Goth fashion icons that isn't Siouxsie Sioux or Peter Murphy

These are my favourites

Siouxie Sioux, Peter Murphy, and Jonny Slut are generally the icons of goth culture or goth fashion. The most prominent and talked about, even among non-goth music lovers.

And I can already hear people (or have seen in my TikTok comments) say, “what about him?”, “______ is so slept on, no one ever talks about them😩”.

I understand! There are so many of them, so I want to give you this list, showing you some of my favourite goth fashion icons to broaden your fashion horizon hopefully.

Klaus Nomi

Constantly seen wearing black lipsticks, Klaus Nomi reminds me of mimes you see in silent films, the only thing is, he will make sure you hear his voice. Klaus has a stunning voice, and what an eclectic and eccentric look he rocked back then.

Sang backup vocals for David Bowie and remained an inspiration for singers like Lady Gaga; Klaus’ style is one of a kind. Besides looking like a well-put-together mime, he reminds me of a Count, some form of royalty. Maybe I was relating his sophistication with Count Dracula, perhaps it was because, in many of his performances, he was seen wearing a ruff.

Ah… no, It’s definitely the widow’s peak. It’s the widow’s peak for sure.

Many classic gothic literature elements were seen livened by his style choice.

Theda Bara

“America’s First Goth” was Theda’s title. Whether or not that title was accurate, she was undoubtedly a silent film icon that was prominently ‘gothic’

Hollywood gave her a mystical Arabic background where her agent “to enhance her exotic appeal to moviegoers, falsely promoted the young Ohio native as the daughter of an Arab sheik and a French woman, born in the Sahara”.

Real name: Theodosia Burr Goodman. Born in Ohio.

Fun fact: Fox Studio also claimed that the origin of the name Theda Bara was an anagram to ‘Arab Death’, playing fully into her Cleopatra and Vamp (here means seductive and exotic figure) image.

Background aside, her soul-gazing and dark eyes are the real attraction here. Something about her look is just so ‘Victoriana’.

Walter Benjamin

The philosopher? Yes, the Marxist German-Jewish philosopher.

He is not a ‘goth style icon,’ but a ‘goth fashion icon’ because of his gothic take on fashion.

Let’s see, what are some of his famous takes?

Famous mocks death.

Fashion prostitutes the living body to the inorganic world. In relation to the living, it repressents the rights of the corpse.

Here fashion has opened the business of dialectical exchange between woman and ware – between carnal pleasure and the corpse. The clerk, death, tall and loutish, measures the century by the yard, serves as mannequin himself to save costs, and manages single-handedly the liquidation that in French is called revolution. For fashion was never anything other than the parody of the motley cadaver

These three quotes show the common theme of comparing fashion to death or relating fashion to ‘dressing corpses’. That’s exactly what gothic literature is about: embracing the darker side, finding beauty in death, etc.

When your fashion opinion and philosophy are just as profound, you don’t need style to be a fashion icon.

Dave Vanian of The Damned

Undead in appearance.

He is just outright goth-y looking. I know this statement may potentially offend many goths, but that’s the only way I can put it.

Dave embodies everything you’d expect to see on a goth. But most importantly, the attitude.

Cinnamon Hadley

Dreadlocks on her wispy figure remains as Cinnamon’s standout feature.

And yes, She inspired the look for the Death of the Endless character from DC Comics’ “The Sandman” series.

A prominent goth icon in the Salt Lake City goth scene, “she was friends with Mike Dringenberg, one of the creators of the Sandman comics. It was Dringenberg who suggested to Gaiman to use her image as a model for Death of the Endless in their comic book series.” (source: Fiction Horizon)

Many things can make someone a fashion icon. In Cinnamon’s case, herstyle influence was further immotalized by Neil Gaiman’s comic, continues to influence generations after Hadley’s passing.

Last but not DEFINITELY NOT least…

Maila Nurmi as VAMPIRA