• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.63 no.5
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• pp.1-17
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• 2013

As style is the center of subcultural identity and the clothes and adornments are the most visible symbol of its membership, the style of Goth symbolizes the strong subcultural identity and acts as the practical basis to demonstrate commitment to the subculture. In the turn of the third millennium, fashion designers have drawn upon and extracted elements from many subcultures to use in their collections. High fashion designers have introduced the Goth style since its inception in the 1980s. The energy and authenticity of Goth has been considered to be desirable in high fashion. The aesthetic property of Goth subcultural style defeats the established notion of standardized fashion and stimulates new consciousness, which makes room for diversification and subdivision. This study attempts to forecast the trends of the 21st century via researching the diffusion of Goth style in high fashion. In order to investigate the aesthetics and styles of Gothic chic, along with literature research, this study investigates the fashion collections from the late 1990s to 2000s as well as the images of street fashion magazines.