Band Exposure- Miss Construction

well, before i begin, merry Christmas! my present to you is this wonderful European band. because again, they are very underground, i can find little info on them. (to be honest i don't have much time to look either.) but i can tell you they are an EBM/industrial/dark electro band. They're incredibly harsh, so if you like giving others a headache, they are perfect for your cause, and their sound is also quite energetic, you do an industrial dance to this if you like! anyway enjoy Zombified  and fuck you bitch below!

Band exposure, Tristania

far out, i keep getting lazy on here. but in the need of a new post, Ive decided to keep the bands rolling though,. Today I'm sharing Tristania, a Norwegian band, that formed in 1996. They are female fronted symphonic metal/goth/slightly industrial band. They sound most like theatre of tragedy, nightwish, Theatres des Vampires etc; Initially, they were pretty stereotypical, of a symphonic band, smooth ghostly female vocals, and brass/strings brought out in the background. but these days they have made excellent use of harsh sounds, creating much more atmosphere. Like any band, members have come and gone, but of course all for the better.

the song you just listened to (if you were bothered) is an oldie but a goodie!

Band Exposure, Strict regime

Strict regime is an EBM/industrial/dark wave/experimental band and like much of my music, very underground. They come from London (UK) and have started working on their first album. Like many bands, each individual member has at one point toured in other bands, and written their own music. They are pretty much in their early days but from listening to their few released songs, I'm quite positive they have a shit load more of good stuff coming!
i recommend you try and find their song "gridlock" as its one of my favourites, i would have posted it below in preference to their song "strict regime" but you tube is being highly frustrating right now. Anyway, i hope you enjoy!

The Culture Clash, Merging Goth and Indie Fashions

After finishing off my friends article about Indie culture, I suddenly started to wonder whan the outcome would be of combining Indie with a culture thats a little darker/rebellious. The first culture i considered was goth, mostly the vintage side of things. Although they are very different cultures, with different interests and different music, quite a few clothing pieces/acessories can be found in both wardrobes, only presented differently. If i were to merge the two i would go about it by starting with vintage clothing. You often see vintage (even second hand) elements in both wardrobes, particularly dresses.

Today im going to use mostly black as my colour theme to demonstrate, although i think you could very well put a steampunk edge to indie, using tarnished jewellry and soft browns combined with rich/deep colours.  while the purpose of this article is to darken a " fashion friendly" (it is actually becoming quite mainstream right now) culture, we still need to keep elements which play huge factors in the culture such as colour (otherwise we are just ruining it altogether.) in order to darken the tones without damaging the look i strongly recomend you balance it out with brown, white or combine black and white with colours such as dark emerald green, maroon, peach, plum (if your game), dark or pastel blue. (pinks, purples and generally bright colours are simply to bold, subtracting from the age of your outfit.) Another idea is that you could make indie look more steampunk. ( both indie and steampunk use very old styled colour paletes.)You could use a knee-length/long golden brown skirt with a white blouse, matched up with brooches with old-english clocks/watches and pearls like the one i found google. (above)

As you can see these clothing pieces above are both very indie and could be turned quite goth to as well. The outfits above are also very versatile pieces that you can dress up or down,and before i forget, i think white lace doillys could look very nice (okay the truth is, that the possibilities are endless!) Perhaps matched with a nice simple belt would be quite touching.

If your looking to buy anything similar i recomend you visit a website called www.forever21.com it is for the most part indie i must admit, but if your willing to filter through all the things you probably wont wear, i think youll find some very good pieces! they are also quite affordable to, if you look in their sale section  you can buy dresses for $11.00! (US dollar) I found the skirt to the right on this site, in the contemporary section. (click brands, select contemporary, then on the left side it should categorize to skirts, dresses etc;)

Shoe wise, i think some popart heels are quite apropriate, infact theres a really cool pair in TUK shoes online with a recycled newspaper design (you probably already spotted the shoe on the left) you can visit them online @ (insertadress) if pop art shoes really dont phase you at all, TUK also has some very nice varitey of mary-janes and boots! you could also try lace up military boots (of the not bulky kind) and depending on what colour theme you have going, tan/skin coloured shoes will also match very well!

As for Acessories, i think this really makes the two cultures come together. Personally i think pearls, lace and ribbon work very well, so look for things such as your bangle sets, dark floral headpieces (even better with a little neting), old fashioned earings etc; (you can refer to the first picture i posted if your bothered) below ive posted a range of jewelry that is all avaliable from the online shop i previously recomended, forever 21. A little "boho" (bohemian style) wouldent go astray either. although i wouldent stress about it if you really dont know anything about it!!

As for hair/makeup, its probably preferable to keep it very simple, theres no "indie" hairstyle although many indie artists and many indie kids tend to have loose wispy hair (and dreadlocks), it goes along with the whole indie thing very well. If you dont like leaving your hair looking like its "untamed", loose ringlets look nice, especially in red and light brown/dark blonde hair, or perhaps you could try something more done up. Often tighty pulled back hair works, even if you choose to leave your fringe out! this is really the time to twist your hair into a tight neat bun, or a low pony tail. Its probaly best to keep your make-up simple, perhaps just mascara, eyeliner (no wings sorry!) and foundation. If you can control yourself, i dont see why you cant try shading your eyelids a little darker!

Well, its probably time to conclude this post, its certainly become much longer than i expected it to be!Overall, i think anyone who takes time to think this culture clash through properly can very sucessfully dress in a combination of both goth and indie, there are so many possibilities which are absolutely endless! Generally i tihnk the result its quite elegant, classy, mature, aged and very "fashion friendly." Depending on the kind of attire you usually wear, you may find you dont get as many haters! but of course, if you are imersed in any alternative culture you probably find your haters quite entertaining!

