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THIS BLOG WAS CREATED IN NOVEMBER 2009 WITH THE GOAL OF GATHERING ALL INFORMATION POSSIBLE ABOUT GOTHIC CULTURE.

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SO FAR MORE THAN 300 POSTS ABOUT MUSIC, FASHION, ART, MOVIES AND CURIOSITIES HAVE BEEN WRITTEN!

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22 November 2011

For those about Victorian



As we already know, Victorian elements have been incorporated in Gothic fashion so much that the definition of "Victorian Goth" has been created.
But how much do you really know about proper 19th century Victorian fashion? Here are a few facts that can help you increase your knowledge about it:
Victorian women's clothing followed trends that emphasized elaborate dresses, skirts with wide volume created by the use of layered material such as crinolines, hoop skirt frames, and heavy fabrics. Because of the impracticality and health impact of the era's fashions, a reform movement began among women.
The ideal silhouette of the time demanded a narrow waist, which was accomplished by constricting the abdomen with a laced corset. While the silhouette was striking, and the dresses themselves were often exquisitely detailed creations, the fashions were cumbersome. At best, they restricted women's movements and at worst, they had a harmful effect on women's health. Physicians turned their attention to the use of corsets and determined that they caused several medical problems: compression of the thorax, restricted breathing, organ displacement, poor circulation, and prolapsed uterus.
In the 1840s and 1850s, women's gowns developed narrow and sloping shoulders, low and pointed waists, and bell-shaped skirts. Corsets, a knee-length chemise, and layers of flounced petticoats were worn under the gowns. By the 1850s the number of petticoats was reduced and the crinoline was worn; as such the size of the skirts expanded. Day dresses had a solid bodiceand evening gowns had a very low neckline and were worn off the shoulder with sheer shawls and opera-length gloves.
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In the 1860s, the skirts became flatter at the front and projected out more behind the woman. Day dresses had wide pagoda sleeves and high necklines with lace or tatted collars. Evening dresses had low necklines and short sleeves, and were worn with short gloves or fingerless lace or crocheted mitts.
In the 1870s, uncorseted tea gowns were introduced for informal entertaining at home and steadily grew in popularity. Bustles were used to replace the crinoline to hold the skirts up behind the woman, even for "seaside dresses".
In the 1880s, riding habits had a matching jacket and skirt (without a bustle), a high-collared shirt or chemisette, and a top hat with a veil. Hunting costumes had draped ankle-length skirts worn with boots or gaiters. Clothing worn when out walking had a long jacket and skirt, worn with the bustle, and a small hat or bonnet. Travelers wore long coats like dusters.
In the 1890s, women's fashion became simpler and less extravagant; both bustles and crinoline fell out of use and dresses were not as tight as before. Corsets were still used but became slightly longer, giving women a slight S-curve silhouette. Skirts took on a trumpet shape, fitting closely over the hip with a wasp-waist cut and flaring just above the knee. High necks and puffed sleeves became popular. Sportswear for women, such as bicycling dresses, tennis dresses, and swimwear became popular.

In Britain, black is the colour traditionally associated with mourning for the dead. The customs and etiquette expected of men, and especially women, were rigid during much of the Victorian era. The expectations depended on a complex hierarchy of close or distant relationship with the deceased. The closer the relationship, the longer the mourning period and the wearing of black. The wearing of full black was known as First Mourning, which had its own expected attire, including fabrics, and an expected duration of 4 to 18 months. Following the initial period of First Mourning, the mourner would progress to Second Mourning, a transition period of wearing less black, which was followed by Ordinary Mourning, and then Half-mourning. Some of these stages of mourning were shortened or skipped completely if the mourner's relationship to the deceased was more distant. Half-mourning was a transition period when black was replaced by acceptable colours such as lavender and mauve, possibly considered acceptable transition colours because of the tradition of Church of England (and Catholic) clergy wearing lavender or mauve stoles for funeral services, to represent the Passion of Christ.




other interesting info can be found at: www.victorian-era.org 

14 November 2011

The Fascination of Masquerade Ball


First noted in Italy during the 15th century Renaissance, Masquerade balls were costumed public festivities that were particularly popular in Venice (Italy). They were generally elaborate dances held for members of the upper classes, and have been associated with the tradition of the Venetian Carnival.




(typical dress for masquerade balls, today used during the famous Venice Carnival)


Masquerade balls became common throughout mainland Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A Swiss count is credited with having introduced the Venetian fashion of a semi-public masquerade ball to London in the eighteenth century, with the first being held at Haymarket Opera House. Throughout the century the dances became popular, both in England and then Colonial America.

