*cheesy classical music plays*  Mmmmyessss, hello and welcome to masterpiece theatre.  For I am your host, Chester P. Farnsworth Johanssen Worchestershire III.  Today we will be examining an exhibition at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City on the artistic merit of rich, colorful clothing about beautiful flowers and happiness to understand better that the world is in fact a beautiful, merry place filled with people who are genuinely good, outside and in....*record scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatch, sounds of a massive scuffle*.........

You know for a wiry guy, he's got a mean right cross.....

*Metal and rock and roll play*  Greetings denizens of the underworld.  Today, I, Crypticpsych, will lead you on a journey through the dark and the macabre that is the "Gothic:  Dark Glamour" exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.  Above, you see the only picture I'm legally allowed to take.   Seriously, photography prohibited.  After entering the building, a friend of mine and I hung a left at the swarovfski crystal dress and happier looking exhibit....and headed down the stairs into the basement of the building, the only appropriate place for this type of exhibit.  Through the doors, we find first a quick examination of the history of Gothic clothing and Gothic style from clothing worn for mourning purposes in Victorian times all the way up through modern usage in general involving infatuation with death and decay and in movies (including a costume from Bram Stoker's Dracula).  Here, i'm going to cheat.  At the end of this, I'll direct you to the exhibition's website since, today was unfortunately the exhibition's final day and I have no idea where it will end up next.  But since it has a website, it means I can technically swipe photos.  So, for example:

A mourning dress from the 1870s, and:

Kambriel's "Midnight Bustle" from 2005.

On the wall nearby this, Gothic photography is seen including an interesting piece that appears to be a woman held up by a series of cords and strings off the corner of the photo.  The photo at the beginning of this report was also included, used for the exhibitions program and promotional materials (imagine that hanging from lightpoles on 7th ave.)

Now, also in this room is "The Cabinet of Curiusities", a gallery of Gothic accessories from the past and present.  Poison bottles, bottles of laudanum, a human skull obtained from an anonymous donor, a death mask, animal claw brooches, necklaces that seem to be made of bone, bird skull necklaces, gothic crosses, pocketwatches, etc.  For example (since the top hat tatooed with the bat on it isn't working today):

A Bat Belt Buckle from Early 20th Century Europe

After taking in the Cabinet, you head into the exhibition proper.  The exhibition itself is divided up into 7 stages in a single room with black walls and minimal light outside of mood lighting (as it should be).  Depending where you enter from, first is "Night".  This part of the exhibition is devoted specifically to the use of the color black in Gothic fashion and the interesting connection that developed between black clothing and elegance, as in the 1400s and 1500s, black dye was expensive.  So we have such modern designs to showcase this point as:

Kazuko Ogawa's "Elegant Gothic Lolita dress", representing Japan's Gothic Lolita style of the 1990s, and:

Alexander McQueen's "Hooded Suit and Thorn Necklace" (I particularly like the necklace) from 2007 England.

After "Night", we have the "Ruined Castle", depicting Gothic clothing's connection to the ideas of decay and decomposition alongside some pieces that showed the influence of the clothing of priests and nuns in Gothic styles.  Unfortunately, I cannot show you two of the dresses that were shown here, no matter how much I may want to, as they were not in the online version of this.  Both of them were outstanding in that one of them, paraphrasing the placard in front of it, was made to look as though it was decaying to show the layers of clothing beneath, showing the history of Gothic fashion all in one place.  The other was made out of numerous fabrics and materials, including plastic, silk, etc, to create a stunningly elegant flowing dress that also evokes the idea of a dress made out of the dregs of other dresses or even out of the most beautiful garbage possible (yes, I realize how bizarre that sounds, trust me on this one.)  I can, however, show you a dress from this section that showcase French Revolution influence:

Christian Dior's Evening Dress and Cross Necklace.  While this photo makes it difficult to see, this dress is based in the writings of the Marquis de Sade.  The Cross Necklace appears to be made out of large metal nails or spikes, while the dress itself actually has an embroidered image of De Sade himself with the quote "Is it not by murder that France is free today?"

