Heyo, here’s my long-awaited guide to pastel goth fashion. I’ll have to admit that it took me way too long to make this, but I’ve been wanting to make this guide for a long time. So I hope it’ll be helpful in the end.
I have a couple of disclaimers before we get started here:
࿊ These are just my opinions of how I see the pastel goth aesthetic. It may differ from everyone else’s opinions since the style never had any specific rules associated with it like many other alternative fashion styles, like the goth subculture, for instance.
࿊ Pastel goth has no ties to the original goth subculture. While some may categorize Pastel goth as a sub-style under the “Gothic Fashion” umbrella, along with other styles like “Cyber goth”, “Mall goth”, and “Bubble goth”, which all have their own subcultures. Goth is all about the music, politics, literature, and yes, fashion. Pastel goth has been mainly just about aesthetics and fashion; therefore, it is not a requirement to listen to goth music to dress in pastel goth since it’s completely separate from the subculture.
With all that out of the way… ^ ^;
While the origins of where the style first emerged are a bit unclear, I talked to the user @translatorsan, who claimed that the name of the style was first coined on a website in a chat group called VK.group in the late 2000s, they had supposedly written an article about the pastel goth style for a forum many years ago, but it’s unfortunately nowhere to be found as of recently.
In this first image, they pretty much just described what the group was like back then.
“пастельный гот” = “pastel goth”
“Если образ больше sweet, чем dark, то это без сомнения pastel goth.” = “If the image is more sweet than dark, then it is undoubtedly pastel goth.”
Translated with the DeepL app
I’m not sure how accurate the part where “pastel goth first emerged on VK.com” is, because I’ve personally heard of this source of information ONLY from ONE person… which is @translatorsan. As fascinating as I find this piece of information, I still feel that we need more information from more people to be able to substantiate it. (So, if there’s anyone who uses VK and was around when the group was active, please feel free to reach out to me via Inbox or PM or just write it in the comments.)
Although we may not fully understand the exact origins of the style, we can all agree that it gained popularity and relevancy on Lookbook (RIP) and Tumblr in the early 2010s. The style adopts influences from other styles such as Soft Grunge, Gurokawa, 2010s scene/emo fashion, and Nu-goth. It also adopted many of the trends that were popular around that time, which we’ll get into later.
The style made a decline around the mid 2010s, but as of lately there has been a small niche resurgence happening on Tumblr and TikTok lately.
When looking for tops, there’s a variety of styles you can choose from when shopping for pastel goth clothing.
You can get by with just basic pastel, white, black, and gray shirts/sweaters/blouses/button-ups. (I personally prefer this option because I love upcycling them or painting designs on them to make them more unique.)
The most popular option is graphic T-shirts. You can buy shirts from independent small-business artists, or you can use any shirt with your favorite alternative bands/music artists. Any shirts that just include skulls, bats, or any other edgy-alternative motifs will work just as fine.
Just a heads up, I would be careful with graphic-tees since nowadays, a lot of graphic shirts have AI-generated images on them. (I know this is just my opinion, but they look tacky and beyond ugly, but if you don’t care about the quality, then you do you.)
Chin Up T Shirt & Maid shirt - Kawaii Krypt
Lace bustier tops have been used quite a bit for pastel goth fashion, and it’s one of the few styles of tops that never goes “out-of-style”. You can easily customize them by adding studs, spikes, and charms. I love them, they’re just really pretty.
Another popular option is printed clothes, where creepy-cute patterns or designs are printed into the fabric. Most of these are perfect for layering other garments on top of them.
Edit: (Fyi, just like with the graphic tees, make sure to try and inspect closely at the designs to check if there’s any AI-images being used in some of these types of garments, before purchasing.)
Links to the Printed fabric Tops used in the image, from left to right:
Cherry Blossom Skeleton - CheekyInkz
Pastel Goth Skull Tee - KawaiiAmai
Rainbow Spooky Bats Black Crop Top - HollyTeaTime
Bat Polka Dot Sweatshirt - IMGirlDesigns
If you wanna go for an accurate 2010s pastel goth look, you should try hunting for sheer button up tops with the printed-on skulls and crosses designs. These are kinda hard to come by since they don’t make tops like this as much anymore. So your best bet is to try to find them on reseller websites like Poshmark or Depop
The pastel goth style actually takes a lot of influence from the soft grunge style, so if you’re more drawn to the Tumblr grunge type of style, you should incorporate this garment into your looks. This garment can also help you achieve a more masculine or androgynous appearance.
Knitted sweaters/cardigans
Lastly, some cute knitted tops or cardigans are perfect for the style. You can even get any gothic or basic black cardigans and layer them with any tops. It’s perfect for the fall (unless you live in Texas) and the winter~.
For bottoms, you can honestly just wear anything (except for blue denim, it’s just gonna be harder to style, in my opinion)
There’s a variety of skirts that you can choose from. The most common skirts in pastel goth fashion are skater skirts and pleated skirts. Another option I included is the high-low tulle skirt, because this style of skirt was trending at some point in the early 2010s…
Dripping Sky Mini Skater Skirt - HollyTeaTime
You cannot go wrong with jeans for this style; they come in a variety of colors, and you can easily customize them, such as ripping them and/or putting studs on them. You can also wear leather-style pants.
