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Page 3A • Thursday, January 16, 2003
Shopping on the dark side
Mass marketing of Goth-inspired gear brings mixed reactions
By Nara Schoenberg
KRT CAMPUS
Maybe the turning point came when Virgin Megastores started
selling those cute little vampire-girl lunchboxes, or when suburban
kids started buying their spiked collars at the mall, or when Kmart
trotted out corset-inspired T-shirts.
Carlton Maybe it came at last year's Oscars, when Gwyneth Paltrow
donned a gown that would have made Morticia Addams proud.
But by late fall, when fashion magazines flirted with ghoul-chic
and stores offered clunky cross jewelry and faux-vintage black lace,
there could be no doubt.
Goth culture — long the exclusive domain of self-styled misfits
and defiant outcasts — is bubbling up into the mainstream, making
the black-clad, kohl-eyed Goth faithful who have endured the
taunts of the “normals” for more than two decades something of a
hot new thing.
“It's kind of something that snuck up on us,” said Thom Svast, the
sales manager at the Guess? store in Chicago. This fall, his store
. showcased an array of Goth fashions, including black bell-sleeve
?ment ot biohazari shirts and flowing crushed-velvet coats.
The irony of pop culture's cool kids embracing outcast fashion is
if six first-respono; not lost on the small but vital Goth underground, whose response to
the societal thumbs-up has mostly ranged from apathy to dismay.
At Web sites, Goths rail against exploitation and consumerism or
Security Act, wk worry that "poseurs" with their judgmental cliques will ruin an
underground club scene that has long regarded itself as a last refuge
for those who are too creative, original or just plain strange to fit in
anywhere else.
John Wirtz, 27, of Riverside, Ill., a librarian and member of the
Chicago Goth-punk band Anarchy (Butt) & the An-R-Kids, says that,
for true believers, Goth offers a rich alternative lifestyle, complete
with its own music and literature.
To reduce Goth's many elements to a mass-produced fashion
statement, he says, "cheapens its meaning."
“I've seen people get really upset over it,” said Wirtz, who recalls
... J one friend who tore out a pile of pseudo-Goth fashion spreads from
l UCl .mainstream magazines and used them as fireplace kindling. Wirtz's
friend reserved special treatment for an image of pop princess
Christina Aguilera in a corset and leather.
“He lit her face on fire, and used that to light the rest of it,”
Wirtz says.
Initially associated with bands such as Siouxsie & the Banshees
and Bauhaus, Goth grew out of the punk movement in the late 70s
and is often viewed as punk's darkly romantic kid sister. Like punk, it
iecurity Act imo la. [celebrates individuality and rejects the conformity of mainstream
r 2002. This law istlf jsociety, but where punk was political, Goth is artistic; where punk
>nal security eta ij| was disgusted, Goth is amused.
sponsoring prdmi Best known for its over-the-top fashion statements — Count
U.S. war on terror.
Dracula capes, black lipstick, fishnet stockings— Goth is rooted in
an appreciation of the melancholy, the sinister and the forbidden. On
the most basic level, anyone who has shuddered with delight at a hor
ror movie or taken perverse pleasure in wallowing in a bad mood has
caught a Goth vibe.
Those who seek to explain the current popularity of Goth fash
ion point to a number of factors, from the recent fin de siecle
gloom to the rise of Marilyn Manson, a shock-rocker disavowed
by many Goths.
It's also interesting to note that the Goth mini-trend comes at a
time when corporate America has gotten into the habit of raiding the
counterculture's closets. With hip-hop clothes, extreme sports gear
and rave-wear available at the local mall, could Goth be far behind?
Chicago Goth disc jockey Scary Lady Sarah, 35, said she recently
picked up two Goth-appropriate shirts at Kmart, a corset-style lace
number and a crocheted black top.
“I was very, very surprised,” she said.
Not all Goths are opposed to the marketing of Goth products by
corporate America.
“I think it's great because it means people are dressing better,”
said Scary Lady Sarah. “Maybe it will make mainstream people less
likely to criticize or harass someone dressed Goth, if they think, ‘Oh,
I've got that same dress.’”
But in the eyes of many Goths and observers of the scene, main
stream interest is, at best, a mixed blessing.
“We (in the underground) advocate just a real individualism. To be
accepted by the mainstream is to lose credibility” said Mick Levine,
co-owner of the Goth-friendly clothing store 99th Floor in Chicago.
And even for an underground subculture, Goth's concern with
authenticity is unusually strong, with insiders bemoaning the pres
ence of insincere weekend Goths or debating endlessly — and, to be
fair, often humorously — what makes for a genuine Goth. Among
the more amusing examples of the Gother-than-Thou aspect of the
subculture: the “Goth or Not” Web site, where you can rate the
authenticity of aspiring Goths on a scale of 1 to 10.
“I think it's better to sort of embrace your depression, and admit
that it's a feeling, just like any other human feeling, rather than trying
to discard it or dope it up, which is what mainstream society likes to
do,” Wirtz said.
The nightmare scenario, Wirtz said, is that Goth will be so widely
accepted — and diluted — that the young people who represent the
next generation for Goth will reject it as inauthentic. That, Wirtz said,
can spell death for an underground scene.
“That's an honest fear, because it has happened with previous
trends and cultures,” Wirtz said, citing punk as an example.
At this point, mainstream acceptance of Goth can safely be said to
be in the early stages.
Hot Topic, the California-based teen retailer that has done as
much as anyone to bring vampire-chic to the suburbs, not only
declined to comment for this article, but declined to Comment on
PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS
Chicago deejay Scaty Lady Sarah, sporting a top she found at Kmart, says
mainstream marketing of Goth products means people will be more tolerant.
whether the store sells Goth clothes. That's an interesting position to
take, considering the Web site includes a clearly labeled "Gothic" cat
egory of clothing.
Goth, Wirtz theorizes, is like vodka: Most people prefer it when
mixed with something else.
And, indeed, those who look closely will note that Guess? is mar
keting not so much pure Goth as peasant-Goth, with white lace soft
ening the black. Ads for John Frieda's Sheer Blonde hair products
showcase a perky-blond California Goth. And those Emijy the
Strange lunchboxes offer an airbrushed kiddie-Goth.
Still, the Goth underground isn't taking the threat of wholesale
acceptance lightly.
"^ here are a, lot of people who are scared," Wirtz said. r
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