"Goths Illumination"

Phenomenal

Yeap, that’s the right word to define the gothic icons that I’m gonna write in this post. When we thinking ‘bout gothic, we will think of the clothing, dark make up (black eyeliner) and gothic music. Take fashion for instance. Some Goths wear feminine and girlish clothes, like dresses with lots of lace and velvet, not forget to mention roses. Some prefer fetish look, with latex and leather. And others don’t care at all if their clothing is gothic enough. They just wear what they think suit them. There are also a symbols and icons that have become usual in the gothic world such like grave and things to do with death, ruins and gothic architecture, roses, skull and many more.

Taking Marylin Manson as an example, he is synonym in gothic fashion. His idea in fashion makes him as a trendsetter to the youngster. Some say that he’s crazy when it come to fashion. Just look at his video clip such like Sweet Dream and Tainted Love, you’ll know what I mean. He also opened a gallery called The Celebritarian Corporation Gallery of Fine Art for those who's his outfits and try to copy himself.

Dani Filth, a vocalist of Cradle of Filth also have highly taste in gothic fashion. Of course there are also connections with related music like gothic and black metal. Many say that Cradle of Filth is a black metal and the others say that they are gothic metal band. But after done some research, I found out that they are black metal band when they first making this band but after that, they change their genre of music to melancholic gothic metal. I like his outfit in the video clip Nymphetamine and his make up in From Cradle to Enslave, he look awesome to me. For me, his idea in gothic fashion is good enough. I never think of some one who can wear such cloths. Neither Marylin Manson or Dani Filth is a trendsetter in gothic world, they really has good taste of fashion.


(Marilyn Manson And Dani Filth)

Wave Gotik Treffen

Wave Gotik Treffen (WGT) is an annual world festival for Gothic fashion and art in Leipzig, Germany. It’s also a festival to promote dark music. The festival also features several fairs with medieval, gothic and cultural merchandise. It’s perhaps the largest event for the Goth community anywhere in the world. All over the city there are more than 150 bands, projects and single artists, performing on about 20 stages and artists from various music backgrounds (Gothic rock, Electronic Body Music (EBM), Darkwave, Medieval Music, Neofolk, Neoclassical, Experimental, Gothic metal, Deathrock and Punk) play at several venues throughout the city over 4 days on Whitsuntide. The events take place for instance in the vaults of the “Moritzbastei”, in the splendid neo-antique cupola hall of the “Volkspalast”, in the crypt of the “Völkerschlachtdenkmal”, a famous monument of the battle of 1813, as well as in large concert halls. Once more the WGT will cover the whole wide range of Gothic-music: from Electro-Pop to Goth-Metal, from EBM to Neofolk, from medieval music to Industrial. The WGT is the largest event of the Goth subcultures with its regular 25,000 attendants (unofficially up to 30,000) and it is the biggest gathering of its kind worldwide. It’s closely followed by the annual M'era Luna festival in Hildesheim, Germany with 20,000-25,000 attendants.

WGT was made in 1987 in Postdam but only a few hundred visitors attended. At that time this event is illegal on the eye of the law of the German Democratic Republic. The first official WGT was held in the Eiskeller club in 1992, after the re-unification of Germany. Since then, the number of visitors has increased greatly and most well-known bands of the genres favored by visitors have played at the Treffen at least once.

However, from its beginning the Wave-Gotik-Treffen have been much more than a music festival, the guests will find a medieval market place and a pagan village, they have authors reading, theatre and cinematic performances. One of the big halls on agra-fairground will turn into the biggest Gothic-warehouse of the world for four days. There will also be a large fetish party where entrance is only possible following a strict dress code.

Wave-Gotik Treffen is the event that synonym with the band performances. Generally, the number of musical acts is close to 200, spanning the breadth of "dark music" from acoustic folk to Medieval-influence to deathrock to elektro/EBM/industrial.

There are also Renaissance fairs, Viking and Pagan markets, Gothic Romance events, literary readings, artist signing events, brunches celebrating Absinthe, and many late-night dance clubs. The date of the WGT varies from year to year. It is held on the German holiday weekend of Pfingsten, which is 7 weeks after Easter. Unofficial events start in Leipzig on the Thursday night preceding the date of Pfingsten, while the official festival starts on Friday and runs until early-morning on Tuesday, as Monday is an official holiday in Germany.

* This year Wave Gotik Treffen will be held on 29th May 2009 until 1 June 2009.

Gothic, what it actually mean??

