Elder Goths / Lifestylers….

[MistressoftheDarkSide]

I’m curious to know how many of us are still going, as I career through my 50s, freak flag in back pocket and fan and parasol to hand 😹

Intended to be a lighthearted style oriented thread, somewhat inspired by another thread about dressing up choices that might lead to negative reactions…

So my style is pretty much Stevie Nicks meets Helena Bonham Carter these days, as PVC and fishnets tend to make look as though I’ve been stuffed into a string back ready to display in a delicatessen.

Give me velvet, lace, chiffon and silver accessories….. hats, lots of hats…. Extravagant footwear like New Rocks (virtually orthopaedic so they’re a win). Love fringing, even if I do end up tied to door handles and furniture on occasion….

While I’m now fortunate to have been able to forge a career around it all, even when I worked mainstream jobs I was “corporate Goth” and never had any issues around my - ahem - eccentricity.

So if you’re lurking in the shadows, shall we compare notes?

And just for fun - voting:

YABU - You’re far too old for such nonsense.

YANBU - The dark side is fun - we have cookies 😈

Can I be your friend?

My personal style (making that word work hard here) veers more towards '1990s comprehensive school art teacher / CBeebies presenter', but I am a massive fan that women, no matter what their age, should wear whatever they want, no fucks given, and I particularly admire people who boldly proclaim who they are through their style.

Today, I am wearing a pair of giraffe-print leggings, a purple hoody and a pair of Swedish-style wool felt slippers, but as I am WfH, nobody will see this wonderful get-up, which saddens me (although I might nip out to Tesco later).

@AffIt Would love to be your friend - your outfit sounds fab ☺️

Tescos definitely needs to see it x

And yes, I’m 100 % with you ☺️

Wear what you want. Simple.

Facebook keeps advertising me a handy app - How to Dress when you’re over 50.

I believe the rule is “However you damn well please” 😹

Absolutely love the Goth look. Not as many about is there used to be, especially not the super rare Boy Goth. Keep going, I bet you look amazing xxx

Biff is that you? 🩵

I’m still indulging my inner goth here. But I can now afford better quality clothes so it feels more grown up. Currently wearing black leather look leggings, velvet DMs, a chiffon blouse and cashmere hoodie!

I’m 56 and have absolutely no interest in the usual over 50 clothes.

The world is a better place with more goths in it.

There is a goth shop in town that sells skulls and chains and those big platform boots. They always have a dress on the mannequin that has roses and skulls and the like, similar to the one in the pic, and if I were brave enough I'd buy it!

I bet you look amazing.

The more boho Stevie Nicks/Helena BC look doesn't really suit me (love it on other people though) but the vast majority of my wardrobe is black with occasional bits of leopard print or black and white stripes, and all my summer dresses come from Disturbia. I never tan (I'm naturally very pale anyway), I love skulls, I have lots of tattoos and ear piercings and a coloured streak in my hair. Massive horror fan.

I wouldn't describe myself as a goth by any stretch but my friend says I dress like a cross between a Parisian beatnik, Robert Smith and Wednesday Addams 😎I'm 47.

I live near Whitby and even aside from Goth weekend the style is still alive and kicking.
Sorry, undead and kicking.

I am currently choosing fabrics to make a wool winter coat and one of my friends was concerned the purple might be too Gothy. I decided that was probably a positive.

I don't know where I thought this was going, but round here 'lifestyler' is another term for swingers. Was very intrigued when I clicked on this

I'm getting more alternative as I get older. My hair is finally died purple and blue as I work for an inclusive company, as an accountant wearing other than grey is normally brave!
My dh is the same as when he was at uni, long natural black hair and chiseled looks, he's my vampire.
Our kids are very mainstream football kit/ tracksuit wearing teen boys who refuse to grow their hair 😂

Love it!!

I'm goth, as in, I adore the music and the music scene. Aesthetically, I haven't dressed goth in a long time. Most of my tattoos, which I'm still getting and probs will be forever, are gothic style, though! I dress fairly eclectically these days, preferring simple outfits most days, with sprinklings of different styles depending on my mood. My goth heart will never die, though.

Excellent thread, I am a 42 year old goth/punk (currently wearing a black pinafore dress, grey and black striped t-shirt and DMs). I kind of lost my style after having my 3 and 1 year old boys, but have now lost most of my baby weight and am loving fitting in old clothes again. 🖤

I'm of the mindset that as long as you haven't pissed, shat, or puked on it, go ahead and wear it.

I'm hoping to be a stylish granny, but I'm not even stylish now and I'm in my 40's. Just can't dress my short, chunky body.

im not goth, but bloody love seeing them in the wild. I do live near Whitby tho.

my style is more something like Dark Cebeebies (like dark academia but with comfy dungarees)

Absolutely this, never met a goth I didn't like. Both male and female goths (generalising wildly here) tend to be very gentle and sensitive people.

I love goths. I was a greebo (Midlands emo/skater mash up) in the late 90s and early 00s. I thought I looked amazing in my enormous skater jeans, baby doll T-shirt, fairy wings and spiky dog collar.

I am now 38 with a baby and very much part of the bourgeois north London mum crowd (currently wearing chunky white Puma trainers, high waisted cropped jeans and a Markus Lupfer T-shirt) but I always smile at goths when I see them in the wild.

They don't smile back, obviously, but it makes me happy to see them anyway 💀

That was my style too! I am kind of reliving it now, today I'm wearing baggy black parachute trouserd from Uniqlo and a purple leopard print Tshirt!

Another vote for wear what you want!!

I do, but I make most of my own clothes.
Started it from 6th form where I was a cross between Robert Smith and Madonna.

Today I'm wearing a beautiful emerald green broderie angliase skirt that I made about 15 years ago, a white and blue flowered top, brown belt, black and white vans (silver laces), ankle bracelets in green, white and silver. All over jewelry is silver and black.

Used to be big on all the black eye makeup but I found it now causes me to have dry eyes - gutted!!!

I hardly ever go to the female section for clothes as I prefer to buy men's stuff including my glasses.

I hate anything considered "normal" - to me that a cycle on a washing machine.

I love layering vest tops and often add beads or embroidery to make them unique.

I'm 51 and have been called bohemian, gothic etc but to me I'm me.

I'm about as boring conventional as they come to be honest and I think you all sound fab so you have my vote for YANBU. Keep going! I love people who refuse to be pigeonholed.

This is timely. Another department does a pink day at work so my team is doing a black day. With bats.

My hair is no longer black or purple but the clothes are still black and the jewelry is still silver.

I consider myself a goth although it’s very understated these days. I do wear mostly black, although will also wear dark purples, greens etc. As I am naturally very pale I have found these suit me better anyway (or at least I think they do) I like Dms or chunky boots, chunky sandals in summer. Lots of silver witchy jewellery. I don’t wear much make up because of my horribly dry eyes but love a bit of dark nail varnish.

I am not sure I am recognisably ‘goth’ although two year one boys (work in a school) did make a beeline for me the other day in the playground to tell me I looked like a witch. I took it as a compliment whether it was intended that way or not. For me, it’s something that has been part of me since I was very young. Much to my very prim and proper Mum’s disgust, as a little girl I was fascinated by the creepy, dark and macabre and I suppose this never really left me.

Wish I knew some gothy types in real life, I have a very ‘normal’ husband and two addidas-wearing sons!

I don't really dress in a very way out goth style anymore, but I still go to goth & new romantic nights where there is a big age range of people. The youngsters are fab & don't make us oldies feel like the oldest swingers in town. I'm getting to close for comfort to 60, & I think we'll still be going to goth nights with our zimmer frames!