Goth fashion tips:
Japanese Fashion
Tokyo’s newest style tribes: Dolly Kei/Style
Just when you think Tokyo’s style tribes have rooted, a new branch stems from the tree. Dolly Kei is a strange exploration of medieval clothing & Russian folktalkes. Let's explore the wonderful antique-led japanese fashion fit for a Mori (forest) girl!
Tattoos & Piercings
Tongue splitting advice
Heavy body modification has gone on for centuries, probably millenia; evolving and everlasting. Pain is considered to be part of the process for tongue splitting - if you aim to get a tongue split, like a big crazy snake, we have the advice.
Burlesque / Vintage Style
Vintage style - How to achieve old Hollywood glamour
They had style, they had grace. Rita Hayworth gave good face. Old Hollywood had a mystique, panache and, dammit, glamour that is sadly lacking today. Achieve the old Hollywood glamour with our style guide and ideas for glamorous ensembles.
Gothic fashion
Coloured contact lenses
Coloured contact lenses can bring life to a cosplay costume, a gothic night out or just create a subtle effect for your eyes. You can easily buy fashion contacts online but do keep your eyes safe, you grubby urchin.
Japanese Fashion
How to wear Visual Kei clothing
Japanese fashion: Visual Kei clothing ideas, brands and fashion tips. Wear VeeKay so YOU are wearing the clothes. Don't let them wear you!
Burlesque & Vintage Style
Fishnets: Vintage, Goth & beyond
Fishnets have gone from vintage vamp to goth & punk style and now enter new territories. A style guide to an ice-cool vamp's best friend.
Burlesque & Vintage Style
To rockabilly with love
Rockabilly (that's rock and roll spliced with hillbilly) has a distinctive style and sound as well as all that gorgeous rockabilly clothing. Sure, we tell you how to get the feisty look - but we'll also help you source amazing rockabilly bands.
UK Competitions
Win rockabilly clothing!
Win a hot to trot $50 voucher for rockabilly clothing at Get Go Retro - your first stop for rockabilly clothing online. Capri pants and tight tops for all!
Competition closes 1 July 2010
Plus-size Clothing
Plus-size gothic clothing
Our very favourite plus-size gothic clothing shops on the web. Gothique plus-sized fashion that fits... and makes a statement.
Gothic clothing
Latex clothing - The new breed
Latex clothing: Sophia Disgrace takes us on a tour of latex couture - what new designers are moving latex clothing away from fetish, and wear to pick up fashion bargains.
Indie & Gothic Style
Betty Miller's festival fashion guide
Festival fashion: The lovely Betty Miller looks at cheap but essential festival makeup (take less stuff & make it work harder), festival hair lifesavers and festival clothing. Be prepared, look great & carry less at festivals this year.
Burlesque & Vintage Style
How to shop for vintage clothing
Vintage clothing: A Miss Sensible guide to shopping for vintage clothing that fits, suits you and lasts yet another generation.
Indie & Gothic Style
The art of coloured contact lenses
Costume contact lenses: 6 steps to choosing your perfect colour contact lenses - whether you want to be a cosplay queen, an indian princess with subtly tinted grey eyes or a full-blown alien vixen with costume contacts. Eyes are the windows to a soul - so give your soul a costume makeover :)
Plus-size Clothing
Indie / goth clothing guide for tall women
Tall women clothing: Hello! Our clever style guide to tall womens clothing should help happily tall indie / goth girls dress flatteringly - and we source heavenly tall tights and size 8+ shoes.
Gothic Clothing
Goth prom dresses - shopping guide
Goth clothing: Find punk, retro, indie & gothic prom dresses online with our list of unusual prom dress shops. Plus we give prom dress advice on how to really feel your dress and how to buy it online - tears-free.
Gothic Clothing
Cute indie & gothic lolita umbrellas galore!
Goth umbrellas: Okay, these umbrellas aren't just for goths. The whole world needs them. We've sourced some lovely umbrellas that are cheap, windproof, piratey AND beautiful! Rain cannot defeat beauty! Hah!
Tattoos & Piercings
Your first tattoo
Tattoos: What really happens at a tattoo parlour? Mandi guides us through her first tattoo experience - from researching tattoo artists to getting her design inked, pain factor and tattoo aftercare...
Indie & Gothic Style
F2M clothing
Androgynous style: Burlesque frills have swept throughout the nations - but what about cabaret-loving tom boys? There are other ways to make a burlesque fashion statement, like F2M...
