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The Dark Side of Street Fashion

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Unfortunately, Shoutfit has been missing for a couple of months. No one seems to know why, but it is a great shame. I had only just discovered it before it went down and as I wrote in friends, trends, and (thank the gods) some goths!, it looked like it would be heaps of fun and really inspiring for those of us who dress on the dark side. Fortunately, I am going to share with you the delights that I have found whilst trawling around other, less alternatively-inclined online street fashion communities in search of…

The Dark Side of Street Fashion!

This time I would like you to imagine a scene including pouring rain and the exterior of a almost-ruined castle. The giant oak door swings open and you see Dracula, except the vampire has abandoned his clichéd capes and red velvet shirts and is now looking totally stylin’ because he’s spent all his time recently reading wardrobe_remix and StyleMob. In fact, it’s a good thing that Shoutfit went MIA, because now he has some time left to go get himself something to drink. He was getting to be a bit too skinny, and would have been on a slippery slope to being really dead as opposed to undead.

I don’t have a picture relevant to that scene to supplement your imagination so I will instead suggest you admire the one above. It is by jek in the box, and I think it is amazing. I previously associated bright green and black striped tights with really badly dressed Mansonites but now I am seeing them differently. The cream coat and the green flower provide balance and elegance and I am now inspired to try wearing the similar purple and black striped tights that I have in my drawer. They were given to me by my sister who used to wear them when she was thirteen-fourteen years old (now being sixteen and “scene”) and they languished in the drawer until I volunteered to take them off her hands. I didn’t know what to do with them, but now I do: I will devise the most classy, elegant outfit ever, and then incorporate the tights! If I can make it look half as awesome as this, I will be extremely excited.

Also stunningly sophisticated is piksi_, a woman who I am quickly developing a style crush on. She was one of Painfully Hip’s Thrift Stars of the Week, and has been featured in other blogs as well. Check out ‘When it still was warm’ and ‘October 2nd’ – I want that high waisted skirt so much I’m sure I think about it several times a week – and feel the jealousy. She even does purple and black, putting me to shame with her ridiculous amount of stylishness.

I am also jealous of ms. stephanie brown for looking like sex, mod_complex for the striped trousers, boots and waistcoat combination pictured on the right, cryptdang for owning this dress as well as for going to many burlesque shows (check out her photos, seriously), and Jaana-Mari for owning these boots and wearing them so well – I have wanted those in that colour since a link to the manufacturer’s was posted on the Emilie Autumn fan forum ages ago. It still pains me that they seem to be no longer available to buy.

Other honourable mentions include: moon monster’s pretty monochrome outfit, StrawberryKitten for personifying cool, and persephassa’s black velvet dress.

Over on StyleMob, where they have yet to come up with a widget that lets you actually show the images for looks (apparently it is in the works, though) on your blog, I managed to fight through the Indie Army images and discover such hidden gems of darkness as electric thomas’ victorian mad scientist look. I think it is fantastic. The ruffles on the blouse, the brooches, the hair…She says that “I never not want to wear this”, and I think if I was capable of creating such an extraordinarily awesome effect with clothing and hair I would probably work that look pretty much everyday.

Hannah Karina’s cat has a gorgeous tail and the girl herself looks seriously cute. I have recently started to wear a pair of diamond-patterned tights (dark purple) with dresses (usually purple, although I did wear them with black and beige once) myself and it’s good to see someone else rocking the look.

Usually gothic lolita style doesn’t make much of an impact on me. I was a big fan for a short period of time but I quickly got bored observing it. There are a lot of rules to the subculture and in a lot of online communities any attempt at experimenting with the look is squashed. But Youran is wearing the most fantastic pink tartan skirt ever. Ever. See, this is how you do it, Avril Lavigne. It even has a crown on it!

Finally, the prize for Most Best Look on StyleMob has to go to toire. Even the cat seems to be part of the overall look. I wish I could get a closer look at those sleeves, and the brooch, and the vest. The shorts are also in this picture – where you can see that in fact they are striped bloomers! Perfect.