 They did became popular but sometimes with fatal results. Gustav III of Swedenwas assassinated at a masquerade ball by disgruntled nobleman Jacob Johan Anckarstrom, an event which Eugene Scribe wrote about in his play Gustave III, and which was later made in to an opera "Un Ballo in Maschera" by Giuseppe Verdi.

Other fatal episode was "Burning Men's Ball"  or "Wild Men's Ball". It was in celebration of the marriage of a lady-in-waiting of Charles VI of France's queen in Paris on January 28, 1393. The King and five courtiers dressed as wildmen of the woods (woodwoses), with costumes of flax and pitch. When they came too close to a torch, the dancers caught fire. (This episode was later adapted into Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Hop Frog".) 


The picturesque quality of the masquerade ball has made it a favorite topic or setting in literature. Other Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Masque of the Red Death" is based on the concept of a masquerade ball in which a central figure is just what he is costumed to be. Another ball in Zurich is featured in the novel Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse.

Regency romance novels, which are typically about Britain's upper class "ton" during the 1800s, often make use of masquerade balls as settings, due both to their popularity at the time and to their endless supply of plot devices.

Masquerade balls hold romance and intrigue, accentuated by the masks guests wear to disguise their identity. Some masks are very simple, while others are so carefully planned and elaborate that they constitute works of art. Their history goes beyond that of the balls themselves, and holds specific cultural meanings besides their beauty and mystery. No one truly knows when the venetians started to create masks..



Gothic artist Victoria Frances has been highly inspired by Venice. These above are some of her artwork featuring the city and the beauty of venetian masks. 

For those interested, I will make another post specifically on Venice featuring pictures taken by me of the town (which I have visited TONS of times, having the luck of living nearby!) and also a picture of an amazing mask I bought there on my last visit.. :)

11 November 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOTHIC DIVINE MAGAZINE!

To be honest the real birthday of this blog was 9th November when the very first introductory post was written. I chose to celebrate it today because the magazine was officially opened to everybody to read on 11th November 2009. And this year the 11th November is also a very cool date as it's all an eleven! 11/11/11 :)





Yes it's this blog 3rd birthday! This is the 280th post and we are looking forward to write more and to improve the blog contents, writing and designs. This blog was born out of a random idea, (not really a "magazine" but I liked how the name sounded eheh) and the aim was and still is to gather all information possible about the goth subculture.


Thank you all who follow, read and support this blog! It wouldn't even have sense if it wasn't for you :P

Almost 180 followers and almost 130,000 views..Success way greater than expected!!




We love you,

Gothic Divine Staff

10 November 2011

MYSTERY SECTION - Coming very very soon! :)

Whoa! I see the followers of Gothic Divine Magazine are rapidly growing, ;D Thank you so much for joining the Gothic Divine "Army" eheh :) Tomorrow 11/11/11 is Gothic Divine Day aka the birthday of this blog..I thought about doing something special but I don't even have time to think to myself and all the posts I wrote lately have been written in rush right before going to sleep (this explains also all the grammar mistakes and overall non-sense xD)


But surprises in GD Mag are never over! I'd like to inaugurate finally, the "mystery" section of this blog..as you have read in the title there's should be posts also about mistery but still none has been written. There will be posts about hauntings, mysterious places, unexplained facts from past and present..of course I will try to chose the facts that hold more gothic related things eheh

And obviously, if you have interesting stories or personal creepy experiences you are so much welcomed to share with us!



09 November 2011

Choosing the right Gothic home decor and furniture

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The perfect gothic home decor? Depends on your style and personality! Read through this post to find out what's is the best way for you to goth-up your house!

Are you more into minimalism and like the essentiality of things? If you are the kind of Goth who likes to keep the looks as simple as possible, I suggest you decor your house with cool young designer but still practical objects like this chair with bat wings and fangs! Details do make a difference!


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Are you into anything that has to do with Victorian and Rococo? Do you feel like an Alice in Wonderland? Then take out you best tea set and be ready to serve tea in this old style decored house like the one in the picture below! 




Are you one of those goths into velvet and sultry romantic clothes? Do you like feeling like a dark princess? Then this queen bed will surely fit your style!






Are you that kind of Goth who is into fairies and other mythical creatures like dragons?
Then this beautiful door lamp holder is for you! Maybe people will feel more a bit more intimidated when they'll want to ring the door bell..



