Dress Goth After High School

Head to toe in black. Combat boots. A purple laced tutu over a pair of fishnet stockings.

Gothic fashion is awesome, and you know you look awesome in it.

But can you still dress  Goth after high school?

As you get older, you may start to feel a little unsure of yourself as you lace up your corset and smear on your shade of midnight lipstick before heading out to the grocery store.

Does this mean you were really a poser all along?

That it was really a… *gasp* …phase!?!?

Hell, no!

You’ve grown up, that’s all.

And part of growing up is becoming more sensitive to the social realities we are all surrounded in.

It’s about learning where and when, for there is a time and a place.

For example, attending a rock concert or music festival? This is your chance to be unabashedly dark and let your freak fly. Embrace this chance for complete and total expression. You get to dress in as little or as much Goth as you want. If people stare? Soak it up, and take it as a compliment.

But at a job interview?

Depending on the job, a lot of employers frown when their prospects show up will all of their facial piercings in, and assume you’re trying to pull some kind of unemployment scam. If you don’t want to limit yourself to only the positions that are cool with a Goth-decorated staff, then you are probably going to have to tone it down at the workplace.

The same can be true for any time you find yourself in a courtroom, attending a funeral service, or volunteering at your kids’ school.

But you get to be the judge.

Just because you aren’t rocking a rainbow Mohawk like you did in your sophomore year doesn’t mean you aren’t still Goth where it counts.

It’s a passion, and fashion is merely one way of expressing it.

You may find yourself “toning down the Goth” as you get older, and that’s okay.

There are subtle ways to continue to use fashion as a means of showing off your affections for all things dark and alternative.

Gothic jewelry, for example, in an easy way to add a touch of Goth to your ensemble without it becoming overwhelming or out of place to onlookers. A simple black leather choker, or pair of evil eye earrings can take an otherwise boring outfit, and turn it into something more deliciously sinister.

You can also usually get away with darkly painted nails. Even pitch black fingertips have become commonplace.

And if you don’t think you can get away with an “unnatural” hair color, then you can always wear a hair accessory or two in your locks to make up for it.

In short, yes, you can still dress Goth after high school.

To what levels you push your limits and take your expression is entirely up to you, and has nothing to do with how “truly” Goth you are.

You have nothing to prove.

Being a grown up means getting to be, love, and do whatever the hell you want.