And the bride wore…

Ever since Charles Dickens dreamt up the deliciously gothic anti-heroine Miss Havisham, the nightmarish image of a woman in a decaying wedding dress has been enshrined within the gothic canon. Hello, corpse bride! Instead of purity and innocence, the wedding dress – when worn outside its traditional setting – has come to signify something macabre. Today wearing full-look bridal whites to anything other than your own wedding is an act of sedition worthy of the boldest of goths. But this doesn’t mean you need to hit up your local bridal boutique. Instead, look for festive elements that you can incorporate into your arsenal. Lean into the romanticism with Simone Rocha cream broderie anglaise, sex up an outfit with an off-white, off-the-shoulder Vivienne Westwood draped Ginnie dress or indulge in the ghostliness of it all with a 1930s satin gown. Enter your soft goth era.

Underwear is the new outerwear

Once viewed as a token of oppression, in the 1970s, under the stewardship of Vivienne Westwood, women began wearing corsets as a form of armour and a new expression of female power. It was the same for other items of lingerie, including bodices, garters, girdles, suspenders and stockings, which became imbued with anarchic power when worn in a nightclub setting. This was particularly the case when mixed with fetish and bondage wear such as rubber harnesses, latex bodysuits and studded leather bras.

Today, underwear as outerwear is ideal for anyone looking to add a subversive twist to their wardrobe. Keep it modern by playing around with textures and silhouettes. Pair your corsets with oversized tailoring and your leather harness with a Peter Pan collar tea dress – a nod to the original weird sister Wednesday Addams. For the more prudish, invest in a cone bra T-shirt by queen of darkness Dilara Findikoglu as a nod to the goth tradition.

How To Be A Goth: Notes On Undead Style by Tish Weinstock (Radar, £18.99) is out now.

9 gorgeously macabre style lessons from the fashion industry’s chicest goth