Glamorous, unique, and spontaneous were my thoughts as I walked through the exhibit of Gothic: Dark Glamour at Fashion Institution of Technology (FIT). Gothic has always been portrayed as a dark, mysterious, and usually a very negative symbol. Through out the history, Gothic style has been known as seductive, powerful, artistic and suspicious. However, it brought a whole new ideology to autisms and made it more attractive. The attractiveness I experienced was by this dress that I could not keep my eyes off. It was a red silk dress designed by Eiko Ishioka, wore in a movie called Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992.
A dress symbolizes more then one can see or tell. I was driven towards this beautiful dress not because of its attractiveness but how the red color represents the gothic art, seduction, and power. As I stood there glazing at this magnificent red silk dress, many thoughts were running through my head. In which way does this dress represent art? Seduction? Power? Or something extraordinary? I started to examine the dress closely to develop my answers. The red silk dress can represent art is many way. First, there is symbolism within the dress that is occurring; red color of the dress represents blood since I am looking at it from gothic fashion culture. Second, art is addressed by the layout of the red silk dress patterns, design, appearance, and material. Third, fashion of gothic culture is very seductive especially with the red silk dress that to me seemed to give off feelings of passionate love or sexual feelings. It shows to go how physical seduction can occur depending on what you’re wearing. Lastly, colors represent many level of strength in an individual. Black color which has always been looked at negative in gothic style can be symbolized as strength, whereas, red can represent softness.
In the movie “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” which was made in 1992, the particular dress was worn by the girl Dracula fell in love with. She wore that dress as a symbol of her love, but didn’t know that death and betrayal that lied in her path. Designer Eiko Ishioka portrayed the whole concept of the romance, love, and death all together in that red silk dress. She is well known for gothic fashion. Her fine work done on the red silk dress caught many peoples’ attention and gave a whole new meaning to fashion.
Gothic: Dark Glamour was one of the finest fashion exhibit I been to as of yet. It was very glamorous, unique, and spontaneous; I was very inspired by the gothic fashion. Red silk dress held a whole new meaning for me as I examined it from every angle and also, the pattern work, fitting, length, material, and color. To me, everything came together as a whole; done so beautifully. The dress held up to its expectation for the movie “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” perfectly and made Eiko Ishioka (designer) give a whole new meaning to fashion. The dress represented many ideology and autism. Everything that is formed by this art of work is with oneself in the present, it’s a symbolism that occurs, a seduction that takes place and a status of power that is enduring. To me the red silk dress was perfect.
