A Choice of Colours

I'm sitting in Caffe Nero in Hull. I'm due in work in an hour. I am looking out of the window and I thought to myself.

Looking unique and individual can very often come down to the most simplest things. Something like a hairstyle or a necklace can propell your personality more than some brash and outlandish outfit. When we accesorise we do this to add to or complete ones outfit. It's a means of personalisation and putting that 'you' touch on things.

I am wearing a suit. The simple choice of a waistcoat adds a certain uniqueness to the outfit. It does not look odd, if anything it adds to the outfit. A sharp, fitted all black suit with black, well polished shoes, a black slim fit shirt and a black or deep coloured tie can add improve your alternative style while in the corporate environment. One at times must accept a level of conformity. However you can always make conformity your own. Read any article on dressing goth/emo at school to see my point.

While facial tattoos and piercings are a big no no for the corp world, the point of this article is simple...

Less is, more often than not, more.

Subtle undertones of the alternate culture are a way of displaying yourself in a respectable, credible and a non- baggy pants and trench coat of doom way. I am not advocating conformity hear, nor am I wanting people to tone it down. No Way! If you are happy with you, be you. But sometimes it is simply the smallest things we put together. The choice of colours, patterns, accessories and even combinations that define our personality.

Define and contrast

Goth is a word that means alot of things. May envisage it as the black clad, vampire lookalikes. Others see them as Twilight loving teens.

To me goth is neither of these and is all of this. Goth to me is whatever you want it to be. It is not about rules and regulations on dress, hair, music and attitude. Goth is simply a word that encompasses an attitude of alternate. Punks, goths, emo's, skaters, hippies and anyone else that does not follow the Topshop/River Island trend. To me the value of goth is that you can be whoever you want to be.

If you want to wear all black and don a leather floor length jacket then go for it. If you want to wear mismatched florescent patterns, wild shoes and crazy makeup then that's great to. Each is goth in its own way. Each is alternate in its own way. So why is this not a diary of alternate fashion? It is simply because goth, like punk or emo is simply a label to represent something. Alternate means not the norm and with no restrictions. Although that is the ultimate goal, to label it as goth gives an initial structure to the inevitable anarchic style it will become. As I will discuss over the time of the blog, there is more to goth than all black and that goth simply defines an aesthetic, giving it structure to allow everyone else to understand the madness.