• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 2013

Subcultural style is the center of subcultural identity and the clothes and adornments are the most visible symbol of membership. The Goth subculture has associated tastes in music, aesthetics, and fashion. The style symbolized the strong subjective subcultural identity held by most Goths and acted as the practical basis to demonstrate their commitment to the subculture. This study investigates the aesthetic and the style of Goth subculture in its heyday of 1980s which has continued to affect mainstream fashion and culture since its birth. In order to inquire the concept of subculture and its style, this study executes literature survey as well as investigates the images of street style magazines to analyze the visual elements. The stylistic and the aesthetic characteristics of Goth subcultural style analyzed in this study are grouped into four categories as follows: first, Victoriana, which embodies the fear of death and the nostalgia for the past using Victorian morning dresses and corsets, second, vampirism, in that some Goths who are fascinated by vampires are costumed in vampire figures to advocate diabolism and decadence, third, sexual ambiguity of male Goths which emphasizes feminine appearance in the pursuit of androgyny, and fourth, sexual fetish of female Goths which represents aggressive eroticism utilizing fetish paraphernalia.

• 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.