This is the most popular garment when it comes to bottoms. The two most popular types of leggings/tights for the pastel goth style are the ones with creepy-cute patterns printed on the fabric and the skeleton legs. You can wear simple, solid colored tights and galaxy leggings, as well. And while this is a pretty niche option, I would say that you can also wear melting tights that were also trending for a really short time in the early 2010s. It’s unfortunately hard to come by this style of tights, since the original brand that made them, "URB Clothing," seems to no longer be around, and each pair of tights was individually made to order. There are only two tutorials on how to make these tights, which I'll link here.
Honestly, you can just apply the same description from the pants section to this section. The one thing I forgot to mention is that you can ombre-dye your pants and shorts, which was another common trend in 2010s fashion in general, so it can also work for pastel goth, too.
Starry Pastel Goth Shorts - ChonkKittea
Accessories are actually what make (or break) any alternative outfits. Without them, your fits would probably look basic. (Tip: Try to look out for accessories from July to early October at your local retail stores, as this is when they have their Halloween items in stock.)
I also recommend shopping on Etsy for pastel goth accessories; there’s a wide variety of options to choose from. If you want to go to retailers, you can try Hot Topic, Spencer’s, and Claire’s (if they’re still open). You can also see if there are any local events with artist vendors in your area, and buy accessories from small businesses.
If you’re not looking to buy any accessories, you can always DIY. There are plenty of “alt”/alternative accessories tutorials on TikTok.
There are plenty of options for jewelry that you can incorporate into your outfits. You can use jewelry with sweet and cute motifs like unicorns, butterflies, hearts, roses, and cupcakes for a kawaii style. Or if you want a more edgy approach, you can use gothic or alternative jewelry that includes skulls, crosses, pentagrams, heartagrams (iykyk ;P), bats, spikes, studs, and eyeballs. Ideally, you'd want to mix the two vibes together to balance out the cute and the creepy elements.
You can buy jewelry-making kits or other craft items from any store near you; there are plenty of kits that come with cute charms.
For headwear, you can wear beanies, headbands, flower crowns, and hair clips. You can buy basic/plain accessories, and you can personally customize them to your liking. For flower crowns, I recommend checking out different tutorials on how to make them and buying the flowers from your local craft stores or dollar stores.
(A quick disclaimer, if you are a minor, I HIGHLY DO NOT RECOMMEND wearing harnesses that are used in alternative fashion, as they are also mainly used as 🔞 accessories for intimacy. So please, for your safety, DO NOT go out wearing or buying bdsm accessories if you’re a minor.)
Alternative fashion styles like punk and goth both have a history of incorporating bdsm gear as fashion statements back in the 1980s. If you want to achieve a more edgy or spicy look, you can buy some harnesses from Etsy or websites like Devilish666 and adult stores. (It’s a bit on the pricey side.)
For belts, you can just use any black, white, gray, or pastel belts for your outfits.
Any kind of style of shoes should work as long as they are black and pastels. Brands such as Doc Martens, Demonias, T.U.K., Converse, and Jeffrey Campbell are the most common brands you see in 2010s soft grunge and pastel goth aesthetic images.
Honestly, there aren't any specific makeup styles when it comes to the pastel goth style. I personally think you can just do basic eyeliner and apply black or pastel lipstick, and you should be good to go. I’ll provide some makeup inspo down along with links to some youtube videos below, to help if you need some inspiration for makeup looks you wanna try.
Youtube tutorials/transformation videos:
Alexa Poletti 2014 tutorial
Alexa Poletti 2017 tutorial
In my personal opinion, you can absolutely keep your hair a natural color while dressing in this fashion. However, if you really want pastel hair, then I recommend getting it dyed professionally instead of doing it yourself, especially if you have really dark hair (trust me). The best (and most popular) option you can do is to buy wigs, since it’ll save your hair from all the damage you’ll have to endure from constantly bleaching and toning it.
Now, when it comes to styling your hair, almost any style will easily go along with the aesthetic. I can provide some examples to help get some inspo.
I can’t fit anymore images…
This is the last section, and while I know that music isn’t technically relevant to the pastel goth aesthetic; I personally feel that there are some importance to having music be involved in some way or another to try and help the aesthetic thrive and keep its relevancy.
While the pastel goth aesthetic doesn’t have much roots in music, there’s a couple of musical artists who participated in wearing pastel goth fashion, such as “Julia Zelg”, the artist formerly known as “Bria Bueno (a.k.a Baby Goth)”, and “S1RENA”.
Despite there not being a music scene for the pastel goth aesthetic, there’s a plethora of songs out there that emulate creepy-cute vibes.
I have a YouTube playlist that you can check out below.
This playlist includes artists such as "The Birthday Massacre", "Night Club", "Pastel Ghost", and a variety of other artists.
The majority of the songs I have saved here are in the dark pop and synthpop genres, which are pretty much what I personally listen to, but if it's not your vibe, then it's cool. There are plenty of other playlists that you can search up on YouTube and Spotify.
PASTEL GOTH & CREEPY-CUTE VIBES
Despite not being as popular and relevant as it once was, there’s currently a new wave of younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha kids attempting to revive the style.
I personally feel like it might be a bit early for the style to become as popular as it once was back in the early 2010s, as fashion trends usually cycle through every 20 years. Since 2021, I've been seeing people talk about bringing back the style every year, but my prediction is that hopefully we’ll see an actual full-on resurgence starting around the 2030s (it’s in a few years away, btw).
I hope you find this guide helpful, and i hope it’ll still be helpful in a few years, in time for the 2030s. If you have any questions please reach out to me via Private Messaging or Inbox.
I may or may not make a video version of this article later on, but we’ll see, I guess.
So ye, that’s it bye~!! 🖤👻
