Tatoos!!!

Interested article about Tatoos. Where the tatoo was traditionally only sought after by the military, merchant marine and criminals, it is now steadily being adopted by the mainstream.

Traditional areas of the body that have been seem as more radical (the neck, hands etc) are now being used for tatoo adornment. And in Australia, the army has changed it acceptance regulations and will now accept people with tatoos visible above the collar.

Anyways, interesting article on it here - Tatoos gain new visibility

New Book on Goth fashion -

Just read an article that mentioned this new book about Goth fashion.

Gothic: Dark Glamour by authors Valerie Steele and Jennifer Park.

http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300136944

While there has been many books written about the goth subculture generally (Mick Mercer alone has written four) from various viewpoints, this is the first book that mainly focuses on depicting Goth fashion. Its a coffee table book, and its about $50 USD.

Can't say much else as haven't read it yet.... but this is definitely on my to buy list.

Amazon.com most probably, as I can't find a local shop that stocks it.

There also isn't very many books that just focus on the fashion of subcultures, excepting possibly Polhemus's work - Streetstyle: From Sidewalk to Catwalk, Style Surfing: What to Wear in the 3rd Millennium and Fashion & Anti-fashion: Anthropology of Clothing and Adornment.

Polhemus, also a photographer, seems to have cornered the market, and has been writing on this topic for some 20 years now.

Z Entity-

One of my compadre's Miss Steph, is really going places with her new label Z-Entity.
Not quite your typical goth fashion, but more alternate, her work is stylish and quite different.
And a big range!

She also does a good range of Guys stuff, which can be a bit rare in the Goth/metal/rock/alternate market. Some nice photography too.

Lots of interesting fashion coming out of Melbourne, Australia, so it seems.

http://www.zentity.net/

And she's doing a fashion parade/performance thing here, looks like it will be a great event if you are in Melbourne.

www.vnvboutique.com

Circa Nocturna - Designers for 2009 announced

Circa Nocturna, Australia's longest running Fashion show has posted its designers for their 2009 show.

CN 09 will be the biggest show that they have run so far, with 18 Designers.

Assassinus
Bella Rubber (Brisbane/Melbourne)
Bezerk (Brisbane)
Black Cat stretchwear
Clear Concept (Adelaide)
Defence Mechanism
Dolly Q
Dragon's Blood Creations
Dusk Moth Design
Lyris Design
Obsidian Lace
Pale Purpur (Moscow)
Sche
Spook Clothing
Vallina Clothing (Perth)
Vicious Klothing
Vitae (Adelaide)
Yes Mistress

Circa Nocturna
Saturday 28th of February
Fitzroy Town Hall
8 pm

Tickets on sale January 2009

Kera Fashion show

Just saw some shots from the Kera fashion show. Kera is a magazine covering Japanese alt fashion.

Lots of great out there designs. Gotta get myself to Japan.

More info over here at a China Daily article

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2008-08/25/content_6967955.htm

Japanese Subcultures and Fashion

I first heard about Japanese Subcultures from my friend about 4 years ago now. Mr Jan was mainly into the goth scene, but so much more than goth was apparent in Nippon. A lot of the Japanese Subcultural fashion was similiar to Goth, but others were true home grown separate subcultures.... and others were somewhere in between.

More recently, I was helping out organise a shoot for goth fashion for a newspaper in Melbourne town, and I noticed how little the Japanese Sub cultures were understood. All the goths (inlcuding me) in the shoot had assumed that one outfit was Goth lolita. And I thought we knew our stuff. It was only later that someone was commenting on the photo and pointed out that it wasn't goth loli at all (it was Sweet Lolita... I think!) Anyways, in terms of me trying to understand the world of the new goth-like Japanese sub cultures, I thought I would jot a few down here.

Goth Lolita

19th century style, cutesy, young dress. Lots of lace. Think victorian childrens dresses/ clothing, with short skirts worn by young girls. Elements as well from the Rococo period, and elements of trad goth. Very unique, a sophisticated look


Visual Kei

Androgogenous dress, glam, glitz, often soft focus photos. Heralded by the band Malice Mizer
Quite sophisticated, very aesthetic. Colourful, and 80's influence.






Ganguro

Seemingly a parody of westerners, white eyeshadow, dark tans, and blonde or light hair, died. Hmmm......

Elegant Gothic Aristocrat (EGA) or Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL)

A subset of Goth Loli fashion. I really like this stuff, the sort of thing I could/should wear.
Very stylish, Victorian possibly androgenous. EGAs wear long skirts, tailored and streamlined jackets, as well as tight-fitting long shirts and sleeves. Looks like the period when goth was doing a lot of Victorian, and reminds me of the Viona Lellagems Belgian/German current fascination with elegance and historical influence... possibly related?

The term was coined by Mana (singer from Malice Mizer), and was used to describe his own brand of clothing carried in his store Moi-même-Moitié.

Steampunk in the NY times

Looks like Steampunk Fashion is getting a bit of notice...... just saw a big article in the NY times
fashion section.

Steampunk moves between two worlds



Interesting a bit of focus on some very stylish black guys, and up until now I had thought that Steampunk fashion had been very white orientated.

A big win for steampunk, not a bad article. Press for alt fashion often goes wrong, but I think the pics and write up are fairly sympathetic. Also lots of links to interesting sites, including some alt fash steampunky fashion sources.


Steampunk guys looking stylish