(uhm...LOL)

Are you that kind of Goth who goes mad around Halloween time and love buying all those lovely creepy decorations? Like Bats? Coffins? Skeletons in the closet? Check out this home decor!







How is your house decorated? I'll show you the gothic things in my house in a future post! As soon as I find the time to take pictures! ;)

04 November 2011

Bubble goth...?

I was looking  for cool images of Kerli, the estonian pop singer I already told you about in a previous article (click here to read it), because I know she dresses (or they dress her up?) in cool gothic outfits and while searching for Kerli I saw this definition I never hear before" BUBBLE GOTH". The only thing I found about it was this:










"I'm trying to find the perfect balance between light and dark, heavy and playful on my new album. The original Goth kids were very much into romantic things, art and poetry...so I'm trying to make my album like something of a modern day poetry with extravagant soundscapes that transport you into a different reality." -Kerli-


On December 13, it was suggested to Kerli via Formspring that the bear featured in a promotional photo for "Army of Love" should become a mascot. The following day, Kerli tweeted a photo that depicted a cartoon version of the bear featuring the writing "BubbleGoth" designed by Vespertine. The bear's name is I-Loo, but before it became the mascot, it was named Plus.




Now, considering these pictures I found of Kerli..actually is nothing new! Isn't it just a mix between Gothic and Sweet Lolita with a hint of cyber and harajuku maybe? I think there's no need to call it a new goth sub-style as it already exist..don't you think?


However, I love this style and her hair! *-* She looks like gothic version of Barbie!
So pretty and she seems a very sweet person and the music isn't bad at all!

Thumbs up for Kerli!


03 November 2011

Goth and Parents

One of the biggest obstacles of being a Goth, especially at young age, is...parents. There are normally 3 situations:

Parents who totally do not accept their children to be into any kind of altenative style. The reasons are multiple:

-They are scared that you might follow all those ugly and untrue stereotypes like "all goths smoke and do drugs" or "goths are all suicidal",  because as i said in my previous post Goths and Age, most of goths start their exploration of the culture during their teenage years, and everyone knows teenagers are usually more keen on making the mistake of following stereotypes.

-They think you might end up alone and rejected by all the people around you. They are afraid you could get bullied for your weird looks.

-They are those close minded religious bigot people thinking goth is evil. Usually these ones are more afraid of how having a goth child could affect people's opinion on them than anything else (like "omg, what will they say at the church? How will we be looked at from now on? Everyone will think we are all evil and bad!)

-They just don't get it.



Parents who are totally ok with you being a Goth because all that matters is that you are happy. In this situation parents might even end becoming goths themselves! They might start liking the music and even the clothing! They would totally support you and even keep encouraging you being so.



►Third category is: Parents who don't care at all. Sometimes these are even worser than those completely non accepting. Parents who never get interested in what you do, not even from a distance, are not good parents in my opinion. They have been young once and they know about the dangers and how easy is to make mistakes at young age and they should look over you on whatever you do,not only on the embracing an alternative culture matter.

So how to face these situations?

The only thing you can do is talk and try to find a compromise. Try to understand the reason why your parents are not accepting your goth side, explain them your reasons and show them best side of this culture, involve them in what you do!

02 November 2011

My Halloween :)

My Halloween this year has been much fun, went to the usual amusement park with my friends. It has become a sort of ritual to go there, it's so nice because everything is Halloween themed and so there were coffins,spiderwebs, pumpkins, scarecrows, bats, skeletons EVERYWHERE! *-* But.. I failed in my costume because I ended up dressing gothic outfit... XD I swear, I tried not to look goth but I could NOT resist the temptation to dress up goth anyway instead of wearing a proper halloween costume..When looking in my closet for something trashy to wear on Halloween night I encountered all my gothic clothes on the way and especially this one dress which I love but surprisingly rarely worn ( i do not know the reason..only god knows what went through my mind all these years that made me not wear that awesome dress)..and of course my New Rock boots which I never have the chance to wear due of a series of unfortunate events that happen anytime I'm willing to wear them >.<

So my idea was to dress up like a wicked assassin/zombie doll but ended up dressed in a sort of Frankenstein's bride..


The make-up was very easy to do...dark purple eyeshadow on the upperlid, smudged black eyeshadow and eyeline on the lower lid, fake thick black eyelashes,black and bloodred lipstick and drawn stitches and scars on face and neck. And at a certain point i had my toungue and lips blue due to an apple-candy which was covered in blue/purple sugar/caramel so I looked even deadlier ahah!


How did you spend your Halloween? What did you dress up like? :D share share share !
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