The truth.

Classism sucks and I find it sad as hell that it is alive and well within the goth community. What I am stating shouldn’t be a shock because you can easily find examples of this online. Everything from insisting on buying only thrift clothes to telling people to buy only handmade items falls into this.

Thrifting clothes as of right now is very ‘in’. So much so that people will raid thrift stores and then resell the items for twice as much online. Even thrift stores have gotten into the act. Quite often they will charge more for the same items than you can get for new elsewhere. People always screech that you should get everything thrifted because they think that is the only way we bought clothes over 30 years ago. Actually, a whole lot of us bought clothes from regular mall type shops. Stores like Contempo Casuals sold very goth friendly alternative clothes and just about everybody I knew back then got at least some of their wardrobe from there. So, don’t feel guilty that you can’t buy a lot of thrifted clothes. You may even not have any thrift stores near where you live, and that’s okay.

This was originally a Killstar jacket. I did a ton of DIY work to make it look different.

People are also giving others a lot of shit for daring to buy clothing from ‘dark alternative’ online stores. I have made no secret as to how I purchase clothing from such sites; only on sale and never full price. Frankly, I really don’t give a crap where you buy your clothes from. Just as long as it isn’t Dollskill, who is a very problematic brand, I don’t care. You do you. Personally, I would never wear an entire outfit of just one brand but if that’s what you gotta do that is what you gotta do. Who the hell am I to judge you?

It is very classist to exclude somebody from the goth subculture just because they don’t have the money or the time to do DIY projects. Studs, paints and other such things cost money and can be expensive to buy online. In this economic climate it is super hard for many to afford all of this. I only have a lot of DIY supplies because I have bought them little by little when I have the cash to do so. Also, many people just don’t have the time to work on a huge project like a jacket. I have MS and sometimes it can take me weeks to complete something because of how exhausted I always am.

Where a whole lot of weirdos bought clothes in the late 80’s/early 90’s.

Remember that people have lives outside of online spaces and no longer live with their parents. The people who get really zany about all of this are the younger folk who either don’t know any better or who think they are an authority on the subject even though they don’t even know about basic goth bands such as Bauhaus. Some of them even attempt to create YouTube channels so that they can get sponsored and receive free crap to show off. Most of these type of YouTubers quit within a year or two because they want to jump off the goth train and climb onto another one.

Clout chasers should get no say in how you want to dress. Their reality of free gear and taking hours to look like a cheap-ass version of Siouxsie is not the reality for most of the people in the goth subculture. You do not have to spend tons of money on expensive gear to be a goth or to participate in the subculture. If you are poor and listen to goth music that makes you a goth, not the clothing that you wear. Be you, and don’t let the ignorant classist bullshit artists dictate where you should buy your clothes from.