Grave Misconduct: 11 Goth-Coded Halloween Costumes for 2026
A little dress-up inspired by the year's most memorable troublemakers
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
This year has been especially generous with Halloween inspiration, although we're not entirely convinced that was intentional…
Cinema has delivered some extraordinary characters, while current events have provided ample material for satire. Meanwhile, the FW26 runways have made a surprisingly persuasive case for dressing like a bird of ill omen.
Fortunately, a memorable costume doesn't require an entirely new wardrobe. Start with pieces already lurking in your closet, add a few peculiar accessories and see what treasures you can unearth at the thrift store. A little imagination goes a long way, especially when you're prepared to look slightly deranged ;).
A Killer Workout: 13 Dark Feminine Fitness Experiences for Creatures of the Night
Find your fighting spirit, perfect your posture and put your body to work
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Even creatures of the night need their cardio. For the darkly inclined, there's a growing world of alternative fitness experiences that cater to unconventional tastes. From heavy metal yoga to horror-inspired pole dancing, there's plenty of opportunity to break a sweat without compromising your vibe.
There's something for every schedule and skill level. Join a local class, follow along from the comfort of your crypt or make a getaway of it with destination retreats and special events.
We've rounded up a wicked assortment of ways to get moving, wherever you happen to haunt.
Class Is in Session: Good Ember's Hands-On Approach to BDSM Education
Curious about kink? This Canadian intimacy brand has a few rather interesting lessons planned
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Leather-clad dominatrices. Elaborate dungeons. Ominous contraptions that look like they belong in a medieval interrogation chamber. Popular culture has given BDSM a rather theatrical reputation, and Hollywood has certainly done its part to keep the misconceptions alive.
Beyond the familiar imagery lies a practice deeply rooted in psychology, where trust and communication create the freedom to set aside the weight of the outside world and become wholly absorbed in the experience you're sharing. Like most things involving desire, BDSM exists across a broad spectrum. Some people pursue intense, highly structured experiences, while others are simply curious about relinquishing control for an evening or introducing a new dynamic with a partner. There is plenty of territory to explore between the extremes, provided everyone involved understands the rules of engagement.
That is where Good Ember comes in.
Bound to Impress: The National Kink Month Brand Directory
13 brands we recommend exploring, whatever your experience or interests
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
October is National Kink Month, and we can't think of a better excuse to indulge a little curiosity. From haute couture latex to furnishings with rather interesting design specifications, the world of kink offers plenty to discover.
We've rounded up our favourite brands worth exploring at every level of experience, from the kink-curious to seasoned enthusiasts. A little inspiration for wherever your interests might lead.
The Witching Hour: 13 Spellbinding Films & Series for Your October Watchlist
From ancient forest folklore to modern covens, a watchlist for the season of sorcery
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
We're positively spoiled for witches on screen this season. With Practical Magic 2 bringing the Owens sisters back and YAGA set to cast its spell later this month, there's never been a better excuse to indulge in a little cinematic sorcery.
We've revisited a few cult favourites and dug up some lesser-known gems for a watchlist that takes witchcraft in all its fascinating forms.
Now S(cr)eaming: New Gothic Film + Series Releases for Fall
Spooky season’s 20 most anticipated dark releases, from late-summer through Christmas
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
As the nights grow longer, few things sound better than curling up on the couch with something dark on screen, or surrendering an evening to a spooky cinema field trip. And this season, we are spoiled.
Gothic classics have already enjoyed a banner year with Frankenstein and Dracula in the rear-view, while A-list talent continues to descend on horror alongside a particularly exciting crop of arthouse releases. With Practical Magic 2 marking our next trip to the theatre and a gloriously gruesome calendar stretching through Christmas, consider your fall viewing schedule booked.
From the Festival Archives: Where Iconic Dark Cinema Made Its Debut
20 films that left the festival circuit destined for cult status
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
There’s a special kind of thrill in seeing a band in a tiny venue before the rest of the world catches on. Film festivals offer cinephiles their own version of that feeling. Every year, audiences take their seats without knowing that the film about to begin could become a future classic—or that the actor on screen might be giving the performance everyone will soon be talking about. Looking back through festival history makes those first screenings even more fascinating.
These 20 films arrived on the circuit before finding a much larger audience and earning their place in the dark cinema canon.
Screen to Speakers: 23 Goth-Coded Soundtracks Worth Turning Up
The alternative soundtracks that entered our playlists
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
The relationship between movies and music has given us some truly legendary listening. Few understood that relationship quite like Tim Curry, whose passing this year inspired us to revisit The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the songs that helped turn a strange little film into a cultural phenomenon. Fifty years later, audiences still know when to jump to the left.
In honour of Tim Curry and the enduring power of a perfectly curated soundtrack, we’re turning up 24 films and series whose music found a life beyond the screen. Some introduced us to new artists, while others made familiar songs impossible to hear the same way again. All earned a permanent place in our playlists.
