| Victorian goth |
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| Written by i j |
| Thursday, 03 December 2009 11:35 |
Today we are going to talk about something slightly unusual in the Goth scene, we going to talk a bout:
UPDATE 9-3-2011 We have had several updates in the Spanish version of this article, they come from contributions of the readers (That you can do too using the mail or the comments) and I wanted to share them with you: The first of all came in the form of the Wayward Victorian girl rules, some rules that I didn’t had read of before made by Emilie Autumn (contribution made by Wampi, a Spanish reader of the Spanish Web site): – 1 – Your maquillage is your mask. Your corset is your armour. – 3 – Your stocking prove your virtue. When properly attired, invite yourself to the nearest Tea Party or host one yourself. Slightly after the update made by Wampi, Nana made her own update in the form of some cool Victorian reading, a trilogy written by Libba Bray: First book: A Great and Terrible Beauty Second book: Rebel Angels Third book: The Sweet Far After that Wampi replied with another cool Victorian reading: “De los demonios de la mente, La angustia de nacer mujer y un puñado de guisantes” It’s a Spanish reading whose title could be translated as “about mind demons, the torment of being a woman and a bunch of peas”. It talks about how women where despised during the Victorian ages and some slightly cruel parallel stories, but it’s an exquisite reading. I suppose that one is going to be hard to find in English but hey, we have room in here for all languages so if you want to recommend some German (or any other language reading) please fell free to do so. Enjoy. ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Let’s get to work, this article promise to be long and graveyard is waiting for us.
Victorian Industrial Music:
It’s not easy to find modern Victorian music but it’s not impossible either, we can think in Emilie autumn (Singer, Violinist and artist that introduced the term “Victoriandustrial”” to the scene), if we don’t like her we still can find some cool bands like: Rasputina, Ana Fury or the Birthday massacre, if we don’t like this either as our last chance we can look into bands that while not playing Victorian music still have some elements of this theme (The Dresden Dolls or Amanda Palmer for example).
Victorian Reading:
A well bred Victorian girl would be (withouth doubt) well taught in history, geography, French, protocol and good manners, but too much reading and obviously writing would be beyond hope, they could also expect none succeed in any writing they made unless they used a male pseudonym.
Luckily for us there exists a few good books about Victorian era that area able to transport us to those days, we can think in the scandalous poetry book “Les Fleus Du Mal” (Charles Baudelaire), there are also plenty of books about modern steampunk that always have pieces of Victorian style in some way or another, you can look for “The Diamond Age” (Neal Stephenson), its terribly technically but its pretty good book for reading or “The Difference Engine” (Will Gibson and Bruce Sterling).
You shouldn’t forget about some classics like H.G. Wells or Jules Verne.
Victorian Style:
Now that we are introduced our self to the Victorian time and are listening some music to create the correct ambience is the time to talk about our own aesthetic.
Luckily or not (suppose that luckily for you, otherwise I see no reason why you are reading this) the first thing you going to need for dressing in Victorian style is a corset, without getting into details about corsets (that I plan to write in another article), a corset might be the only thing you need to be a Victorian Goth girl.
When choosing a corset you have 2 options, first is look for a simple flat coloured corset (typically white, black or red but you can choose any colour that suits you), or you can look for a sadistic Victorian one (if so, please send us some photos), anyway you should choose materials typical of the 19th century, forget about leather, synthetic fibre or oil derivates they simply wont fit the look.
Victorian Skirts:
Trousers is something that World drive 19th century girls directly to a mental institution so forget about that, you’ll have to invest in a skirt or two, my advice is that you choose long skirts, but you can avoid that by choosing a shorter one in case you plan to visits the worst locals in town or in case you are going to wear some shoes or boots that just have to be seen.
Make up:
In those times a good maquillage could Hill you, in deed lipstick were made of mercury and eye shadows were made of lead, both materials are venomous and one in the organism our organism can’t remove them or heal the damage they do so Victorian girls would get slowly poisoned until they were driven mad by the mental problems both products caused.
Luckily we can nowadays use makeup without fearing a slow dying or something worst, for victoriandustrial Goths the objective is to looks like a dark porcelain doll, the base should be light without being creamy and eyes should be dark and dense, lipstick can vary from intense red to dark.
Ill try to find a tutorial on how to do this and rise it to the Web site in the near future (but I have so much work to do in here that I’m not sure when ill be able to do so).
Shoes , brooches and other complements:
I have a good new for you: gothic boots fits perfectly for getting a cool victoriandustrial look, you can also add some stockings even if they are fishnet stockings or if they are rust, they’ll do a great job in your overall look.
Jewels could do great in your outfit, in deed Brooches were quite popular in 19th century, you can find some specialised shops in were to buy Victorian brooches but they are quite expensive and sincerely it doesn’t worth it, you can find plenty of brooches that will do just fine in your outfit in most cheap jewel shops.
Lace chokers were pretty popular in those days, it’s a little hard to get one but its pretty easy to make one with a ribbon.
Los collares de encaje también eran populares en esta época, aunque son un poco complicados de conseguir no es demasiado difícil hacerse uno con unas cintas y el aspecto será igualmente bueno.
Living the Victorian dream:
Protocol and etiquette were of vital importance in 19th century, good manners were perfectly instilled in all well bred girls of Victorian ages “deny yourself and serve others, be seen but not heard…”
Luckily for us in victoriandustrial we are ruled by rebellion so feel free to ignore most of puritans nowadays taboos, it’s not about fitting the social expectancies… more like the opposite.
This is getting long and I still have plenty of things to write so soon ill talk you about a girl that dresses herself in this outfit and how she did for not dying in the attempt.
I leave you with another excellent Emilie Autumn (and some friends) Video:
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| Last Updated on Wednesday, 09 March 2011 16:21 |
