By Katy Smail
The flicker of a summer sun fades to sooty dusk. A winter sky of blackest black falls heavy on the fragile trends of summer, as magpies scour the ghostly woods for autumn's hidden treasures. The hills turn purple, the mist creeps in and my heart grows heavy with that twisted joy that comes only from the Autumn/ Winter collections. Whilst the cold north wind may chill my face, the fashion makes my bones ache with longing in a way that swimwear, bronzed skin and sun-drenched beaches will never quite touch. The haunted story-telling that goes hand-in-withered-hand with A/W has an intoxicating darkness with which a light-hearted nautical reference will never quite compare.
I am not depressed, I promise. I long for sunlight drifting down through dappled leaves with all my Scottish heart, but reality and art are very different. I just think sadness is inherently more beautiful. It's why I prefer films with doomed characters, why I consume tales of woe with fervent appetite, why all my illustrations appear wistful and sad. In my mind, happiness and love are good enough in real life but making something beautiful out of sadness, loss and heartache is far more compelling. Afterall, most of the great art in the world is about that very thing. And now the fashion world is joining Millais' "Ophelia", Dylan's "Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands" and Hardy's "Tess" in a world of sorrow, despair and heart-breaking beauty.
This season, in particular, legions of designers have plunged the depths of gothic inspiration to create collection upon collection of haunted style. From the influence of Japanese horror films at Rodarte to Edgar Allan Poe stories at Giles to film noir at Balenciaga, the darkest corners of culture have been ransacked at large. Marios Schwab's interpretation of the twisted Victorian tale "The Yellow Wallpaper" took a young mother's mental deterioration and created spectral figures of perishing beauty; flaking incarnations of tortured menace. Flattering and wearable? Perhaps not. But an experimental illustration of the richness of gothic influence? Why, yes, and far more alluring for it.
The ghostly creations of so many designers this season have pushed the gothic trend far beyond their influence, with the collections amassing a vast range of dark trends. From the jagged punks of Rodarte, the sinister authority of Prada and YSL and the disquieting warriors at Christopher Kane, to the wistful romance of Alexander McQueen and strange poetry of Nina Ricci, the A/W 08 runways were a masterclass in macabre story-telling. Ghostly faces were pale as porcelain vases in a haunted room, lips stained in blood and black treacle. To view fashion like this is to sink deeper and deeper into a melancholic world, to wander hazy and seduced; Alice in a beautiful world of woe. All of which means I can indulge my dark side cloaked in inky black and wistful lace and go back, inspired, to being happy, smily me.
