Laced Up: 18 Iconic Corsets from Film & Television
From Scarlett O'Hara to Xena, these are the underpinnings that stepped beyond the screen and into fashion history
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Few garments have worked harder in film than the humble corset.
For more than a century, costume designers have used it to communicate everything from power and ambition to romance, rebellion and utter ruin. A single tightening lace can signal the expectations placed upon a young woman. A structured bodice can transform a queen into a monarch of the ages, a vampire into a legend or a showgirl into an icon. Long before a character speaks, the corset often tells us exactly who they are.
Some became inseparable from the stories themselves. Scarlett O'Hara's lacing scene in Gone with the Wind remains one of the most famous moments in Hollywood history while Satine's ruby corset came to define an entire era of fashion when donned by Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge.
From gothic heroines and doomed aristocrats to pirates, vampires and queens, these are a few of our favourites.
The Gothic Beauty Arsenal: The Products We Keep Close
A collection of everyday essentials curated with care
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
There comes a point in every makeup journey where the experimentation slows down.
The drawer full of impulse purchases remains, of course, but a smaller collection begins to emerge; the products that consistently make you feel like yourself. The foundation repurchased before it runs out. The eyeliner that never lets you down. The lipstick that somehow ends up in every purse, coat pocket and desk drawer. These are ours favourites to achieve an everyday soft goth look.
Dressed for Downpour: Dark Feminine Rain Gear Designed for Stormy Weather
Patent trench coats, cathedral umbrellas and storm boots prove that bad weather has never stood in the way of style for the darkly inclined
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
The sky has been grey since breakfast as rainwater slides down storefront windows while someone in an office tower quietly regrets wearing suede. Sidewalks shine like wet pavement in a classic film noir. Most would agree it’s positively miserable outside. How delightful. It’s finally time to wear the good coat ;).
From patent trenches to skull-handled umbrellas and studded rain boots built to weather the storm, these pieces make a rain day something to look forward to.
Goth Girl Summer Flats: Soft Shoes with Sharp Edge
Ballet flats, sandals and sneakers for people unwilling to let one heatwave ruin the entire outfit
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Every summer, a very specific fashion crisis begins unfolding across the gothic community. The boots suddenly feel ambitious when facing oppressive humidity. Platforms become a logistical challenge. Heels pin you to grass. Eventually, we begin being a little more open to hearing … shudder… practical solutions.
We’ve curated a selection of positively ominous looking footwear that is comfortable to wear; from ballet flats to sandals and sneakers, every pair is capable of surviving both the farmer’s market and a cemetery wander, aesthetic intact.
Southern Gothic Style Guide: The Romance of Ruin
Old-world femininity, rural Americana and the enduring appeal of beautiful decay
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
This is an aesthetic born from heat. Not the pleasant warmth of a garden party, but the kind that settles over a landscape and simmers low all summer. The kind that curls wallpaper at the edges, slows conversations to a drawl and turns every family secret into something that increasingly impossible to ignore. It emerged from the literary traditions of the American South, where writers like William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor explored the uneasy relationship between beauty and decline, pairing grand houses with crumbling foundations, religious devotion with human frailty and nostalgia with the lingering consequences of history.
Its fashion followed suit.
Southern Gothic style borrows from a world shaped by memory. Antique lace dresses and skirts collect mud as they skim the surface of puddles. Pearl earrings share space with rosaries and crosses. Victorian mourning references mingle with workwear, faded cotton, corsetry and garments that look as though they have been passed from one generation to the next. Nothing feels untouched by time. The appeal lies in the evidence of a life already lived. Every accessory, an artifact.
What separates Southern Gothic from traditional gothic aesthetic is its relationship with the recent past. It is less concerned with overt darkness than the stories embedded in the land beneath its feet. The palette reflects this sensibility, favouring cream, tobacco, oxblood, dusty white, faded rose and swamp green over stark black monochrome. The mood feels suspended somewhere between church on Sunday and a thunderstorm gathering on the horizon.
At its heart, Southern Gothic is a style language built around beautiful decay. It finds romance in weathered architecture, dignity in imperfection and meaning in things that have endured. The result is a wardrobe that feels deeply human: emotional and inseparable from the histories that shaped it.
In the height of summer, when the air hangs heavy and every landscape seems touched by memory, there is no better time to revisit it.
Outlaw Revival: a Yalternative Summer Style Guide
The call from beyond the city lights
By: The Lace Ledger
The heat lingers long after the sun goes down as condensation slides down the side of a plastic beer cup; the crowd grows louder, everyone angling for a better view of what comes next. The excitement is palpable.
You might be making your way to the stage at a festival or into the arena for a rodeo—either way, the energy is electric.
Spend enough time around both scenes and the similarities start to reveal themselves. The soundtrack may vary, but the cast rarely does. The people drawn to cowboy culture and alternative culture have always shared an affection for outsiders, troublemakers and anyone willing to carve their own path. Enter, yalternative.
Yalternative style channels that spirit through distressed denim, black cowboy boots, silver hardware, flannel, camo and vintage tees fit for everything from county fair rodeos to punk shows and sipping whiskey in neon-lit dives.