Bubble Goth

Due to the creative mind of Estonian artist Kerli Koiv, her visualization of the "bubble goth" is becoming an uprising trend. It Works off her idea of putting two things together that generally don't mix. In her instance, Goth pieces such as industrial masks and dread falls mixed up in pastel combinations and quite regularly stark white.

(i did have some images for this, which are no-longer avaliable)

If you ever want to dress this way, weather it be for everyday or as a dress up her are some starting tips:

-Work with white, unless you know allot about her fashion and are quite experienced with it, Black is likely to make you look like the regular Goth

- Big hair! use dread falls and other artificial hair add ins (plaits work well to, if you want it fashion friendly). Make it effortless, its not a tidy look. Tie some ribbon if you like.

- keep your colour theme, like many goth fashions you need to do this strictly for the best results, try light and vibrant colours

- Tight clothing, it doesn't have to be revealing, wear singlets/corsets/corseting, stockings/fishnets and long sleeves if you like. Just not baggy

- Bulky shoes. heels, lace up platforms, furry ugg boots if your brave (artificially coloured, may be expensive)

check out these shoes: (from google)

- basic accessories, a ribbon bracelet or a pair of gloves (or a teddy mask? this can be viewed in her video army of love)

- don't be serious, its a fun fashion, it needs that "fun" feeling about it.

Overall just be interesting its quite fun to play around with, just step out of your comfort zone, experiment and you'll look fab!

Gothlit.com (gothic literature)

okay, so the other day i was just browsing the Internet (as you do) looking for something to do. i just so happened to stumble upon a rather interesting site called Gothlit, which i couldn't help but share with you! so basically its an online community where people share their poetry (Gothic obviously) like any forum there are those posts that really aren't that great, however i found many amazing poems based on many things. here is a recently posted piece:

Fly Free, submitted by DevilsTears (Kenneth Weaver)
We are trapped,
We are chained,
We are tamed.
Breaking free, we depart,
All of us are split apart,
No longer tied down, we were drowned.
Flying free we soar, raging a useless war,
Promising I will take no more.
We fly free, with only glee,
No one can see,
The dark depression within me.
As we fly free away,
Wild today, gone away.
Never to be seen again, sleeping in my den,
I ignore, their useless war,
We will fly free and soar,
And I shall take no more!

as you can see some of the poetry submitted is just exhilarating! if you choose to join, it is free (we all love freebies) and there is a thread on "how to" which has some excellent tips.
just to add icing on the cake gothlit has a lovely layout that i am sure you will enjoy, everything is black and most headings are written in red Gothic inspired writing. (as in the photo below)Please do check out the website, you certainly wont regret it!

click here to visit gothlit.com

Cyber Goth

okay, i don't have much time, but i will go over the basics for you.
common genres amongst cyber goths include industrial/trance/dark wave (and more).

unlike most Gothic cultures, cyber fashions are futuristic rather than taking inspiration from particular eras/ages from throughout history. the main features of a cyber outfit (and Hair) often (not always)include
- thick heavy calf/knee/full high boots, often leather of artificial fur (military style is common)
-renowned for wearing fishnets/ knee height of full (as long as they are peaking above shoes)
-very tight artificial made short skirts, short dresses, corseting and singlets (by artificial i mean smooth, almost leather like) fantasy elements, (wings, tutus)
- goggles and masks (as i did mention, high on military equipment)
-hair: often have dreads, dread falls, etc; usually in multiple colours
-accessories, anything really! belts, netted gloves, piercings
- these outfits ALWAYS! have strict colour themes such as green/black, blonde/black/blue, red/white and so on.
while goth stereotypes a simply black cyber can be quite colourful (all can actually) but cyber actually looks much better when black/white is matched up with something vibrant
check out these examples i found on google:



Lace

Lately my thoughts upon lace have been changing, evolving if you like. I have never been a fan of lace until lately. In fact I used to hate the stuff. However the more I think about it, and the more I see others use it to emphasize their fashion, the more I begin to understand that lace is rather an art in fashion.

I suppose that you already notice that lace give an outfit that time piece feel about it however, looking at the overall picture it can be used to have many desired effects.

The most known "stereotype"  would I suppose, would often be on little dresses, sometimes floral, and occasionally, sewn over the first layer of fabric. This often seems to give you a sweet, girly type of nature, and you probably see this on quite a few "girly girls".

However, lace is quite a common garment amongst more "Gothic" cultures. Not so much in the "cyber" thread of the culture, although very common amongst Victorian (and others) lace often makes the person wearing it look more sophisticated (back in those days lace wouldn't have been something everyone had in their wardrobe).

although it is one thing i have not yet seen, i think that folk fashions and lace could work well if thought through properly and if the lace factor was balanced out well.

Lace gives sophistication, when used in any way really although it does look very cute on little girls.

What makes a good quality lace?

A good quality lace probably wont be found in a $2. store (sorry to dishearten you, although it doesn’t have to be expensive) you can pick out better quality lace as it is often (not always) much thicker, you wont be able to pick out individual threads from far back and it certainly wont look anything like a net. When it comes to density, all lines of the pattern will often be very curvy and flowing rather that looking very sharp and edgy (this of course depends on the lace itself)

Anyway, while lace can be hard to pull of without looking tacky (usually when overdone or cheap quality) it can also be very fun to experiment with and may add a very defining edge to the way you dress.

thanking

http://www.fyeahlolita.com/2010/04/how-to-tell-bad-lace-from-good-lace.html

For a few facts