Thank you to everyone who entered our first mini-giveaway of the year!!!!!!!!! We used a random number generator on https://www.random.org/ to select the winner.
WINNER IS: Jacklyn Shields-McGregor
We’ll be reaching out to the winner directly to send them their gift certificate code! There will be more draws and giveaways soon. 🙂
-Tae
The second look from our recent photoshoot with Dolly Momoiro features our new St.Gloomth Hospital “Gauze” overdress layered over an upcoming skirt and tights release! 😀
And we can welcome Pookah back to modeling for us, he’s been living on a shelf overlooking my desk complaining that Boyfriend (the bear) gets more photoshoot options than he does. Whine whine whine.
You can see the whole series on our flickr!
Heaps of thanks to Dolly Momoiro for modeling for us!!!!
-Taeden
This week I shot with model Dolly Momoiro in a fun casual shoot featuring some of Gloomth’s new print designs! These new prints include artwork by Taeden Hall and work beautifully with our new St.Gloomth Hospital designs. We should have them available on the site tomorrow!! 🙂
In the meantime here’s a preview of some new designs and some brand new photos!
Dolly Momoiro also has a Youtube channel!
Check out the first half of the album on flickr!
-Taeden
Recently I did a shoot with Hexcelle and I had a lot of fun creating a Menhera inspired look for the series- blending Menhera elements with our own adaptation to make something entirely Gloomth!
Menhera is a fairly new subculture and one that seems to be popping up everywhere lately. Even Angelic Pretty has released a hospital themed collection this spring that would work well with the aesthetic. It’s an interesting subculture as it has developed from something negative. For many playing with these motifs and themes in their outfits is a way of transforming the negative stigma of being unwell and sick into something beautiful and affirming.
To understand the style it’s important to look at where the name itself came from. Menhera as a term originated in Japan as slang referring to a type of bothersome, attention-seeking girl with mental health issues who frequented a BBS 2ch group for those suffering from emotional issues. Menhera as an insult referring to a specific subculture is not disimilar to the way some people use terms like “tumblr girls” or “emo” to negatively refer to a type of person, or how some react to anyone wearing alternative clothing and claim they must be “sick” or “crazy” to dress like that.
Menhera has evolved as an aesthetic associated with “mental healthers” and hospitalized, delicate sick-girl styles. The style movement is thought to have begun with designer and model Kuua Oyasumi and the aesthetic has spread like- well- crazy. It’s often lumped in beside Yumekawaii (soft cute pastel styles) and Yamikawaii (darker underside of cute aesthetic and suffering/hospital motifs) and is only now branching off into it’s own independent subculture.
Found at the intersection of cute and sick, think pastels and hospital themes with sharp black elements. Glitter bandaids, rosy sick-girl byojaku cheeks, pseudo bondage straps, and artfully created fake blood stains. Menhera also plays with the assumption that anyone alternative is somehow flawed emotionally or “screwed up” and “sick”. Turning typical insults lobbed at alt-folks into a badge of honor.
There are plenty of articles out there breaking down the exact “formula” for a Menhera outfit but that’s not something we really put much stock in- so we won’t be citing those here. Subculture styles evolve and change constantly, designers pull from these aesthetics to blend with their own, and often those who began the styles will shift their focus to other looks. While self appointed gate-keepers police participants’ attempts at the style. To us it’s “right” if it pulls from the concept and is recognizable, it’s fashion not math, relax and have fun with it. The imperfection (wabi-sabi) and creativity in building these types of styles is what makes them inspiring an awesome.
For Gloomth’s take on Menhera we used the idea of a sick-girl reclaiming her bad experiences through exploring her aesthetic, her clothing is a reflection of her true self, an armor against the day. Inspired by her hospital room, physical wounds, antique medical tools, and the glittering mirage of her dreams.
There’s a lot of talk of how the media and subcultures glamorize mental health disorders, and it’s fair to an extent- media tends to portray depression and suicide as beautiful, wistful experiences when these things destroy lives and families (while plainly ignoring all the unpalatable/unflattering “extreme” disorders like schizophrenia etc). Depression isn’t a sad gorgeous girl staring out a window into the rain, or a pale waif falling from an open window into the night etc. It’s often ugly and self destructive and quiet, it’s antiseptic smelling hospital hallways and crumbling friendships, it’s ugly scars you carry your entire life. It’s dying a thousand times in your head every day while telling no one.
However I do think there’s a sort of power that can be gained from owning this suffering through aesthetic exploration. Illness, hospitals, and medical themes have been common in Gothic and club-kid styles since the beginning (see club kid icon Michael Alig’s “Blood Feast” birthday party for example) and to me the use of these themes was about embracing one’s fucked up existence. The world already thinks we’re “crazy” so why not own that? For me using themes associated with depression/hospitals was like reclaiming them, acknowledging mental illness is a part of me and accepting it. Turning it into art.
I don’t think Menhera is responsible for the garbage view of mental health our culture possesses or feeds it, but can be used as a way for sufferers to explore and reclaim their experiences. Either way it’s a really fun style that’s quite easy to work into your own looks.
-Taeden
Some additional sources on Menhera:
We’re halfway to Halloween this month! It seemed the perfect time to celebrate with a little sale and a giveaway!
From now until June 1st you can get our “Every Day is Halloween” print dress for $55! Just grab it through our Deal of the Month page to get the discounted price. Any size XS-5XL!
We also have a a sitewide discount code good til the 14th of May towards anything on our site (aside from event tickets/photoshoots)! Code: notoct
Get 20% off your total order – even custom sized items- from now til May 14th!
