend, it has a huge influence on the entertainment industry, fashion to film. This style is often used for characters in fantasy mythological films or fairy tale films. Gothic fashion in these films is associated with dark black and gray tones but brings a mysterious, irresistibly attractive beauty.
Cate Blanchett playing Hela in the action sci-fi film Thor was made up with messy black hair, heavy smoky eyes full of Gothic style. This character was made up extremely cruelly but captured many audience hearts.
In addition, Gothic fashion is also loved by many fashion designers. This style also appears frequently in Fall-Winter fashion collections held annually.
Gothic style dresses appear in Alexander McQueen Fall-Winter 2011 collection
Gothic fashion style also appears in designer Stephen Russell’s wedding dress collection
The most prominent names in Gothic style fashion design cannot fail to mention Alexander McQueen, Rick Owens or John Galliano.
With the strong difference and personality of Gothic style, there was a time when this style became out of place due to many new fashion trends. However, we cannot deny this is a personal style worth respecting and preserving.
Related questions about Gothic
What is Gothic architecture?
Gothic architecture is an architectural style that developed from the second half of the Medieval period in Western Europe. Gothic architecture is most clearly expressed in large churches and cathedrals, some civil works.
Each Gothic architectural work has its own distinctive beauty. Many Gothic architectural works are considered priceless architecture recognized by UNESCO as World Cultural Heritage.
Gothic style was called gotico by Italians during the Renaissance period. This style was first named “francigenum opus” meaning work of the French.
Initially, the term Gothic was used with a bad meaning because, according to the Romans, this word meant barbarians. Gothic architecture according to Italians in the Renaissance period was considered the work of barbarians.
Gothic architecture was seen as the result of a break with Greek-Roman concepts, techniques, and aesthetics.
Most archaeologists and art historians reject the above statements and point out that compared to Roman architecture, Gothic architecture is a development rather than a break.
Gothic architecture appeared in Île-de-France and Haute Picardie lands in the 12th century. This style quickly became very popular in Northern Loire and became very popular in Southern Loire and throughout Europe in the mid-16th century.
The unique techniques and concepts of Gothic architecture became immortal in French architectural works in the 16th century, and in later years, when the civil wave appeared in the 19th century until the early 20th century, this renewal movement developed strongly into the “Neo-Gothic” movement.
What is Gothic Lolita?
Gothic Lolita, also known as GothLoli, is the combination between Gothic and Lolita fashion styles. This combination started in the late 1990s in Harajuku.
We can recognize a Gothic Lolita through makeup style and dark-colored outfits. People following this style often prefer red lipstick and smoky eye makeup, sharp black eyeliner.
Classical Gothic style is often associated with pale white makeup, but this makeup style is difficult to find when mentioning current Lolita style.
Some famous Gothic Lolita brands today include Atelier Boz, Moi-même-Moitié, Alice, Atelier-Pierrot, etc.
What is Gothic rock?
Gothic rock is a rock music style that emerged from the post-Punk era in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. This genre itself is considered a separate movement from post-punk.
Gothic rock is very prominent with its darker sounds, this music style mainly uses minor chords or reverb, bass or very melancholic and dramatic melodies.
Gothic rock has themes such as nihilism, dark romanticism, diseases, melancholy, tragedy. The themes used in this style are approached poetically.
This music genre expresses romantic idealization, lyrics represent the evil of the century and supernatural imagination.
What is Gothic text?
Gothic text is a medieval typeface, this is the oldest typeface we can find. People use Gothic text to recall the Middle Ages, the era of knights, castles and fierce battles between warriors.
What is Neo-Gothic?
Neo-Gothic is an architectural style developed from techniques and aesthetic concepts of Gothic architecture. Neo-Gothic church structure is one of the most special creations.
The Gothic architectural structure system is a very large space, using a load-bearing frame, this system is completely separate from the partition structure. Flying buttresses are a very important component of the Gothic architectural system.
What is Gothic girl?
Gothic girl is a rebellious fashion style, this style worships emotions and lives emotionally. Gothic girl expresses emotion and shows off the entire owner.
This style does not hide emotions but expresses them intensely, essentially, this style hates fragile people and has special love for nature and animals.
What is Gothic story?
Gothic story is a fiction genre combining two main elements: romance and horror. Gothic story often describes very mysterious stories about despair, horror and dark aspects. Gothic story appeared in the United Kingdom in the late 18th century, early 19th century.
Gothic carries a mysterious but very seductive style – A style completely suitable for fashion enthusiasts who want to express “another aspect” in their personality.