EVOLUTION OF THE GOTHIC DRESS (PART I) – 1970s

The 1970s was the time of long dresses, long coats and long hair. Basically, an era where people were focused on flaunting elegance and aristocracy. Imagine being a realist in this culture. You can see through the façade of the people and it drives you nuts. You turn to music as a solace. What do you hear? Same old lyrics about the glorification of the culture you see around everywhere. While you eat, live and drink with the people around, with you and your real thoughts, you realize you so don’t belong here.

We’re just making a wild guess of a story but provided that Punk Rock Fashion came into the music culture, followed by its own fashion and clothing style, talks a lot about people like us would have been fed up by the life around them. So while people decided to stride in their long jumpsuits and long coats, others decided to go for the Punk fashion. How does it relate to the evolution of Gothic dress and Gothic Culture? Well, Punk is a pre-cursor of the Gothic Fashion.

Punk came with a revolutionary change in the fashion trend and would, over time, influence the Gothic dress. Let us see some examples of it.

Punk brought with itself the use of patterns, usually checked (floral was also used) with a lot of dark colors and stripy items. Punk made the Gothic Dress look comfy. The shoes were changed from heels to boots. T-shirts and jeans, along with shrugs came into the subculture. However, the Punk Rock Culture took a darker turn when Grunge came into the scene.

Grunge is counted as a fashion that affected the Gothic dress or not is still into debate but while we are at it, let us point out that both the fashion cultures are mixed and overlap each other. While Punk rock still had colors to it, Grunge plunged the Punk Rock fashion into darker waters. The makeup became louder with usually required a heavily black lined eyes and dark lip colors.

The colors were narrowed down to whites and blacks. Flannel tops, high waist jeans and shrugs usually paired with Doc Martens came into the scene. Hair was to be unkempt and dirty, usually tied into the non-fussy hairstyles or let open. The shorter the hair, the more better. There was in general an “I-don’t-care” attitude.

The Punk Rock fashion and Grunge fashion usually clash and they are mixed and matched. Almost similar, both have been evolutionary in kick starting the Gothic fashion in the 80s when the Deathrockers came with their guitar riffs and white painted faces. The 70s was but a base for them to start with and give the fashion industry a new fashion trend.

If planning to go for the look, know that your attitude also defines the clothes that you are wearing. Also, boots! Don’t miss those. They are the markers of Punk and Grunge. Hope you enjoyed the looks and stay tuned for the 80s, coming up in the next series.

Till then, stay Gothic!