Where couture meets the crypt

By: The Lace Ledger Staff

Dark-souled dressers, rejoice; this year’s Fall/Winter fashion week has unveiled its fashion prophecies—many designers across Paris, Milan, London and New York integrated gothic themes into their collections with exquisite precision.

From Alexander McQueen’s hauntingly beautiful black gowns to Dolce & Gabbana’s smoldering sequin slip dresses and Thom Browne’s poetic dark academia elegy, the runways became altars of goth-coded reinvention, celebration, evolution and worship.

These otherworldly artistic portraits bled outward, guiding RTW houses—and all of us—to lace these themes into our daily wardrobes.

Below is the full Ledger — 11 gothic archetypes, each paired with designers whose FW25 collections embodied her contradictions, her strength, her spell. Below, we’ve pulled runway inspiration and tips on how to incorporate couture signatures into her closet.

For shoppable FW25 capsule wardrobes, check out part two here.

The Widow

Every silhouette is a sermon; mourning is her dialect.

Photo Credit: gorunway.com via voguerunway.com (Rick Owens)

Alexander McQueen: doubled down on heritage — sculptural black gowns with razor tailoring, floral cutouts blooming like wounds.
Ann Demeulemeester: layers of black feathers and gauze, garments that looked as though they were dissolving in candle smoke.
Rick Owens: cloaked monoliths and gravity-defying platforms — fashion as tombstone.

How she wears it: The Widow translates this season’s mourning opulence into sweeping black outerwear, architectural gowns and feathered accessories.

The Heiress

Inheritance reimagined, her wardrobe is both trust fund and battlefield.

Photo Credit: gorunway.com via voguerunway.com (Valentino)

Valentino: Pierpaolo Piccioli’s funnel-neck coats were modern-day marble statues — power immortalized.
Chanel: staged tweed as evening armor, crystallized in pearls and lacquered black trims.
Loewe: sent out surrealist handbags and sculptural dresses destined for private vaults and museum wings.

How she wears it: The Heiress adopts heritage suiting with couture finishes, coats that read like heirlooms and statement bags that declare dynasty.

The Corp Goth

Her boardroom is cathedral glass and chrome; austerity is her seduction.

Photo Credit: Vogue Runway (Balenciaga)

Balenciaga: sharply tailored leather jackets with corset inlay.
Givenchy: black-on-black tailoring with leather accents, polished to corporate menace.
Tom Ford: sultry minimalist separates, suiting in patent leather and midnight wool.

How she wears it: The Corp Goth translates these codes into lean black tailoring and luxe leather accessories. Her wardrobe signals both restraint and ruthless ambition — style as merger.

The Brat

She rewrites rules in lipstick and latex, leaving chaos in her wake.

Photo Credit: gorunway.com via voguerunway.com (Hodakova)

Mugler: slashed skirts with sheer latex, daring and playful.
Marine Serre: crescent moons subverted into punk sportswear, paired with deconstructed denim.
Hodakova: corsets, jackets and gowns re-engineered from recycled jeans.

How she wears it: The Brat pulls denim corsetry into nightlife, sheer latex into everyday layering and clashing prints into power moves. Her rebellion is deliberate, her chaos curated.

The Vamp

Every entrance is a seduction, every gown a dare.

Photo Credit: gorunway.com via voguerunway.com (Dolce & Gabbana)

Dolce & Gabbana: sequined lingerie slips as gowns, unapologetically theatrical.
Jean Paul Gaultier Couture: corsetry re-envisioned as haute armor.
Schiaparelli Haute Couture: carved black velvet and surrealist metallic ensembles read like gilded sins.

How she wears it: The Vamp chooses sequined lingerie dresses for dusk, sculptural corsetry for dinner then surreal bustiers for midnight. She is desire, in motion.

The Oracle

She sees futures in fabric, her vision both mystical and terrifying.

