I am going to let you in on a secret: I. Am. Psychic. Like one time, I was like man, it looks like it’s going to rain and then it totally did! Or another time, I was on call at work and I really didn’t want to go, and then I didn’t get called in! Freaky, right?
Okay, I am no psychic. I cannot predict the future. But I do have an uncanny knack for guessing the expiration dates of trends and even knowing what will come next. Some of it is obvious (like Uggs, which are the shoe equivalent of the band LFO. Remember them? No? Exactly my point.). I am going to share my gift with you and let you know that the boho hippie look is as overdue as the milk at the back of my fridge. Those hobo hippies are about to have the life sucked out of them by those eternal fashion vampires, Goths. And not just any kind of Goth either, but a mix of Victorian Goth with Russian Princess. Like as if Marilyn Manson mated with Anna Karenina, but in a totally cool way.
I first began noticing this trend when I started shopping for new clothes. Instead of buying my usual bright colours, I was drawn to deep purples, greys, and blacks. That same week, to the horror of my father, I felt the urge to paint my nails pitch black. Specifically, a black by Urban Decay entitled “Perversion.” But it wasn’t just the nail polish that predicted this turn of events. One of the hippest magazines around, Nylon, did an article for their June/July issue talking about a Goth revival. Author April Long points out that even designers known for their use of colour and patterns, such as Pucci, have abandoned their trademarks in favour of black. However it’s not exactly the same type of Goth that terrified you in middle school. To be honest, I’ve always respected the Goth look as independent and pretty hot, but the full-fledged look always seemed a bit too loud for me. This time around Goth is class all the way. As April Long points out, fashion tends to follow music, and those formerly underground, presently overhyped, so-talented-it-hurts classy bastards named The Arcade Fire are entirely soaked in Goth. The little black dresses, slightly sloppy tuxes, and strings and organs all point to a fashion revolution.
2005/2006 will be stuffed with the fabrics that have always been associated with Goth ? velvet, lace, silk. Black cardigans, skirts, heels, all adorned with ruffles and melodramatic flowers. (Black roses anyone? Ah, the symbolism). But as I mentioned before, do not pull out any garlic or rhinestone encrusted crucifixes, because the underlying theme is Russian Princess. Moscow has recently become the hot spot, exporting models and high fashion as though they were vodka, and so we’ll be seeing black fur trimmed hats, coats, gloves. More than anything the Russian influence will be seen on makeup. Pale lips, dark eyes, pink cheeks and long wavy ringlets that subtly screams, “I have just been horseback riding with my illicit lover.” For some true fashion inspiration, look no further than Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. She is, to me, the ultimate Victorian Gothic fashion icon. Her hair is always windblown, she’s torn between her handsome lover and powerful husband and she can rock a low-cut black velvet dress like no one else. So what if reading the novel at the age of nine gave me a lifelong fear of trains (I won’t tell you why, but oohhh boy). It also gave me a lifelong appreciation for what will soon be in everyone’s closets. Please, please throw out those hippie skirts and track jackets and embrace the silky fabrics and lace trimmed blouses. Gothic Russian Princess: you heard it here first.
