The Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC is hosting a decadently Gothic exhibit featuring the many nuances of the Gothic mythos, clothed in macabre outfits and accessories. The event runs September 5th 2008 – February 21, 2009. The displays are set up in several fanciful chambers featuring themes like: Mourning, Ruined Castle, and Cabinet of Curiosities. It’s nice to see the gothic aesthetic get serious treatment at a high profile event.

Gothic is an epithet with a strange history, evoking images of death, destruction, and decay. It is not just a word that describes something (such as a Gothic cathedral); it is almost inevitably a term of abuse, implying that something is gloomy, barbarous, and macabre. Ironically, its negative connotations have made it, in some respects, ideal as a symbol of rebellion.

“Obscurity is vertiginous. . . . When the eye sees black, the spirit sees trouble. . . . In the night, even the strong feel anxious.”
~ Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

source: FIT: Dark Glamour