Dark Feminine Travel Guide: A Long Weekend in Toronto
Where to stay, wander and misbehave for three days in the city
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Toronto is so much more than Blue Jays games and Steam Whistle beneath the CN Tower. Look beyond the postcard version and you’ll find a city shaped by Gothic architecture, storied institutions and a creative culture that rewards a little curiosity.
For a long weekend worthy of your darker inclinations, we’ve curated a lux long weekend that sways between the city’s gothic heritage and its more decadent pleasures, making time for art, fashion and a few wonderfully strange discoveries along the way. Pack something black. You’re going to want options.
Reel Keepers: Inside Toronto’s Revue Cinema
How Toronto's historic movie house is carrying film nostalgia into a new era of immersive cinema
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
There was a time when seeing a movie was a proper night on the town. You bought the ticket. Chose your seat. Sat among friends and strangers. The lights went down, and for the next two hours, everyone experienced the same thing at the same time.
Streaming has made film almost infinitely accessible, putting more than a century of cinema within reach from the comfort of our couch. But convenience changed our relationship with watching it. The destination disappeared. So did much of the anticipation, occasion and collective experience that once came with going to the movies.
At Toronto's Revue Cinema, those things are very much alive.
More than a century after audiences first began filing into the Roncesvalles theatre, the Revue has become a cinephile's paradise, with programming that stretches from cult oddities and filmmaker retrospectives to audience-participation screenings and Saturday mornings fuelled by classic cartoons and unlimited cereal.
The Revue isn't simply putting old movies back on the big screen. It's finding increasingly imaginative reasons for audiences to experience them together. Here, film history is something you participate in.
Love at First Site (Visit): Inside Toronto's Vegas-Style Elopement Chapel, Two of Hearts Chapel
Hannah Stein reflects on building a love letter to Toronto, creating a space where couples can celebrate with authenticity and pizzaz
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Most often, we think of weddings as celebrations of the devotion between two people. Yet, before we can devote ourselves to a partner, we first have to remain devoted to the life we want to build.
For Two of Hearts Chapel founder Hannah Stein, that meant refusing to accept a version of a wedding that was aesthetically basic and boring, not to mention egregiously overpriced. Overwhelmed and underwhelmed by lacklustre "big wedding" options, she imagined something more fun. A place where couples could celebrate on their own terms, leaving with treasured memories instead of years of debt.
So, she created a space where couples are invited to begin the next chapter of their lives surrounded by whimsy, leaving behind the pressure of a traditional wedding in favour of the simple luxury of enjoy the moment.
One year after opening its doors, we connected with Hannah to reflect on her journey into the wedding industry, the joy of building a business unlike anything else in Toronto, why the most meaningful ceremonies are often the least complicated and what witnessing dozens of love stories has taught her about devotion—to one another and to ourselves.
In the Dressing Room with The Devil Herself: Emma Vauxdevil on Creating Cobweb Cabaret
As gothic burlesque's most distinctive production captivates audiences, Emma Vauxdevil reflects on the conviction that transformed an improbable idea into a world of its own
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
If you'd asked someone to predict where a Texas cheerleader would end up, gothic burlesque provocateur probably wouldn't have topped the list.
Then again, Emma Vauxdevil has always known how to make an entrance.
Like any accomplished burlesque performer, Emma understood the power of the slow reveal. Years of relentless practice, careful refinement and unwavering devotion to her vision preceded the moment audiences met "The Devil Herself."
What began as dress-up in front of a childhood mirror eventually became Cobweb Cabaret, a gothic burlesque production built with uncompromising artistic direction. It stands as proof that some dreams aren't found; they're built so boldly that other people eventually discover they were searching for them all along.
Ahead, Emma reflects on the winding road from growing up in Texas to taking centre stage on the West Coast, reflecting on the perseverance that forged an improbable dream into the career she couldn't imagine living without.
Insatiable Cravings: 20 Films About Excess & Obsession
Love. Power. Wealth. Beauty. Status. Some appetites grow stronger once they're fed.
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Hunger comes in many forms. Sometimes it's for success, sometimes it's for status and sometimes it's for another person entirely. These films and series examine the consequences of gluttony, following characters whose relentless pursuit of "more" ultimately becomes their greatest downfall.
15 Foodie Films to Devour for Culinary Arts Month
Sink your teeth into these on-screen stories
By: The Lace Ledger
Food has always been one of film and television's most versatile supporting characters. It can bring strangers together, drive people apart, mark celebrations, conceal secrets or become an art form in its own right.
To celebrate Culinary Arts Month (July), we've rounded up 15 films and series where every plate, kitchen and restaurant adds something memorable to the story.
