Photo: www.timeout.com
NEW YORK — Ghostly heads press against a wall of latex. A replica of a once grand mansion crumbles into decay. A solemn death mask stands sentinel behind glass. Skulls hang from a display case.
“Gothic: Dark Glamour,” the new exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Technology, focuses on the dark side: death, sexual fetishes, Satanism. It examines the ways in which those themes have been interpreted by fashion designers and is one of the most captivating exhibitions the museum has mounted in recent memory.
Photo: www.timeout.com
Curator Valerie Steele is something of an authority on fashion’s shadowy corners. She’s the author of several books that put obsessions such as high heels and corsets into historical and cultural context. She also appears to be prescient. She began work on this exhibition more than two years ago, and its opening last week coincides with a Gothic moment in popular culture.
“True Blood,” the new HBO vampire fable recently debuted, and the movie version of Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” vampire saga is scheduled to open in November. And design houses from Proenza Schouler to Max Azria titillated their audiences during New York’s Fashion Week with allusions to harnesses and bondage.
Despite the culture’s demand for tidy cause-and-effect relationships, interest in the dark side seems to rise and fall for no clear reason, Steele says. It had a peak in the 1970s for instance and declined in the ’80s. But it is always there. A pessimistic economic, political or social outlook does not draw us more emphatically into the gloom. Nor does an optimistic vision of the future spark greater experimentation and a desire to walk the line between darkness and light. “Goth” is not especially political.
Steele defines Gothic as far more than the cliche of the disaffected teen-ager with dyed black hair, white makeup and Doc Martens boots. In the exhibition, which runs through Feb. 21, Steele goes back to its origins in literature, art and religion. She points to Gothic tales from authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, who toyed with terror, entrapment and claustrophobia. Vampires, of course, play an enormous role in the Gothic narrative because of their ability to defy death and their submission to their basest passions. The exhibit explores the influence of the Victorian tradition of mourning, in which widows dressed in black for a year. And finally, Steele emphasizes the Dark Ages, in which superstitions and sorcery took precedence over science and reason.
In the hands of fashion designers, those ideas inform garments that reflect the beauty in decay, the unsettling passion of death and the subversive interest in the macabre — from death masks to skulls, which have become as ubiquitous in fashion as polka dots and floral prints.
One of the designers most powerfully represented in the exhibition is Alexander McQueen, who has long expressed an interest in the lesser angels of the human spirit. He has created collections inspired by abandonment, hopelessness, lunacy and religious oppression.
Story by Robin Givhan
The Washington Post
Society’s idea of Gothic glamour is so middle school and limited. I love Gothic glam not only for its history and art, but also for its uniqueness and jaw-dropping elegance. Challenge yourself to redefine Goth style by checking out a few of my favorite Alexander McQueen designs:
OK, I recognize the antlers are a little much, but look at the texture of the dress. It looks like a cloud. Or a hurricane. Or something I want to sleep in and/or on.
McQueen is hand’s down my favorite designer. So feminine and edgy at the same time. Classic and bizarre. Beautiful and scary.
This purple flower dress is like nothing else I’ve ever seen before. I especially love the collar and shoulders. The rigid cut makes an interesting contradiction with the fluff of the flowers.
I could seriously sit here for hours gazing at his stuff.
And lace is so “in” this fall; you don’t even have to like Depeche Mode to wear these boots.
(But seriously, who doesn’t like Depeche Mode?)
This looks so comfortable. Interesting idea for sleeves. Gives the strictness of the jacket a little air and flow.
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