There’s something delightfully moody going on in fashion this season. Even dedicated colourists are succumbing to the Morticia Addams mood for dark-as-the-night looks. Take Sienna Miller, for example. The actor attended a charity fundraiser earlier this month wearing a black vintage John Galliano dress that was more gothic than Glasto. The twinkling archive number actually belonged to Vogue beauty editor Tish Weinstock, who finds a kind of feminine strength in the witchy aesthetic, which can also be incredibly sexy.
A goth-girl summer only works if you switch-up your fabrics. Rich velvets are out in favour of silk, chiffon and lace, says Weinstock, who likes wearing black in the hotter months because it feels perverse. “I love a long silk skirt, a chiffon gown and lots of lace,” says the once-upon-a-time emo at school. “I collect ’20s and ’30s pieces, which give that faded grandeur look. But I also like anything by Galliano and Tom Ford for Gucci; that darker undercurrent of Y2K nostalgia.” Tish teams her pre-loved scores with a dab of red or plum around the eye and a strong red lip. When she’s not in black, she’ll do a ghostly ’30s cream lace and silk nightie.
It’s not just the Brit girls who are buying in. Some of the best-dressed individuals at the Met Gala subscribed to an altogether more gothic school of fabulous than the white tie dress code. Everyone on the Burberry table, for example, wore rebellious inky outfits, including a motorcycle-babe leather moment from Irina Shayk, an undone corseted gown worn by Bella Hadid, and a Mrs Addams-worthy look perfected by Kate Moss. Post-ball, Riccardo Tisci took his glossy posse to Casa Cipriani, where they showed that jet-black fashion looks deliciously good after dark.
Met guests, such as Lizzo, proved that black doesn’t mean boring. The performer’s Thom Browne silk moiré bustier dress involved 13 different materials and 22,000 hours of needlework to finesse, and incorporated a statement duchess-satin Chesterfield coat. Karlie Kloss and Joan Smalls wore the kind of “naked” dresses that only supermodels dare sit down in, rising star Phoebe Dynevor waved the flag for vintage in Louis Vuitton, and Sophie Turner did Game of Thrones-chic in a statuesque maternity look by her friend Nicolas Ghesquière. For a belle epoque take on the trend, look to Bella Hadid, who wore a lingerie Dilara Findikoglu look made from 120-year-old fabric to the after-parties.
Off the red carpet, Kourtney Kardashian is showing her famous sisters what the darker side of fashion looks like day to day. The Poosh entrepreneur recently wed Travis Barker at a Santa Barbara courthouse wearing a Dolce minidress that spelled out rock‘n’roll, but you’re more likely to see her stomping around LA in Rick Owens platforms and Just Love skeleton suits. Love her new punkish style? Invest in a Balenciaga mini Neo, a Saint Laurent leather jacket or a Junya Watanabe safety-pin choker.
Hollywood vixen Megan Fox has also leaned into the dark and alluring side of her style since she got engaged to Machine Gun Kelly under a banyan tree, while asking for magic. With Dundas and Dolce on speed dial, it’s vamp fashion or nothing for this actor. Among the first to congratulate their story about journeying through hell to find an intoxicating kind of love? Travis Barker.
Fall for goth-girl fashion this summer with these midnight-black dresses that channel Wednesday’s brilliant missive: “I’ll stop wearing black when they invent a darker colour.”
This story originally appeared in British Vogue.