Southern Gothic: 38 Films & Series for Lovers of Beautiful Ruin
Religious fervour and oppressive summer heat shape some of the most compelling stories ever put to screen
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
There is a particular kind of story that could only emerge from the American South. The air feels impossibly heavy while the landscape seems suspended between beauty and neglect. Family histories stretch across generations, gathering secrets, scandals and old grievances along the way. Even the grandest homes appear to be in conversation with their own decline.
Southern Gothic thrives in that uneasy space; it’s a genre preoccupied with the complicated relationship between people and place. The characters who inhabit these stories are often haunted long before anything supernatural enters the frame. Sometimes the ghost is a family legacy. Sometimes it is a community unwilling to change. Sometimes it is history itself.
From literary dramas and doomed romances to psychological thrillers, crime sagas and folk horror, Southern Gothic has produced some of the most atmospheric works in film and television. These selections explore the genre in all its forms, revealing why audiences remain drawn to stories where beauty and ruin are so often found living side by side.
The PRIDE Guide: 19 Queer-Owned Alternative Brands We Love
These independent labels create everything from jewellery to fashion, fetish and art
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
While we love the celebrations and parties, PRIDE Month has always been about more than rainbow branding and corporate campaigns. It remains rooted in visibility and the ongoing support of queer people building lives, art and businesses on their own terms.
This month, we’re spotlighting independent queer-owned brands shaping alternative culture through fashion, jewellery, fetishwear, literature, leatherwork, design and more to shop all year.
Backstage with Dr. Lindsay Byron: Pole Stories & Plot Twists
The award-winning stripper, scholar and pole community pillar discusses how connection became the foundation of her life's work
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
One of the great frustrations of being a woman is how often the world asks us to pick a lane. Be serious or be sexy. Nurturing or ambitious. Disciplined or spontaneous. Practical or romantic. Lindsay has spent much of her life proving that these categories don’t need to be mutually exclusive.
Over the course of sixteen years as a dancer, she became one of the most celebrated strippers in Atlanta, earning the title of Best Stripper in Atlanta in 2015 while simultaneously completing a doctorate in literature. Behind those accomplishments was a young woman navigating profound loss, family challenges and the social consequences of being labelled long before she had the opportunity to define herself. Rather than allowing those experiences to dictate the course of her life, she alchemized them into momentum.
Today, Lindsay is best known as the founder of Stripcraft and StripTrips, where she continues to champion pole culture and community through education, mentorship, sentuality and unforgettable experiences around the world. From academia to the strip club, from viral storytelling to building one of the most recognizable brands in the pole community, her journey is a testament to resilience. We caught up with Lindsay to discuss stripping, stigma, literature, entrepreneurship and why she believes some of life's most meaningful connections can begin in the most unexpected places.
On the Road with the Oddities & Curiosities Expo
From a small hall in Tulsa to a multi-country tour, Michelle Cozzaglio takes us inside her traveling artist-led market grounded in community
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
It didn’t start as a multi-country tour. It started in a Legion in Tulsa, with a handful of vendors and a nagging concern, internally wagering whether anyone else would show up for something this specific.
They did. And, they kept coming back.
Since then, the Oddities & Curiosities Expo has grown in size and in reach, expanding across cities, borders and communities that all recognize the same pull. What began as a focused market has evolved into something larger, without losing the distinct feel that made it work in the first place.
At its core, it offers connection for a subculture that seeks the strange. A place to meet the artists, spend time with the work and be surrounded by people who already understand what drew you there.
We sat down with co-founder Michelle Cozzaglio to discuss how it all came together, and what it takes to keep that energy intact as it continues to grow.
Baby Bats: 19 Kid-Friendly Gothic Films and Cartoons
Spooky Saturday morning cartoons, mischievous monsters and friendly ghosts for the next generation of storm clouds
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Saturday morning has always come with a certain kind of magic.
Cartoons flicker on before the house fully woke up. In some lucky houses, ghosts, witches and strange little families moved across the screen with enchanting whimsy, inviting viewers inside a strange world all their own.
For parents looking to expand children’s programming beyond the usual rotation, this watchlist offers something with slightly more depth. Stories where the unusual is not something to fear, but something to enjoy.
This haunted curation spans generations, including familiar classics alongside newer programming that approaches the strange with the same sense of curiosity.
17 Fierce Mothers of Film & Television
A Mother’s Day watchlist honouring the absolute weapons who protected their children with strategy, violence, wit and conviction
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
This Mother’s Day watchlist is built on a special kind of devotion. One forged through sweat, blood, fire and deep inner strength of matriarchs that would do anything … and we mean anything … for the ones they love.
Motherhood is often framed as soft. And, it can be. It can also be something far more strategic. These women raise dragons, run empires, survive the end of the world, or dismantle anyone who mistakes care for weakness.
What they share is precision. Love becomes a decision. Protection becomes a method; nothing is left to chance.