Gothic Clothing
Fashion activist: Punk shoelaces
Indie fashion: Indie / Punks / Goths unite! Achieve this through style... and shoelaces. Why call it a shoelace when it can be worn around the neck, wrist, as a belt, as a bow and fashioned into hair art?
Grunge Fashion
Kinderwhore grunge fashion
Grunge fashion: Kinderwhore fashion, from the grunge era, sits at the other end of the lolita spectrum. Our style guide transforms strappy shoes and babydoll dresses with Peter Pan collars into NaughtyLand.
Burlesque & Vintage Style
Guide to vintage hosiery and nylon stockings
Nylon stockings: In WW2 women couldn't get hold of nylon stockings so they'd dye their legs with tea bags and paint seams down their legs. Our style guide tells you what to look for in both modern and vintage nylon stockings, and how to wear them.
Japanese Fashion
Gyaru makeup tutorial
Japanese style: Gyaru is a huge uproar of girly-glam style, breaking all the rules of "what's pretty" and dwelling in a party of man-made beauty. Hop in a baby pink bubble and explore the world of Gyaru makeup and fashion.
Burlesque & Vintage Style
Retro fashion: Mix & matching periods
Retro fashion: Why not combine 50s skirts and cardigans with 1920s art deco belts and jackets? Or a 30s-style mini trilby with 1920s t-bar heels? Span decades with your attire.
Tattoos & Piercings
Mini-guide to surface piercings
Body piercings: Surface piercings don't go deep into the skin, so although they're very pretty, they're more likely to be rejected by the body after a few months. We look at some classic surface piercings.
Japanese Fashion
Little Lolita Style Guide
Lolita: Put on your lace gloves and delve into our little lolita style guide, with everything from lolita clothing links to the lesser-known traditional kimono-clad qi-lolita and grotesque gurololita styles. Will there one day be a dress style themed on the man in the Nabokov novel who fancied Lolita? We think not.
Emo Hair Styles
Emo hair tips
Emo hair: Let's skip the emo-bashing: everyone knows that emos have pretty hair. A short-long emo look suits both girls and boys, and so does a sweeping heavy emo fringe covering the face. A nice emo haircut can make you look like the shy/confident, vulnerably sexy little thing you are.
Grunge Fashion
Grunge fashion: How and why
Grunge fashion was led by music, poverty, apathy and social alienation. And pretty Kurt. And scary Courtney. We give you the key elements of grunge fashion and how it applies today.
Emo Hair Styles
Emo hairstyles
Emo hairstyles: Our gallery of emo hairstyles will give you inspiration on getting emo hair if you so wish it. Sometimes, a coontail is just the thing - and you have to love an emo fringe...
Indie & Gothic Style
US UK dress sizes - clothing size conversion chart
US UK dress sizes: Clothing size conversion chart (US / UK / Europe / Japan) for dress sizes, bras and shoes. Never get caught out online shopping again.
Alternative Black Girls - Style
A Darkened World for the Chocolate Girl: RomantiGoth style for dolls of colour
Dark Goth: As a woman of colour who prefers Evanescence to Lupe Fiasco, it's hard to find style tips and lifestyle ideas for bronzed beauties amongst the coveted society of paler lovelies. Yes, my black swans... I'm talking of being a part of the dark, beautiful world of Romantic Goth Style.
Japanese Fashion
Gothic Lolita wardrobe staples
Gothic Lolita fashion is a Japanese style that emulates Victorian dolls. These are your gothic lolita wardrobe staples to save money on gothic lolita style - everything from home-accessorised socks to petticoats to parasols...
Plus-size Clothing
Guide to plus size indie fashion online
Plus size fashion: If you're a curvy lady, dressing well and creatively can be a foul nightmare. Here's a Mookychick guide to online plus-size clothing for indie, gothic, retro and generally style-conscious voluptuous vixens...
Indie & Gothic Style
Dressing for your body type
Clothes are more than just pieces of fabric. They are a way of expressing our personality and our feelings. It's easy to fall prey to dressing for a trend rather than your personality. It's better to fall prey to at least dressing for your body type..
Plus-size Clothing
PZI jeans for curvy girls - jeans that fit!
Curvy girl style: PZI jeans are designed specially for plus-size girls or curvy girls with big bottoms. PZI are proud of making jeans that fit curves (including skinny jeans) with no gap at the waist. Mooky reviewer Duckie took her PZI jeans on a Real Woman Road Test.
Indie & Gothic Style
Mary Quant's Mini skirt: A mini history
Retro clothing: Mary Quant was one of the style pioneers of Swinging London. She introduced a bewildered world to not only patterned tights, not only Jean Shrimpton, not only the very concept of a high street fashion boutique... But also... the Mini! Mary Quant, we salute you!
