Here’s an interesting article by Cintra Wilson for the New York Times, chronicling the evolution and persistence of goth culture.

As someone who in my earlier years identified with the goth subculture and still do to some minor degree, it’s interesting to read an analytical piece from someone who too claims a connection with the goth culture. Here’s a quote:

“It is not just a term that describes something (such as a Gothic cathedral), it is also almost inevitably a term of abuse, implying that something is dark, barbarous, gloomy and macabre,” fashion historian Valerie Steele wrote. “Ironically, its negative connotations have made it, in some respects, ideal as a symbol of rebellion. Hence its significance for youth subcultures.”

But goth fashion is not just for maladjusted latchkey kids. A recent proliferation of Haute Goth on the runways of designers like Alexander McQueen, Rick Owens, Gareth Pugh and the spidery crochet webs of Rodarte (not to mention various darkly inclined Belgian designers) suggests, once again, that black still is, and probably always will be the new black.

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