Fashion is in a bad mood, and Dark Romance is having a moment …
Trying on a new best friend at the start of secondary school, I chose Nora, a pale, strange, solitary girl with an interest in the occult. “I’m a White Witch,” she confessed, referring to a book she’d borrowed from the library. I haunted the library, too, but for different reasons. I had a deep crush on Ray, the Latino librarian. Books I checked out were meant to impress: Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, slim volumes like Bruno Schultz’s Street of Crocodiles and The Tempest (when I was on my bike) and the hefty The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (when my mother came to pick me up). Maybe Nora and I could put a spell on Ray, to make him fall for me. I was hooked.
Although I watched reruns of the preposterous American sitcom Bewitched (pretty young witch marries ordinary mortal, promising to give up her witchy gifts and become an average housewife), I decided I’d rather burn at the stake than eschew extraordinary powers, should I be lucky enough to acquire some. Moody, black-clad Nora and I kept our kohl-rimmed eyes peeled for signs of the supernatural, surreptitiously screening a VHS of George Romero’s 1972 film Season of the Witch (aka Hungry Wives, now a cult classic), its sensational promo poster promising “caviar in the kitchen, nothing in the bedroom”. Nicknamed Doom and Gloom, we were inseparable, black-clad, horror-mad misfits, a coven of two, until Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby scared the crap out of me; Nora had got too dark. These are dark times, and dark times call for a plan, but fashactivistas need not sacrifice style as they trumpet loud and clear messages of resistance. The drama of trauma appears to have resonated with designers; gothic pageantry cut a swathe of velvet, leather, feathers, crinoline, tulle and gauzy lace (any colour, as long as it’s black or white) through 2025 couture collections.
The world is too much with us, late and soon, and surely Wordsworth wouldn’t blame us for sulking; our wine glasses are half empty! Given the choice between two evils, it seems we’ve chosen both. Fashion is in a bad mood, and Dark Romance is having a moment. This season’s frock offerings are well-suited to lying down on a fainting couch in a darkened room; colour us Nosferatu blue.
“Weather forecast for tonight: dark.” George Carlin, American Comedian
Uncertainty and fear, prompted by physical or psychological danger or both, triggers the body’s stress response. An upside to trauma is that it can hone one’s survival instinct. The brain’s amygdala transmits signals to the hypothalamus, stimulating the autonomic nervous system, kicking in an instinctive reaction to either fight or flee, barefoot, in ballet flats, runners or even heels. Rick Owens’ AW25 collaboration with Parisian designer Victor Clavelly took flight seriously, with otherworldly floor-sweeping boots made of layered, laser-cut black leather feathers, promising to ascend, threatening to descend, in heaven to hell-bent fashion. So dark, so fly, so right on time.
Watching HBO’s Game of Thrones for the nth time, it’s no surprise to us that Galliano (late of Maison Margiela – the king is dead, long live the king!) chose Gwendolyn Christie as Brienne of Tarth as muse for his spectacular Artisanal Collection 2024, his last at the house, a masterclass in Dark Romance, as seductive as it is dangerous, as protective as it is provocative. It may be June but winter is coming. @susanzelouf
1. I’M SUMMONING banshees in embroidered hawthorn branches by www.alexandermcqueen.com.
2. I’M TALKING to the hand in a @studiolafford oxidised silver Helping Hand necklace. www.designyard.com.
3. I’M SPINNING a web of pretty lies in a Séan McGirr lace mini skirt for McQueen. www.jellibeans.com.
4. I’M COUCHING myself in Bella Freud’s 2017 eau de Sigmund scent.
5. I’M GOING bust (no regrets) acquiring a 19th-century bronze Apollo. O’Sullivan Antiques, Francis Street, Dublin 8.
6. I’M COALESCING pleasure with pain in a recycled sterling silver thorn bracelet. www.stephenwebster.com.
7. I’M GLOVING iron fists in opera gloves, from a selection by Paula Rowan.
8. I’M GETTING shirty in romantic ruffles – 2025 loves a neck flourish – from McQueen to Viktor & Rolf.
9. I’M PLAYING up eyes, downplaying lips, in buttery nude Valentino Beauty Spike Ultimatte Refillable Lipstick.
10. I’M TIPPING my Dior Soul Cap.
11. I’M GOING dark in Dior Tribales B1I sunglasses, à la Jenna Ortega.
11. I’M SPRINGING ahead in Manolo’s Carolyne floral slingbacks.
12. I’M BORROWING Plath’s The Bell Jar from the library.
13. I’M SCREENING Werner Herzog’s 1979 Nosferatu the Vampyre with Klaus Kinski before streaming the remake: which version has more bite?