Gothic Style
A mooky style guide to the synthetic aesthetic
Goth clothing: Are you tired of hemp? Bored with cotton and wool? Don't be thread-up (oh, ho! See what we did there?). Look to the edgier world of plastics. Not only can you save cows with fake leather, but recycle carrier bags too. Who knew synthetic fashion could be so... environmentally sound?
Indie & Gothic Style
How to stay fashionable during the credit crunch
Cheap fashion: Rather like the 1930s Great Depression, people are dancing cares away in speakeasies and dreaming up ways to make their thrifty style look va-va-voom. Care for the contents of your closet, and this period of economic wilt should see your style and purse blossom.
Funky Plus-size Maternity Clothes
Funky maternity clothes - a style guide to being a Mooky Momma
Goth maternity clothing: If you wear punky black, high heels or corsets, keeping your style in pregnancy can be a daunting task. But it's possible to locate cool maternity clothes (even maternity corsets!) and - shock horror - both maternity community boards and the high street will be kind to you...
Burlesque & Vintage Style
Dealing with corset itch
Goth / burlesque corsets: Fine, so you're wearing your corset... and you get the dreaded, notorious corset itch. Just a little one initially, but it spreads until you're in a creepy crawly challenge from 'I'm a Celebrity'. The ideal solution is to disrobe, but sadly you can't go whipping your corset off in most public spaces. Here's how to deal.
Vintage Hair Styles
Retro pin-up girl hair - look like a Varga girl in 3 different ways!
Pin up girl hairstyles: When you look at those retro Varga pin-up girls, don't worry that those perfect waves, sculpted ringlets and squeaky-clean locks would need a team of stylists. Sally Rebel shows you how to achieve three classic pin-up girl looks: The Natural, the Sophisticate and Victory Rolls.
Japanese Fashion
Japanese biker gangs - get the bosozoku style
Japanese fashion: Bosozoku ("violent running gang") is a Japanese subculture associated with motorcycle gangs. At their worst they start weapons with sword and molotov cocktails, but mostly they're about style, noise and speed. We give you the bosozoku history and how-to fashion style.
Indie & Gothic Style
How to be a hot sexy vegan - a guide to cool vegan fashion
Vegan clothing: As a proud vegan who is usually spotted rocking skin tight vinyl and 6 inch pleather heels, Leah Ludlow is on a mission to turn being animal-friendly into a cool as well as compassionate stance.
Hair Styles
A close-cropped history of alternative hair
Punk hair: What makes alternative hair so different? From bob cuts to mohawks, Anya Goy looks at the history of alternative hair, from its idealistic non-conformist roots (look! a pun!) to a future where subcultures are led by product and style not beliefs. Read on. And chew your alternative hair with concentration as you do so.
Indie & Gothic Style
How to look your best on camera
Model poses: Everybody has a camera today. We use them to photograph memories, capture unique moments, capture ourselves and create artwork. There are times we want to look our best without the 'school photo' look, and think the pictures have come out great but find out later they're not what we expected. Here are some tips to look your best on camera no matter where you are.
Gothic Style
Gothic Weddings
Goth weddings and clothing: Goths are romantic at heart, so it's not unheard of for goths to get married. Handfastings and blood devotion vows are now common enough that a gothic bride and groom can have a wedding that holds meaning.
Burlesque & Vintage Style
How to wear a corset
Gothic / burlesque corsets make us feel beautiful and look striking but they really embody the phrase 'gilded cage'. Since the hourglass fantasy is confined by the back-aching reality, here is some advice on wearing corsets so you don't have to learn the hard way.
Japanese Fashion
Decora - the kawaii Japanese style
Japanese fashion (Decora): The japanese style cult of decora is so sharply childlike and cute it's like biting into bubblegum and razor-flavoured ice cream that's been kept on the icy moon of Europa for a month. If you're not afraid to wear 16 bows in your hair and three pairs of socks at once, decora may be the style for you.
Indie & Gothic Style
An instructional guide to steampunk style
Steampunk clothing: Perhaps you've heard of steampunk. Maybe you've never heard of steampunk but have a yearning for Victoriana and futuristic technology. With steampunk, you can walk cobbled streets under lace parasols AND surround yourself with all those nifty gadgets.
Indie & Gothic Style
Choosing cool alternative glasses
Cool glasses: It's sad but true - some of us have to hide our kohl-rimmed eyes behind glasses in order to watch indie films and perform other mookish deeds. Fear not! Not only do glasses make you look smarter, they also say something about your personality. This basic guide will aid you in choosing the right frames for your face, your style - and you.
