Most times when you see goths on reality TV, they end up getting bleached and doused in pink blush and all you can do is feel sorry for them. And maybe point and laugh. When a reality show takes normal people and tries to goth them up, I think it’s even worse. I won’t give too much away, so you’ll have to watch the clip and see for yourself.
It’s been a little bit over a week since the launch of this site, and I want to thank everyone for their comments and support thusfar. I want to extend a special thanks to everyone who’s suggested a link – we’ve discovered so much interesting new stuff thanks to all of you! There are a lot of submissions to go through, and tonight I’m going to drop this gem: designer Gareth Pugh, submitted by Alysa.
From Wikipedia: Pugh’s collections are autobiographical rather than referential, and draw inspiration from Britain’s extreme club scene. Pugh’s trademark is his experimentation with form and volume. He often uses “nonsensically shaped, wearable sculptures” to “distort the human body almost beyond recognition.” Elements in his designs include PVC inflated into voluminous coats, black and white patchwork squares, Perspex discs linked like chain mail, and shiny latex masks and leggings; he has used materials including mink, parachute silk, foam footballs, afro-weave synthetic hair, and electrically charged plastic in his clothing. Pugh describes his designs as being “about the struggle between lightness and darkness, like Nancy Kerrigan versus Tonya Harding.”
First Annual MySpace Stupid Haircut Awards
Second Annual MySpace Stupid Haircut Awards
Oh no! They are making fun! Oldie but goodie, this site takes images of several unfortunate MySpace “hair artists” and reveals their superhero alter egos. I wouldn’t laugh so hard if I didn’t know that every single member of the Coil-staff could easily wind up in the next edition of this. Easily.
Below is a collection of the top 5 TV commercials that feature goth characters (and one special bonus, after the jump!). Whether or not you’re goth, these are hilarious. Most of these were made by large corporations such as Dell and Kodak, but surprisingly, one of the most well-produced and high-budget-looking commercials below was done by a gothic clothing company! Of course, that commercial is not American, but European. Here it is:
Sinister Clothing:
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The tagline at the end of the commercial translates to “clothing your mother hates.” Even though the US is not yet at the advanced level of advertising goth clothing on TV, there are some progressive outlooks on goth culture in the commercials after the jump below:
Cheeky monkey Emily Rishea submits her fashion label, Artifice Clothing, through our submit form: “hey why not, I feel shameless,” she writes. Okay, we’ll bite! Artifice does a great job with all the classics and invents some new ones, such as these Victoria’s-Secret-meets-the-Rocketeer light-up mechanical wings. The range also has bit of a sense of humor, as can be seen in this Bunny Lolita ensemble, which the site describes as “terrifying”. But my absolute favorite item on the site has to be this Cybertek Collar, which makes you look like a Dr. Who villain from the Tom Baker era. In an era of Victorian future, the one person who rocks up wearing this as part of an outfit inspired by bad 1970s sci-fi tech will be the envy of the tea party indeed.
Remember when people in the New York goth scene dressed like this? No? Okay, me neither. I missed out on the glory days of the New York Scene as well, and I have these paintings by Steven Assael to rub it in. I don’t know if it was truly as magical and mysterious as his paintings make it seem, but I do know that the people in them are real; here’s a picture of goth club legend Johanna Constantine, looking every inch as amazing in real life as in the painting above.The painting above is part of a sculpture called At Mother (Mother was an actual club in New York), which has the people above standing like guardians at a set of double doors. The doors of the sculpture (which can be seen after the jump) open to reveal the painting below:
I’m a huge fan of the Babyart Livejournal Community, where people post pictures of tentacled, glass-eyed, pigtailed nymphettes that resemble broken dolls and frequently have their arm in a sling. The term “babyart” was originally just the title of Trevor Brown’s art website (don’t click it, mom!), but has since broadened to refer to the type of themes found in the art of Mark Ryden, Ray Caesar, David Stoupakis, Lori Earley and a number of other people who probably hate the idea that I’m mentioning them all in the same sentence together.
Once in a while, some misguided soul wanders onto the Babyart LJ thinking it’s a community about “Art, But With Babies In It” and posts something like this. Some people may like these pictures, but personally, it’s not why I joined the community. No, for me, this is what it’s all about! And this, and this, and this. One day a few months ago I got so fed up with the off-topic posts that I created this handy Venn Diagram to help establish some guidelines, a kind of subjective pocket guide:
My Babyart Venn Diagram was a hit. Still, I’ve still yet to figure out why “Babyart” has become such a huge phenomenon in the past few years, why this generation has embraced its themes like never before. Was there some show we all watched as kids that warped us into lovers of disturbing-cuteness? Is it some sort of cultural awareness of a loss of innocence? Any theories?
Steve Pyke is an English photographer who covered the early cyberpunk scene. Pyke writes, “Cyberpunks, a small subculture, influenced by the work of the author William Gibson and particularly the film Bladerunner, existed in London in the early 1990s. I became interested and photographed a series of about fifty portraits in my studio over a short period.” Here’s a link to his image gallery, which features 16 portraits. I love his clean, streamlined, almost anthropological portraits of this small sub-genre. There’s something really charming about this original incarnation of the cyber aesthetic.
One thing I found really interesting about this series that almost half the people in the pictures have some sort of lenses concealing their eyes. This makes sense, because mirrorshades were one of the strongest symbols of cyberpunk writing from the late 80s and early 90s, starting with Molly in Neuromancer. This is why everyone in The Matrix also wears mirrored shades as an homage.
Here are the rest of Steve Pyke’s Cyberpunk Portraits.
Capricorn and Pisces, from Yana’s ongoing Astrology Series.
Yana Moskaluk is a young illustrator from Russia. As a teenage goth living in Siberia, Yana decided to pursue a career in the arts and moved to Moscow to begin work when she was only 19. Yana’s work is dark and playful, and shares many characteristics with that of Aubrey Beardsley; a balance between intricate linework and clean planes of color, the influence of Japanese printmaking and love for the sensual and the grotesque. Coilhouse recently caught up with Yana for a quick Q&A:
Coilhouse: You’re currently in the middle of illustrating a series of Zodiac illustrations. Do you believe that astrology really works?
Yana: Astrology — yes. General horoscopes from magazines — no. This series of illustrations is a commercial work for a magazine, so I’ve started to draw it not on my own.
In addition to his fashion designs and his epic weight loss, remedy Karl Lagerfeld is also known for his fashion photography. The above is from Vogue Germany October 2007.
The Story: “Wellen”
Photografed by Karl Lagerfeld
Fashion Editor: Christiane Arp
Models: Claudia Schiffer and others
See the rest on foto_decadent.
