Purple people

WHITBY will be awash with purple velvet and black PVC this week as Goths flock to the seaside for a fashion show marking 100 years since the death of Bram Stoker.

Dracula’s Alternative Fashion Bite is part of the Bram Stoker Film Festival and will showcase 12 designers and their own interpretations of Goth, Steampunk, Neo-Victorian, Edwardian, Georgian, Cybergoth and Industrial.

As the inspiration for Stoker’s creation, Whitby is famous for its creative looks during Goth Weekend, but it is believed to be the first time Goth and Steampunk designers will show their designs there on the catwalk.

Among the resident Goths is Elaine Horton, who owns the shop Pandemonium. Inspired by the band Siouxsie and the Banshees, Elaine has been a Goth since she was 18. “I really liked the image of Siouxsie Sioux and her spikey hair. I started buying the clothes and it grew from there,” she says. “It was different and felt right. I felt like I belonged.”

Elaine, who is originally from Kent, used to travel to Whitby for Goth Weekend and loved the town so much, she moved up in 2006.

Everything in her wardrobe is purple and black, she even has purple hair. Her biggest extravagance was a corset which cost £150 and a pair of thigh high black rubber boots. “I’m still wearing the same outfits now as I wore when I was young,” she says.

One of her favourite dresses was a black pvc halterneck dress which, unfortunately, disintegrated in the wash. “It was gorgeous, I was quite sad when I had to put it in the bin,” she says.

It’s not just about the clothes, though, for Elaine, being a Goth is a lifestyle – from the music on her iPod to the way she’s styled her home with candles and ten gargoyles stationed around the living room.

She has grown used to jokes and comments about the way she looks. People used to throw things from their cars at me and every time I’d walk down the street, someone would shout something,” she says. “Sometimes just silly comments like, ‘It’s not Halloween!’, but I had a can of beer thrown over me once.”

MOVING to Whitby, Elaine says, was one of the best moves she has made.

“Being a Goth is accepted in Whitby, people realise we are just like anyone else. We are all normal underneath – it’s just the clothes. A few people say, ‘You’ll grow out of it,’ but at 46, it’s a bit late for that now.”

The fashion show on Thursday is also hoping to attract people of all ages and will feature models from Spirit Model Management, showcasing a range of sizes from eight to 18.

The show will also hold a vintage fashion stall in support of St Catherine’s Hospice, in Scarborough, on the day along with a raffle created by the designers.

The main fashion designers taking part include Flitterbat, CeriSian, Catalyst Latex, Wyte Phantom, Forever in Black, Professor Maelstromme, Tannith Harvey-Smith, Spank, Miss Needles, Falcieri Designs, Engineers of Desire and Superstitchious.

Among the highlights will be Flitterbat’s homage to the classic film The Wicked Lady (with Margaret Lockwood and James Mason) in a duel on stage between the Wicked Lady and her highwayman lover, while in their second collection, Dracula’s ship the Demeter will be guided safely into Whitby harbour by Flitterbat’s Lady of Thunder.

Fans of Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride film should also keep an eye out for Catalyst Latex’s Corpse Bride, the Victorian bathing belles coming to Whitby for a “traditional seaside holiday” and Scorpious Dance Theatre’s modern dance and fashion fusion with CeriSian’s Creature Features collection, inspired by the monsters of old horror movies.

• Some of the designs will be available to buy at the three-day alternative Goth and Steampunk market, Bram’s Cornucopia (October 26-28) on the lower level of the Spa Pavilion, Whitby, where visitors will be able to meet the designers and see the collections close up.
• Dracula’s Alternative Fashion Bite is a free event, at the Spa Pavilion, on Thursday, 12pm-4pm.