Indie & Goth Make-up Tips
Electroclash eye makeup tutorial
Eye makeup tips: Striking eye makeup helps define the electroclash look. Courtney Brandabur takes you step by step through an electroclash eye makeup tutorial. With time and effort, you too can look like a sultry nu-skool jazz harlequin.
Indie & Goth Make-up Tips
Eighties eye makeup tutorial
Eye makeup tips: The eighties were a hugely creative period for makeup and the self-expression of the New Romantics influenced much of the electro look today. Esme shows you how to apply 3 shades of eyeshadow for a natty daytime eighties look. Peachy!
Tattoos & Piercings
Basic Body piercings
Body piercings: Body piercings are more than a chunk of metal stabbed into your body. Body piercing is an art form. There are so many unique and unusual ideas for how to get that chunk of metal stabbed into your body and (a) like the effect yourself, (b) have other people appreciate the look, and the work and thought that went into it. Excluding the ubiquitous ear piercing, let's look at the most common piercings...
Japanese Fashion
What is Visual Kei?
Visual kei: Japan has been hugely influential in the past decade in terms of style, entertainment and music. Visual Kei is a punk/goth hybrid style based on J Rock bands like Devil Kitty and Luna Sea. Find out more about Visual Kei culture... and how to incorporate it into your dress style!
Indie & Goth Make-up Tips
Eyeliner tips - how to apply eyeliner. Properly!
Eye makeup tips: Eyeliner. Stay! Good girl. Kathryn Hooper gives eyeliner tips on how to apply your eyeliner just right, never have it come off unless you want it to, and never shame yourself with squidgy smudgy eyes.
Indie & Goth Make-up Tips
Learn how to apply bright colour eyeliner
Eye Makeup tips: A bright colour eyeliner is a playful addition to your makeup box that accentuates your eyes and allows for a bit of creative expression. Mookychick readers give some of their tips for applying bright eyeliner without mess or fuss...
Indie & Gothic Style
How to be an alternative model!
Alternative model tips: Mookychick helicoptered the fabulous Roswell Ivory, Anita De Bauch and Violet Magenta to a secret Swiss location for a summit meeting on how to become alternative models. We hope the time and effort these girls put into discussing the hows, do's and dont's of alternative modelling will help aspiring gals the world over...
Tattoos & Piercings
Piercing care
Body piercings: A tattoo is usually for life, but a piercing is something you can keep or discard - and a piercing should be more about pleasure than pain. Pearl Riley takes you through the process, from choosing piercing studios and jewellery to surviving a piercing and caring for it afterwards. Forget crusty pus and sore red navels - make your piercing healthy and beautiful!
Gothic Style
Falling in love with satin/lace chokers...
Gothic clothing: There comes a point where you decide the best way to emulate luxurious Victorian and Burlesque styles is to fall in love with quality and detail. Discover the perfect satin or lace choker for you and learn how to wear it and care for it. Who knows? One day it might become your family heirloom...
Burlesque & Vintage Style
Glam rock your style
Glam rock style: Sure, you love Marc Bolan, David Bowie, The New York Dolls and others, and you definitely love their style. But how to dress like that nowadays without looking weird? The lovely miss Kitty Moon shows you how to appropriate glam rock style without looking like a mad otter.
Emo Hair Styles
Alternative wigs and wig accessories
Gothic hairstyles: Sometimes you just get sick of the stuff growing out your head and no customisation is going to save it. If you're having a "what-the-hell-I'll-shave-it-all-off" moment, step away from the clippers for a second and buy yourself a new head of hair instead. Ladies (and Gentlemen), the wig is back...
Burlesque & Vintage Style
Hanky panky - retro silk hankies
Hanky panky - retro silk hankies
Vintage clothing: Silk hankies are sweet, sexy and very romantic. Learn how to wear a sexy silk hanky in a modern style, a number of uses for your silk hanky, and how to speak privately with lovers through a subtle hanky code...
Burlesque & Vintage Style
Vintage handbags
Vintage clothing: Kitsch, retro and vintage handbags are objects worthy of lust. Ruby Mae James names her handbags like children. Find out more about where you can get kitsch, vintage and retro handbags - and about Ruby's super-charming obsession.
Plus-size Clothing
Curvy girl fashion tips
Curvy girl fashion tips
Plus size fashion: Somewhere in the past it was decided that girls over a size 12 aren't desirable. Wendy Withers tells you how to work your look if you're a big girl, and not be hemmed in by supposed style rules for big girls that, unlike corsets, are as ugly as they are constraining.