Now I could go on for longer, but there is a limit to how much envy one woman can stand to build up in an evening’s blogging, and I think one more photo of something gorgeous might send me over the edge! That shouldn’t stop you, however, from sharing any examples of street fashion from the dark side in the comment box.

All photos used have this Creative Commons license, and make sure you check out the galleries of the people whose images I have shared for more delights.

How To Avoid Getting Bored With The Way You Dress

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In Guilt Is So Not A Good Look I described my shopping habits and described my three-point plan for ethical shopping. The last point was the most important: Buy as little as possible. I am an advocate of slow fashion. I believe that we should strive towards a sense of personal style rather than attempting to keep up with trends. Unless you are rich, it is impossible to keep up with the fast-moving fashion world. Most people cannot afford to buy something from every current trend – even in our era of low-priced fashion on the high street. For example, leather dresses are extremely fashionable right now, but I have yet to see many of them in any normal, low-priced stores. Some trends are so extravagant that anyone with an average salary or lower is completely excluded from wearing them, and there are so many different ideas within the themes of a season that even the hardcore fashionistas only choose a few to adopt.

Trying to maintain an individual style can be difficult and at times rather dull. Sometimes it is tempting to take the easy way out and pop to Primark and H&M for quick-fix new looks, but I think that greater enjoyment and satisfaction comes from taking the time to think about what you wear, what you own but don’t wear, and what new looks you can create from existing clothes.

I have several tips to share, all ideas that I use to keep myself dressing in interesting ways without having to go shopping every week.

Seek out classic icons who dress close to the way you do or aspire to, and look for normal people who dress in a similar style to you.

The chances are that if you admire them, you may already own some items that remind you of their style, or which can be adapted to new purposes. When looking at people who dress similarly to you, watch out for the little differences, their innovations within the style. It’s good to have aspirations which are closer to home and which fit in with what you are naturally drawn to already. You shouldn’t have to start from scratch in order to build your perfect wardrobe – basics may have already been accumulated without you paying much attention to the process.

Try to develop your own personal touches, your trademarks.

Small things are the best for this, I think. My grandmother loves earrings and has a massive, wonderfully eccentric collection. She has everything from crocodiles to strawberries, and from traffic lights to classic pearls. You could also have an burgeoning obsession with one particular image or group of images, for example, fruit.

Watch and re- fashion, and make your wardrobe follow you.

Don’t follow fashion and change your clothes every season. Watch the trends with a critical eye, gather inspiration, and remember that a lot of clothes can be altered, or worked into and through changing trends. Things actually come around a lot faster than you think. Every couple of years, bright colours are in again, then the next season, black will be back. This is true for this year – it was all about the brights this summer, but apparently black is fashionable again for the winter. Sometimes you can alter clothes to reflect the current cuts, and conversely, if you have clothes that fit a trend that has passed, you can try altering them to make them more classic. When the big skinny jeans revival began, there were almost none actually available in shops, so the people who started it all turned straight leg jeans inside out and sewed on the inside of the leg seams to make them tighter. Some people have been doing this for years – they adore skinnies and have made them part of their personal style.

Go quirky, classic, or pretty.

Most people don’t have much of a clue about fashion specifics, but will notice things that are quirky, classic, or really pretty. I have a pair of black formal sandals that always attract positive attention, which is hilarious because I got them to wear for my grandparents’ millennium party. Yes. Millennium. The year 2000. I was twelve, they were from Clarks and there is nothing weird about them, or attention-grabbing – but they are simple, classic and comfortable.

Don’t fall into habits.

Wearing one particular bag with one particular pair of shoes all the times, for example. It’s a slipperly slope from there down to wearing the same outfits over and over and never imagining anything different. It is good to have a backup outfit or two for when you’re hurried, uninspired or going incognito, but try not to rely on selections you’ve worn together before. Think outside the confines of the colour wheel – wear colours to highlight each other, not just to match. Vary the jewellery you wear everyday, I try to avoid putting on the same colour rings, bracelet and necklace but this is difficult, especially when it all gets tangled together. I advocate storing jewellery on a mug tree!

Do you have any related advice to share? Has any of the above worked for you? This is pretty much my personal style development plan, and I’d love to hear what yours is.