A question from running-blind on Tumblr.
I love that you called this a simple question, because it’s honestly not a very simple answer. The closest I have to a simple answer is one word, television. Like many children born in the 1980s (1985 myself) I watched quite a bit of television growing up. The things that I enjoyed watching the most had incredible amounts of influence on who I am today. During visits to my grandparent’s house I was glued to two things books and their cable television.
I ended up watching a lot of Nick at Nite’s TV Land which showed, exclusively, shows that were produced and ended before I was born. (Meaning I can truthfully confirm to people older than me that I did grow up watching Green Acres, Murder, She Wrote and the original Batman television show.) My favorite shows to watch on TV Land were The Munsters and The Addams Family. (A few years ago I was able to get pictures, which you can see below, of the Munsters buggy at a local car show.)
The Munsters
The picture I took of the Munsters’ buggy.
The Addams Family
Looking back at the pictures of these shows I can see just how much they influenced my style. The men are in suits, the women have long hair, there are billowing sleeves, layers, details, and the makeup still inspires me. That doesn’t even begin to mention the influence the set design from these shows had on my own personal style when it comes to interior design (which is another obsession of mine) as well as the cars in these shows (I still prefer my cars to be black and shiny).
The Addams Family movies
The Addams Family movies (specifically the ones with Raúl Juliá, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci, etc.) were very dear to me as well. To this day I can put the movies on and recite all the lines along with the characters. I love the wispy nature that the sleeves and bottoms of Morticia and Wednesday’s dresses have. I love the suits Gomez wears (I was sad when I took fencing lessons and we weren’t allowed to fence on desks in suits). As a child with naturally curly hair I wished for straight black hair like Morticia Addams and Lily Munster. I love that Grandmama is ridiculous, over the top and not afraid to let her totally gray hair stick out everywhere (I still have every intention of mimicking her when I’m much older). I credit these shows and movies with giving me the love and appreciation I have for wild gray hair.
Beetlejuice the cartoon
I didn’t see the live action Beetlejuice movie until I was a teenager, but I did watch a lot of the cartoon as a young child. I cannot wait for it to be available, legally, on DVD so I can watch it again. The cartoon inspired me to love black and white stripes, bobbed black hair, cute school uniforms, subtle spider web patterns and simple black outfits with pops of color. If I had to choose an afterlife to believe in, I would choose The Neitherworld from the cartoon. The way that everything in The Neitherworld looked cute but also sort of fucked appealed to me as a child and continues to appeal to me today.
Catwoman from Batman Returns
Then there was the Batman movies by Tim Burton. I adore these movies as they are so dark, so stylish and so detail oriented. Watching those movies as a kid made me not only want to dress like Catwoman, but to be Catwoman (sans law breaking). These were the movies that really made me love the look of leather, vinyl, spirals and mobster era fashions. They also reinforced my love for grit, pops of twisted color, suits and black cars.
Batman: The Animated Series
Aside from Beetlejuice, Batman: The Animated Series was the largest cartoon influence on my style. The way the show was animated was kind of film noir, dark, moody and just brilliant to look at. The character design was all very simple. None of the outfits were very detailed, but the artists used what they had very well. Batman’s suit didn’t need to have carbon fiber style details, Catwoman didn’t need hundreds of tiny stitches on her costume, everything was very minimal and I loved that.
Ultimately I suppose my answer really was that simple, television. It took some good friends and puberty before I actually started dressing in a dark manner, but it has been my style comfort zone for as long as I can remember. I never wanted to be the princess, I always wanted to be the stylish villain.
Now, my dear Morbid Fashion readers, share with us what got you interested in darker fashion in the comments!
4 Responses to How did you get into the darker style of Fashion?
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Oh wow! You are taking me back! I did watch the Beetlejuice movie growing up and loved Winona Ryder as Lydia’s wardrobe. Tim Burton was the f@$%ing man back then! I guess he still is to some people, but the first Batman movies and Beetlejuice really spoke to my pre-adolescent psyche.
Funny enough, I actually was catwoman for Halloween when I was in 5th grade! I guess my grandmother didn’t watch the movie and realize how sexualized she was, but whatever. She made the full body suit out of black spandex and I painted on the stitches with silver puff paint! (Remember that god-awful stuff?)
I read profusely as a kid, too, so I can credit my darker tendencies to my library of R.L Stine’s Fear Street, Christopher Pike, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (found the compendium of all three books at Borders recently, and read the whole thing in one sitting!), and anything having to do with paranormal activity or divination.
Oh yeah! and mother effin’ Tales from the Crypt! Why don’t they syndicate this, eh? Don’t forget Tales from the Darkside, and the classic Twilight Zones, to be viewed marathon-style every national holiday on the Sci-fi (SyFy) channel.
Thanks for sparking this walk down memory lane for me! Got my gears going about where my tendencies toward dressing darker and subversive came from!
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WOW I really agree with everything you said all of that influenced me and funny enough I’m still unable to pull myself fully in what I call me dark culture because I lack others in real life willing to do the same. I also have to add as major influences of mine also are Elvira Mistress of the Dark and Xena!
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