Burlesque & Vintage Style
The art of corsetry
Gothic / burlesque corsets: Initially invented by the father of the Modern Primitive art movement, corsets were an attempt to give women the 'ideal' figure. You can buy comortable modern corsets online today, but the early corsets were such an extreme form of bodyshaping that bodily organs would literally be dislodged from their resting places. From the past to the present, discover more about the art of the corset...
Burlesque & Vintage Style
Calendar girls
Pin up girl style: What is fashion without glamour? Clothing is a statement, a reflection of individuality and sometimes can even be seen as art. The roaring twenties, flapper thirties, and even swinging sixties were a time of glittering larger than life Hollywood screen starlets with furs, jewels, and suave leading men. Even today, names such as Marilyn or Bettie send thrills down our spines. What better season than spring, a time of promise and renewal, to revive classic pinup style looks for the new generation?
Burlesque & Vintage Style
Burlesque style
Burlesque clothing: You've probably heard of the Burlesque revival even if you don't know what it is. Roswell Ivory tells you how to achieve the burlesque look through dress, accessories, hairstyling and - of course a certain flouncy yet ladylike attitude.
Indie & Gothic Style
Electro Girl - a guide to electroclash style, makeup and lifestyle
Electroclash is a music scene that consumes the sounds, looks and superficial attitudes of the 80s then spits them out again through a warped mirror. In a celebration of the superficial, electro girls look unattainable yet easy, aloof yet sexually volcanic, and mix 80s, 70s and 90s style 'til it hurts. Here's how an electro girl gets her look...
Gothic Style
A Perfumed World
DIY perfume: Scents aren't always produced by celebrity divas with too much money on their hands - they're also a cottage industry created with love and hard work by corset-makers and Lovecraft-lovers, with huge communities of fans behind them who swap scent bottles online like they're bubblegum cards. Not heard of BPAL, Possets or Blooddrop Clothing? Let E_Diva tell you more...
Emo Hair Styles
Make your own hair falls
Gothic hairstyles: When Roswell Ivory fell 20 feet while rock-climbing and lost half her hair and the skin on her head, she wore hair falls so she didn't have to shave her head and lose her social life. How to make your own hair falls, and achieve this gothic hairstyle with maximum success...
Japanese Fashion
Gothic Lolita style
Gothic Lolita: Harajuku style isn't the only Japanese subculture fashion out there. Some girls are honing down their style to become Classic Lolitas or Lolita Goths, who carry gothic teddies and look like stylish victorian dolls...
Emo Hair Styles
Hair tips: Removing henna from hair
Hairdye tips: Henna is a natural, ethical and often beautiful option - but it's a permanent colour so once you've taken the step of putting henna in your hair it's hard to go back. Here are our tips for what to do if you have a henna-based hair disaster.
Japanese Fashion
Harajuku Girls
Harajuku fashion: You've probably seen Gwen Stefani's alien Japanese backing dancers, and heard her singing about 'Harajuku girls' all over her album. Anyone who makes it to Harajuku (a shopping district in Tokyo) is in for a treat because Harajuku fashion is unbelievable. Find out what the Harajuku girls are all about, and pick up some tips on how to work your style the Harajuki way.
Indie & Gothic Style
Urban Camouflage
Urban style: Forget green, urban camouflage should really be all about the tramp sick. When's the last time you needed to blend into the jungle, missy?
Gothic Style
Rubber Corsets and Rubber Care
Gothic clothing: Rubber. Even if we don't wear it, we can still drool over it. Rubber's moved on from basic black and red, found in sex shops. A well-made rubber item (made from supatex) can bring out femininity and beauty, and make a person think of other worlds, not dingy toilets with bad lighting.
Indie & Goth Make-up Tips
Alternative Make-up Tips
Gothic makeup tips: There aren't really any style icons out there to copy, and you might decide to try your hand at goth makeup because you want to be creative. If so, here are some general tips to help you look good when looking good most matters: when other people see you.
Emo Hair Styles
Goth hairdye tips
Punk hair dye tips: Dyeing your hair strong colours has its pitfalls but if you don't try, you'll never find out what they are - and the benefits, of having hair that makes you feel happy each and every morning - cannot be overestimated. Take the sting out of dyeing your hair at home.
Goth fashion tips
Get alternative style and goth fashion tips on Gothic Lolita, burlesque, retro and vintage, emo fashion, indie fashion, victorian style, steampunk, corsets, harajuku and more - Mookychick