Moving past "Ruined Castle" along the wall, we enter "Haunted Palace", showcasing more on disintegration and madness.  This section was relatively small and quickly over, so I only have one photo and it's actually of one of my least favorites in the whole show.  But since I liked 90% of them, damnit, I'm allowed one that makes me think "God what the hell were you thinking":

Alexander McQueen's Sleeveless Evening Dress from 2001.  It's made with feathers, and those are glass microscope slides on top.  While I freely admit I like the creativity of doing that, it just doesn't work up close.  The placard says it evokes "beauty, horror, and madness".  Well, I'll give them two of those....

Next along the wall we have the "Laboratory".  Ironically, me being a scientist and all, this WOULD BE the one that is not pictured at all on their site.  SO you have to rely on my descriptions.  Basically, this section focused on the fusion of fashion with science.  What do I mean you ask?  Imagine a dress with a piece on back that leads to a separatory funnel and tubing that wraps around the arms.  Or a dress that, in its torso, features what appears to be broken glass with two strategically placed magnifying glasses positioned out over it.  Or shoes that have metal heels that force you to have good posture.  Or a corset of weathered leather stitched and sewn together, a la Frankenstein.  Very interesting and I wish I had a picture because words really can't do it justice.

Next, we have "Strange Beauty".  This particular section discusses Gothic as the outsider and points out strange inspirations in some of the clothing.  Not pictured was an amazing piece inspired by Mexico's Day of the Dead.  It featured a skull head and a series of bright, sequiny skulls and macabre images as well as a stocking underneath with fabric bones on it, creating the idea of your body becoming an actual skeleton.  Very original.  But this was also...where my favorite outfit of the whole exhibition was, and one that was perfect for this site.  I give you:

Rodarte's "Evening Dress".  Now if I had you guess the inspiration for this for hours, you'd probably never nail it down.  This dress...is inspired by Japanese Horror Movies.  See how it looks kind of like a Japanese kimono in style?  How the black has the distinct feel of long-flowing asian ghost hair?  According to the placard, they even experimented with the dye used to make the red in this dress because they were aiming to nail down "blood in water".  Just an outstanding piece.

In the center of the large room, you see the "Cemetary".  It's surrounded by a fence to evoke the cemetary feel, but also because this is where the Gothic fasination with death and decay meets "being fenced in" and claustrophobia.  Corsets and high collars were heavily featured within.  This included an amazing piece that was a corset but also a high collared piece that basically held the head almost completely still.  As well as:

Jean Paul Gaultier's Dress and Neckpiece.  See what I mean?  Claustrophobia and limited head movement.

Finally we conclude, with the "Batcave", named after the famed London punk club whose motto was "Blasphemy, Lechery, and Blood".  In the Batcave are offshoots of Goth such as Punk, Cybergoth, Gothic Lolita, etc.  It was set up a 7 windows made of two-way glass.  Every minute or two, the lights would shift for 30 seconds, allowing you to catch what was billed as "a lightning flash" of the clothing.  Innovative...though annoying if you're trying to see everything.  For example:

A Cyber Goth ensemble by Dane.  (I liked it actually, though I also think if the wrong person wears it in the wrong context, tis a bad scene), and:

H. Naoto's Elegant Gothic Lolita Ensemble with Angry Doll.  Supposedly, this design was actually created with the assistance of the real Gothic Lolita's of Japan's Harajuku district.

And thus ends the tour.  Mostly, the clothing was women's fashion, but there was some men's clothing.  Cloaks, capes...the punk stuff for men in the Batcave, but unfortunately, no photos on the site to show you.  Also, as i've mentioned, I was unfortunately only able to see this on the absolute LAST day of the exhibition.  I believe the website of it will continue to be up though for quite some time.  It can be found here, where you can see the pictures which i've posted here and some others.  Also, I'd be remiss to mention that this whole exhibition was put together by Dr. Valerie Steele, author of The Corset:  A Cultural History and Fetish:  Fashion, Sex, and Power.  This piece actually exists because, in I believe August-September, she will be releasing Gothic:  Dark Glamour in book form.  All the pieces in the exhibit will be in this as well as other pieces, and a precopy was at the exhibit.  All in all a fantastic exhibit that, once the book comes out, you too would be able to use to prove that Gothic...and in some ways horror (besides the J-Horror inspired one, one piece was claimed to be inspired by Elvira Mistress of the Dark [I disagree], another by The Wicker Man [definitely agree]) are not ugly, but are darkly beautiful and deep and deserve more respect than outsiders tend to give it.