A History of Gothic

When people think about Gothic, they will think about something dark, evil, spooky, scary and creepy. It's clear that gothic is not only about music, it's a lifestyle, a certain sensibility. Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary defined the word "gothic" and he claimed that gothic is used in three ways. First of all, 'a building such as a cathedral that is gothic has a style of architecture that is distinguished by tall pillars, high vaulted ceilings and pointed arches.' Gothic is used to describe stories in which strange, mysterious adventures happen in dark and lonely places such as the ruins of a castle.' Gothic is also 'a style of printing or writing in which the letters are very ornate.'

The word 'gothic' is very old, and it was used since the Middle Ages and Renaissance era. It was named after the German tribe of the Goths, who once had invaded Italy and so had broken up the Roman Empire. In the 15th century, man hoped to revive the classical age; they had the idea of a rebirth or renaissance. The intervening period was called a Middle Age, and we still use this negative term. Because the Italians blamed the Goths for destructing the Roman Empire, they called the art style of this period Gothic, by which they meant barbaric. Of course this was a black & white view, during the Middle Age beautiful art was made too and there wasn’t a sudden rebirth of all the classical achievements in the Renaissance. And what to think of the technical inventions in architecture in the Middle Age, which made the huge Gothic cathedrals possible, like the Notre-Dame.

In the 1980's a new gothic movement came to the surface. It was preceded by punk, which came into life at the end of the 70's when there was a need for a distinctive non-conformist alternative culture. "Gothic music articulated an explicit nonconformist stance vis-à-vis the dominant establishment - according to The Vampire Book; the Encyclopedia of the Undead:. It opposed narrow sexual mores and traditional established religions. (..) The music celebrated the dark, shadowy side of life and had a distinct fascination with death. Its slow, driving sound was frequently described as melancholy, gloomy, even morbid. Those enthralled by the new Gothic culture found the vampire the single most appropriate image for the movement".

Interview with I -Socks owner






I - Socks is a boutique in Times Square, Malaysia and it have five branches in 4th floor of Times Square. I - Socks can be said the No I dealer for Gothic clothing in Malaysia. I hold an interview with the owner, Lee and he said that Gothic is a sub- culture that come from Germany and England since the Medieval era. But then, the Gothic fashion in this era is quit dull and old fashion. So the country like Japan, get the initiative to change it so it become more updated and colorful such like Lolita today. I asked him the reason why people nowadays wear Gothic and he said that kind of people wants to look different by dress up like that and it one of the reasons to make people look at them. Scarier you look, more Gothic you are. He explained that Gothic and Punk are anti-fashion and do something reverse-sided. For instance if normal people dress in colorful, Gothic will used the dull color especially black color and if normal people want to look pretty enough to attract attention, Gothic will do a scary make up for that reason.

His gave his opinion about Malaysia's Gothic fashion; he said that Malaysia has no experience in Gothic clothing. It is because Malaysia has no expertise in making this kind of fashion. The Malaysia media did not want to publish this fashion as the new trend for the youngster, but if they did, they will make a story about how bad Gothic can be as a negative influence to the teenage today. Big company which led in fashion industry does not give Gothic a chance; they think they cannot make money for this because the market is too low. Old generation said that Gothic fashion is something ridiculous and there no acceptance for this fashion. They do take it personally and said that Gothic represent the negative image to the wearer. Lee mention that people here think that Gothic is cross sided to the religion, Muslim country like Malaysia assuming Gothic as negative and its against the religion.

According to Lee, I – Socks had a really hard time to introduce this kind of fashion when he first opened the boutique several years before. In that time, this fashion is something new here and people needs time to get along with it. But his endeavor to introduce this kind of fashion makes it worth. Malaysian Gothic can buy their variety of stuff here instead of buy it from the internet before. Asking about what his overview about Gothic fashion in Malaysia, he told me that he wants Malaysian become more open-minded in fashion sense. Such like Gothic, he wish people will not take it personally as it only as a sort of fashion and not think it as something negative. He wants people here give Gothic a chance because Gothic just want to express themselves but not to harm people.





Naim, who is one of the I – Socks stuffs said that she prefer Gothic then Lolita. For her, Lolita is too girlish and the music is quit soft. I asked her whether she does some Gothic research, she said that she read a lot to find out what Gothic actually mean. She had a Gothic group before she work with I –Socks but now she alone.

* For further information about I - Socks visit www.i-socksonline.com

The Night of Purity

Yesterday...I couldn't sleep and don’t know why. Ting… Me and my housemate, Ejah got an idea. We dress up as a Goth and just do our own photos shot. And this is the best shot ever…