On being goth

During the last weeks I have stumbled across some interesting posts about being goth so I thought why not give it a go for yourself? First of all: Stereotypes. There are various clichés and stereotypes that are shown on television and that are stuck in peoples minds and most of them a rubbish BUT: Some of them are true. They are what I call my guilty pleasures.

- I only wear black. Even if I see a clothing item that i like I won't buy it if it isn't black. It's my colour and I will stick to it, full stop. I do wear coloured tights occasionally or some coloured accessoires but that's it basically. My standard question in shops is and will always be: 'It's nice, do you have it in black?'

- I love, love, love platform shoes. I have tiny feet and huge platforms make them look weird and unproportional, I like it.

- My style rolemodels are Wednesday Addams from the Addams Family and Abby Sciuto from Navi CIS.

- I think bats are cute. I don't really wear bats as accessoires but the real life ones are simply adorable.

- I'm pretty crafty, I make my own jewelry etc...

- I am constantly overdressed and I don't give a damn. My clothes are not practical ore useful, they simply look good.

- I enjoy old literature such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, Oscar Wilde, Sherlock Holmes or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I even took a class called 'Gothic Fiction', it was amazing because we got to discuss popular gothic motifs, psychology (e.g. why Freud sucks), the modern vampire and why Twilight is neither spooky nor gothic.

-I like graveyards, I think they're pretty.

-I also like old churches and chapels, my favourite being the Cologne cathedral and despite the fact that the Count says otherwise, I CAN enter churches, thank you very much.

- I love the victorian era. As a feminist I, of course, would never want to actually live in that time but it still fascinates me.

- The goths shown in mainstream television are often nerds that would rather spend the night reading a book and drinking tea instead of going to a club. I myself have never been to a club, I have occasionally visited cocktail bars with friends but that's it. I'm pretty indoorsy.

Ok, so much about stereotypes but there are also many, many ungothy things about me:

- I don't like gothic music. So, 'why are you a goth then' you might ask. To me being gothic is a lifestyle and a lifestyle needs more than just music. Even though there are very popular gothic festivals here in Germany such as the Amphi or the WGT I don't really have the wish to go to any of these.

- I don't like skull motives, I don't find them appealing at all.

- I like pink. Yes, seriously.

- None of my friends are goth. They're all kind of alternative but not in a bat-loving, black, spooky way.

- I tan extremely fast and therefor I have given up trying to stay pale.

- I own about 70 different nail polishes and even though 11 of them are various colours of red most of them have very non-gothy colours.

- As the Count says: I'm not a night-person. Neither am I a day person. He says I'm asleep constantly.

- I have a spider phobia and I don't really like cats. They're kind of cool but scary...

- I'm also afraid of the dark.

You can probably see now why I don't only classify myself as goth but rather as a Quaintrelle. Who cares about labels, anyway?

Thoughts on wearing black

I wear black. Every single day.
Black is the absence of colour, it doesn't reflect light. So much for the simple facts. Now the problem:
Whenever I meet new people for example at university classes the topic of the colour of my wardrobe (or rather the absence of it) will come up at some point. Mostly the question is broad up by someone in a rather shy manner: "I don't know if I can ask you this but...Why do you wear black?"


The honest answer: I don't know.
For a long time I didn't even realize it, I just wore black more and more and at some point all the other colours just vanished from my closet. I simply prefer black over everything else. It's elegant, sophisticated and aristocratic. The point of it being elegant is probabl what strikes me the most about it. It suits everyone, very fair skin types as well as dark ones. It doesn't distract from the piece of clothes at hand, it leaves room for the farbic and the pattern to stand out. Additionally, black goes with nearly every colour except for brown and beige but that's simply my personal preference.

Source: we heart it

Black goes with a wide range of fashion styles in society such as conservative suits, cocktail dresses and the robes in the justice system of various countries but of course it also has a huge part in the world of alternative fashion. I identify as some sort of goth-ish victorian quaintrelle and black underlines that perfectly. I don't think of it as the colour of mourning, sadness and death as in some parts of Africa and America white is the mourning colour.

Source: we heart it

Of course, my favourite colour has often brought me in some weird situations and sometimes  I have to answer the most ridiculous questions. No, I don't worship satan, in fact I am an atheist, no I don't do drugs, yes I am smart. Black is the colour of the academics by the way. Some people cross the street when they see me, others but come up to me to congratulate me on my wardrobe. Small children tend to be afraid of me, older women love me. all in all, I get the most various reactions but that is not what wearing black is about.


 It's about me. 
Me being happy with how I look and what I wear. 
And that's what clothes are about, right?