Current Issue
The Gaze, Returned
February 2026
There comes a moment when attention stops reaching outward and begins to circle back, no longer shaped by expectation or performance, but by authentic recognition.
The Gaze, Returned is a study in meaningful interiors and dark feminine style, tracing what happens when the act of looking becomes personal once again. Across the House & Haunt & Style sections, this issue explores atmosphere as authorship, dressing and dwelling as choices made for the self rather than the room.
Inside, we step into the world of @houseofbizarium, where restoration, early inspiration and dark academic influence converge. We turn inward through interiors designed for presence, spring style edits that honour mood over momentum with edits including Dracula’s Garden Party, Dark Regency, Brontëcore and Poetcore introspection. Take cover from the cold with watchlists examining limerence and horror-romance, and punctuate the impact of your gaze (literally) with our lash edit.
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Feature Articles
Dressing the Unruly Heart: Wuthering Heights and Brontëcore Fashion De-Coded
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
The Brontë sisters wrote love as something wild, all-consuming; a force that unsettles neat-and-tidy lives rather than completing them. Wuthering Heights stands as the most feral expression of this philosophy, where love is not a destination but a state of emotional exposure, impossible to contain and destructive to ignore.
That unrest sits at the heart of the latest cinematic interpretation of the story, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, where costume, loosely historically inspired, becomes an extension of emotional volatility, translating internal turmoil into silhouettes that move as though the wearer cannot remain still.
The same sensibility surfaced across the Spring/Summer 2026 runways, where designers returned to feeling as a governing principle, allowing clothes to amplify emotion.
Below, we’ve pulled key looks from the film, alongside SS26 runway references and market fashion pieces, to translate this dark romantic language into something you can wear now.
Poetcore Style Guide: Crafting Looks Inspired by 6 Iconic Poets
How SS26 runways translate literary genius into modern dark academic dressing
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
The cornerstone of Poetcore is dressing with intellectually-led clarity, and SS26 designer collections revealed silhouettes shaped by solitude and discipline, obsession and observation.
These looks felt authored rather than simply assembled.
We’ve curated a style guide that pairs seven different SS26 runway collections with iconic poets whose voices still influence how we think and feel today. Each look translates literary temperament into spring street style, including shopping cues, modern styling notes and a market edit to get the look.
Dracula’s Garden Party: Romantic Vampire Style Guide for Spring 2026
A warm-weather guide to dark feminine dressing past daybreak
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
The Romantic Vampire does not vanish with the sunrise; she adapts. As daylight lengthens and the air grows warm goth hiss, her style remains darkly elegant.
Designers across SS26 couture runways have reworked dark feminine staples with a lighter hand, softening leather into something that feels more romantic, elevating black lace from reading “lingerie” to “ladylike” and using colour with intention. The result is a gothic vocabulary that feels fluid and wearable, translating shadowed glamour into looks suited for twilight dinners and sunlit courtyards.
With Dracula: A Love Tale arriving this month, the appetite for dark romance undeniable—what SS26 offers is the translation: a field guide to dressing with dark devotion that survives the daylight.
Relics in the Making: A Conversation With Margot Meanie, Founder of @a_familiar_spirit
Work occupying a space where sculpture and jewellery intersect with gothic storytelling
By: The Lace Ledger
We sat down with Margot, the creative force behind @a_familiar_spirit, whose self-described Anne of Green Gables sensibility threads tenderness, dark romance and imagination into work that feels viscerally symbolic.
Throughout our conversation, Margot reflects on the thriving alternative scene stretching coast-to-coast in Canada, while likening her creative process (and creating in a macro sense) as an act of rebellion in an era increasingly shaped by automation and AI before touching on the wider constellation of dark artists who came before her and work in tandem now, connected less by trend than by a shared devotion to making that resists erasure.
Below, Margot shares her story in her own words <3.
About Us
The Lace Ledger is a gothic-inspired digital magazine for romantics, misfits and dark-femmes who live just outside the lines.
It’s a space for style, culture, decor, discourse, the arts, wellness, travel, intentional living and beyond — created for those who never fully saw themselves in mainstream media.
For those seeking a publication that values elegance with attitude, this is for you.
Founded by writer and poet Amanda Albert, The Lace Ledger blends fashion, literature and cultural curation into a digital anthology where depth meets decadence and personal style becomes its own form of storytelling.
Whether you come for the fashion, the poetry or the watch lists, we cordially invite you into a world shaped by dark feminine aesthetic with a splash of defiance.
Here you’ll find:
Style — fashion, accessories, beauty and the gothic archetypes that inspire them.
Literature + the Arts — original and beloved poetry, reading lists, gallery and bookstore recommendations, artist and author features and more.
Culture — music, film, television and fun for the romantic and the restless.
House & Haunt — moody interiors, darkly refined entertaining and decor.
Gift Guides — curated for every occasion and recipient.
Subscribe to receive our monthly edit — a curated delivery of style, culture and quiet luxury.
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Reach out with your latest product launches, brand news story ideas, finished work or pitches. We’re here to create thoughtful partnerships.
We welcome collaborations with brands, creators, artists, writers and experts who share our taste for the uncommon.