Photo Credit: gorunway.com via voguerunway.com (Undercover)

Maison Margiela: John Galliano’s artisanal show, with deconstructed coats like reliquaries.
Iris van Herpen: liquid, 3D-printed gowns hovering like apparitions, couture bordering on the divine.
Undercover: occult patchwork — tarot motifs stitched into punk uniforms.

How she wears it: The Oracle pulls cloaks, separates embroidered symbols and liquid gowns into her orbit. To her, clothes are divination, worn as prophecy, warning or blessing.

The Romantic Goth

Her diary is written in lace and longing; every outfit aches with memory.

Photo Credit: wwd.com (Erdem)

Gucci: powder-pink nostalgia and sheer ruffled slips, dreamy and melancholic.
Erdem: florals embroidered on near-transparent gowns — beauty blooming, then fading.
Rodarte Noir Line: satin ribbons and lace unraveled into fragile ephemera.

How she wears it: The Romantic Goth brings roses into ruffled dresses, powder-pink into mourning, ribbons into everyday rebellion. For her, clothes are heartbreak you can touch.

The Pinup

Her wink is a weapon; playfulness conceals cunning.

Photo Credit: wwd.com (Moschino)

Fendi: twisted leather, lace, fur and polka dots into a seductive spectacle of contradictions–provacative yet playful.
Schiaparelli RTW: kept you on the edge of your seats as the designer toggled between curve-hugging silhouettes and architectural outerwear.
Moschino: light-hearted powered pink and polka dots balancing out somber back and hats that hide the gaze.

How she wears it: The Pin-Up balances innocence with edge: powdered pink tempered by leather, whimsical polka dots shadowed by surreal corsetry.

The Whimsy Goth (Southern Gothic)

A barefoot dreamer wandering through decaying manors and glowing forests.

Photo Credit: wwd.com (Simone Rocha)

Christopher Esber: electric-blue architectural gowns cut into fairytale forms.
Rodarte Noir Line (double-coded): frothy tulle in eerie palettes, whimsy balanced by menace.
Simone Rocha: bows, ribbons and puff sleeves — innocence with depth.

How she wears it: The Whimsy Goth tempers sweetness with stormy weather: bows tied like nooses, tulle softened into a forcefield, electric blue reframed as deliberate rebellion. For her, fashion is play.

The Dark Academic

Her wardrobe is a library card written in fabric.

Photo Credit: wwd.com (Thom Browne)

Burç Akyol: plaids layered over sharp tailoring, scholar meets seductress.
Prada: school blazers cut askew, oxfords warped into intellectual rebellion.
Thom Browne: uniforms exaggerated, academic ritual turned theatre.

How she wears it: The Dark Academic reclaims tweed blazers, distorted oxfords and schoolgirl pleats as armor of inquiry. Her clothes are questions with eloquent answers, stitched in wool.

The Siren

She rises from water dripping in possibility; beauty is her lure, certain destruction is her promise.

Photo Credit: wwd.com (Pamella Roland)

Chanel (double-coded): rendered the runway as a submerged reverie where pearls transformed accessories into talismans of the deep.
Sandy Liang: twisted metallic seduction into pastel palettes, pairing blue shine with oversized pearls and blush accents.
Pamella Roland: forged liquid-metal textures into sculptural silhouettes–armor for an elemental siren rising from wreckage.

How she wears it: The Siren drapes herself in metal and myth: pearls worn as sea-born accessories with blue metallic that catches the moonlight and molten gowns that feel both like armor and tide.

FW25/26 confirmed what The Lace Ledger always insists: fashion is not decoration, it is declaration.

This season, designers made their arguments in sequins, leather, pearls and precision–each look, a statement, each archetype, a force.

Every trend is a story. Every outfit, a signal. And now, it’s your turn to interpret.

Share your FW25-inspired looks with us tagging @thelaceledger on social and, if you’re ready to expand your collection, this feature is shoppable.