I've always been inspired by Goth, especially Victorian, Romantic and trad goth styles, I also have a long-term love affair for steampunk and lolita (although I doubt I'll ever be able to buy a real lolita brand dress, even Bodyline is a bit out of my price range with the shipping costs!). Looking for more eye candy images of these styles led me to discover others which delighted me.
Fairy Kei
I'll forgive the 80's nostalia (I'm a child of the 90's =P) because I adore the big jumpers and cardigans, fluffy tutus and bloomers, the layering, the use of accessories and the innocence of Fairy Kei, and although the colours would put me completely outside of my comfort zone, I love it on other people! It makes me oddly nostalgic for the days when I pinned badges to everything, wore half my jewellery box at once, stuck stars on my face and was unafraid of wearing shorts and tiny skirts, usually with a massive hoody and converse! I'm wearing badges and occasionally over-doing the accessories again, we'll see about the leg exposure when the summer come around again =P
For those not familiar with Fair-Kei, this guide from ParfaitDoll is a great place to start.
Although the idea of wearing a full outfit of pastels still appalls me, I did remember that I own a pale pink jumper (originally brought with the intention of dyeing it, but it turns out you can't dye acrylic, oopsies) so I have plans to customise that and add it to an outfit or two. Watch this space, if you think you can withstand the horror =P
Creepy Cute
A mixture of gothy style and cute imagery, seen in lolita and various other styles. I'm not sure if it's a sub-genre or just a trend at the moment, I don't know much about it at all, other than that I think it can be really adorable! I especially love the creepy cute co-ordinates that Pastelbat wears, you can see some here, along with other styles like fairy-kei, gyaru, lolita, even pastel-goth- she has great taste in clothes!
This may be the reason for my over use of bat motifs lately, seen here and here!
Dolly Kei
Another Japanese street style I've fallen for, because of it's use of vintage, combination of fabrics, layers and whimsical vibe. This page has a great collection of dolly kei images. Another style inspiration for me is Marie Dauphine who wears a delightful dark version of this style along with gothy and lolita ensembles, usually with beautiful bone jewellery she makes; check out her tumblr here.
I really love the use of vintage dresses like Gunne Sax; I may be inspired to get this dress out again and co-ordinate it in a dolly-kei style! I also may have sort-of accidently brought this dress on Etsy yesterday =P Isn't it beautiful? It was 24 GBP including postage =S so it's a Christmas present to myself! It was from PetticoatsPlus.
Mori Kei
Another Japanese style I love, it translates as Forest Style. The 'getting back to nature' aspect of this style appeals to the hippy in me; I was raised by hippy parents and lived in Glastonbury (a wonderful Somerset town, with more crystal shops, tie-dye clothing and leylines than anything else, 9 miles from where the music festival is actually held =P) for 3 years; aged 10-13, so hippy clothing is dear to my heart. I wish I still had those purple patchwork trousers... Mori Kei is a wonderfully tattered look, with lots of layering, natural fabrics and old-world charm. This page has some great mori kei images. The colour palette of mori kei is mainly natural colours, often with lots of white and cream, once again out of my comfort zone! Then Amy of Bohemian Bloomers, wrote a post which mentioned Black Forest Mori Girl aka Dark Mori, which seemed much more me! Here's a link to her guide to the style, the original post on it by Shady Oaks and a lovely inspirational tumblr, Strega's Forest (sadly doesn't seem to be updated any more). Pretty prefect style for a goth like me whose clothes get caught on everything and torn and who often forgets to brush her hair =P
This was my outfit for meeting old school friend's at the pub last night. I'm sorry for the crap photos, the lighting was less than ideal and I still don't have decent editing software. It's my take on Black Forest Mori, limited to clothing I happen to have at Ash's at the moment! Needs more layers...
What I'm wearing
Blouse: charity shop in Derby, I keep meaning to iron and stitch the ruffles down but I think the messy look is OK for this outfit.
Dress: Superdry, from Cult, it was a present from my Mum for Christmas =] can be seen on their website here, it saw it ages ago and fell in love but couldn't afford it. My mum is wonderful!
Skirt: A crochet skirt I found in a charity shop in Moseley; It's full length but I pinned it up for this. It's so heavy that is squashed my petticoat completely and wouldn't poof up as much as I wanted but I still like it.
Tights: New Look, also from Mum =]
Necklace: the pendant was made by my friend Kelly. She has more beautiful ones in her Etsy shop here. I put it on a piece of lace that matched the dress for the evening =].
Earrings: I wish the picture was better, they are tiny black roses, I made them myself.
I also wore my doc martens and lace edged boot covers and put the bow featured in this post in my hair because I wanted a flower but couldn't find my purple one!
