AntiCelebrity.net

The Gothic Towers of Cardiff CastleWhat's behind that black facade?

• Historically speaking, the Goths 'were an Eastern Germanic tribe who played an important role in the fall of the western Roman Empire.

In the UK, by the late 1700s, however, nostalgia for the medieval period led people to become fascinated with medieval gothic ruins. This lead to a Gothic Revival resulting in breath-taking architecture- like at Cardiff Castle and The House of Westminster.

The gothic novel of the late eighteenth century, a genre founded by Horace Walpole with the 1764 publication of The Castle of Otranto, was accountable for the more modern connotations of the term gothic... establishing much of the iconography of later horror literature and cinema, such as graveyards, ruined castles or churches, ghosts, vampires, nightmares, cursed families, being buried alive and melodramatic plots.

By the late 1970s, there were a few post-punk bands labeled "gothic" and by the 1990s, Victorian fashion saw a renewed popularity in the goth scene, drawing on the mid-19th century gothic revival and the more morbid aspects of Victorian culture.' (Remixed from Wikipedia)

• Fashion wise, Stargazer describes Goth as 'Wearing black clothes and fascinated with the romance of the macabre this fashion is about the individual wanting to rebel against every day fashion and representing themselves as individuals in the sea of everyday mundane fashion. Often described as moody and rebellious the look is taken from a bygone era that represented romance and dark mystery.'

• And Gothic fashion is being referenced in modern fashion, in the anything goes culture that we are seeing... see ASOS with it's gothic-glam take.

• Wikihow has a brilliant guide on How to Be Goth - keeping the emphasis that it is about the individual, creativity, understanding the subculture, music and fashion but staying true to yourself!

• I like to appreciate Goth as a subculture, and cherry pick from it. Rebelling against the trend to have tango skin. Dark makeup, clothes accessories are cool to mix up a look or exude an attitude. Mix Goth with electroclash. Goth can stretch to any hair colour too! Enjoy it.