(Valid as many times as you like til the 14th but not applicable to shipping costs, orders already placed, or our Deal of the Month item or event tickets. Cannot be used with other coupons/codes. Contact us with questions!)
AND FOR THE GIVEAWAY! 🙂
PRIZE: One $50 Gloomth gift certificate code, good towards anything on our site (except shipping or event tickets)
CONTEST IS CLOSED
Just comment below on this blog entry and let us know what your favorite Gloomth design on our site is and why!
Example: I love the “Sorrow” dress because it feels so Victorian!
Make sure to include your name and email so we can contact you if you win. The winner will be chose by random number generator on May 16th, so you have 1 week to enter. Only one comment per name/email/person is allowed, if you comment multiple times all your entries will be voided. We’ll announce the winner here and contact them directly on the 16th. Questions? Email us – taeden@gloomth.com
-Tae
Our latest shoot with Gloomth Girl Hexcelle featured an outfit and makeup style inspired by Menhera fashion (we’ll have an essay about the background of this style soon) and blended with our own signature Gloomth aesthetic. I thought it would be fun to break down how we created the makeup for this shoot since it’d be a great start for lots of guro/medical themed outfits or Menhera styles. After all, Halloween is only 6 months away!
As for all of our tutorials this is just a vague outline of how we created the makeup for the shoot! Use the tools you have, experiment with it to create your own take on this style. I am not a professional makeup artist I just love designing looks for our shoots with our models. 🙂
Materials Needed
-Red eyeshadow and Pink eyeshadow (we used Sugarpill for both, and a few shades of Estee Lauder pink). Eyeshadow brushes- we used several fluffy ones and 2 smaller tight-bristled ones to apply details.
-White eyeshadow (or any super light shiny highlighting shade).
-White eyeliner, we used Kryolan’s aquacolor for this but a while pencil liner or liquid would probably work fine also.
-Red/pink glitters!
-Eyelash glue (we used DUO’s).
-Fake eyelashes, we cut up 1 band of cheap ones for this style but you can use any lashes you like to change the look!
-Lipstick. We used a saturated pink by Estee Lauder but any red or pink in a similar color family as the eyeshadows you use will work great.
Step One:
Start with your foundation done (for extra sick girl effect use one that’s a shade or so lighter than your skin’s natural hue). Begin with the red eyeshadow and a fluffy eyeshadow brush and start about halfway across the top eyelid and begin creating a large blur of red. I kept the most saturated red under the outside corners of Hexcelle’s eyes and then pooled some in the undereye area and onto her upper cheeks (byojaku style almost). There’s no exact science to this application, your face shape will dictate where the red should sit so just play with it til you like it!
Step Two:
Add white (or whatever pale eyeshadowyou’ve got) to the inside corner of the eyelid and the bare half of it where you didn’t apply the red shadow. I used a pale creamy white shade about 2 shades lighter than Hexcelle’s skin. Then use pink eyeshadow to create a gradient effect from the red outside corners towards the white and blend blend blend til it looks purposeful. 😉
I also blended red eyeshadow into Hexcelle’s eyebrows to add more eerie sick-girl-style.
Step Three:
Once you have the red eyeshadow done use your white eyeliner to create some graphic line effects at the inside corners of the eyes. I did a line on top and one below, sort of simulate sick crinkly eyes (not quite the same the way you’d apply eyeshadow for a “flattering” effect heh).
Step Four:
Make a plus sign of eyelash glue on the center of each cheek with a q-tip. You can also add mascara if you’re using it at this time.
Step Five
Wait til the eyelash glue “plus signs” get a bit tacky and then add glitter with a q-tip by gently patting it into the glue. I used tiny pink glitter from NYX and a wider round craft glitter (not eye safe obviously, but fine if applied nowhere near an eye).
Step Six
I took a single band of false eyelashes and snipped off all the large points of the lashes. I applied those individually to Hexcelle’s upper eyelids only at the outer corners for a very graphic style. Add lipstick and you’re done!
Thank you to Hexcelle for tolerating my weird makeup ideas and posing for these photos! 🙂 If you end up using this tutorial please tag us in photos we’d love to see what you create.
-Taeden
Gloomth’s Gothic Garden Tea Party
Sunday, June 4th, 2017
1-4pm
A forgotten garden on a Victorian estate, overgrown and thick with life it beckons you through it’s creaking gate. Poisonous flowers breathe their scent into the air while strange mushrooms crowd the earth below. Frayed ribbon sways in the branches above, the plants seem to be closing in….
~~~
We’re about halfway sold out of the tickets for this event so if you’d like to join us now’s your chance! The theme for this party is “Gothic Garden”– bust out your favorite poisonous plants, dark blooms, and eerie elements for this lush formal Tea Party.
Come spend a magical afternoon with Gloomth in a beautiful Victorian museum setting! We’ll be serving tea and light snacks throughout the afternoon. Meet new friends, the Gloomth team, and more! There will be raffles and prizes for the best outfits from Gloomth and our event sponsors.
Lolita artist Linda Tea will be there drawing portraits of the guests!
Taxidermy artist Ankixa Risk of Teta Kika will be displaying some of her gorgeous and eerie work as well as contributing to our raffle prizes.
Half of every ticket price goes directly to the Applewood museum to help with the upkeep and maintenance of it’s gorgeous true Victorian furnishings. Food and drink is included in the ticket price, including professional photos in the museum, entertainment, and a goody bag (with a $10 off Gloomth coupon inside).
This is not a lolita or gothic specific Tea Party! We encourage our guests to arrive in whatever attire makes them feel their most inspired and ignited- whether that’s a full lolita coordinate, gothic decadence, or jeans and a t-shirt.
Grab your tickets on our website! 🙂
-Taeden
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