Pastel Goth and Other Similar Styles
Before we get into this, I want to clarify that pastel goth has no ties to the goth subculture. While some categorize it as a sub-style under the “gothic fashion” umbrella, only certain gothic styles do have ties to the goth scene (such as “trad goth”, “death rock,” and “romantic goth”). Goth is all about the music, politics, and literature, while pastel goth is just about fashion and aesthetics; therefore, it is not a requirement to listen to goth music to dress in pastel goth since it’s completely separate from the subculture.
(However, since goth is in the name, I feel it’s respectful to at least know the roots and recognize that goth has always been more than just an aesthetic.)
The pastel goth style first emerged in the late 2000s on VK.com and later became popularized on Tumblr and Lookbook in the early 2010s. The style is influenced by other styles such as soft grunge, Gurokawa, 2010s scene/emo fashion, and sometimes, Nu-goth.
Like many styles on Tumblr during the 2010s, the pastel goth style consists of accessories and clothing that were trending around that time, such as flower crowns, skater skirts, and tattoo chokers. The traits that set it apart from the other styles trending around that time are motifs such as religious iconography (ie, inverted crosses, pentagrams, and ankhs), skeletons, bats, and offensive quotes in melting fonts. Pastel goth also took influences from Gurokawa (which I will get into in a second) and has been worn by many influencers in J-fashion circles despite not being a J-fashion style.
This style has been heavily associated with pastel goth and is often mistaken for the pastel goth style. Gurokawa is a J-fashion style that emerged in the 2000s, and the style’s motifs consist of eyeballs, horns, bat wings, skeletons, and ghosts. After the style started gaining recognition on Tumblr, the term “Creepy-cute” was coined by people in the West. The color palette for this style was mainly reds, neon greens, and purples; however, with other well-known pastel J-fashion styles arising on Tumblr at the time, such as Fairy-kei, Medi-Kawaii (which was often mistaken for Menhera), and Yume-Kawaii, more pastel colors were being incorporated into Gurokawa. Certain aspects of Gurokawa were borrowed for the pastel goth aesthetic, like the eyeball bows and pastel spooky clips.
Pastel grunge is a fashion style closely similar to pastel goth, more so than any other style in this list. Much like pastel goth has no ties to the goth scene, pastel grunge has no connection to the grunge music scene of the 90s. Like soft grunge, pastel grunge fashion uses the same clothing and accessories such as denim, round glasses, and floral pattern designs; it also adapts elements from pastel goth like inverted crosses, flower crowns, and skulls. Its key motifs that differentiate it from pastel goth are aliens, space/galaxy themes, yin and yang symbols, and the iconic dripping pizza designs. The pastel grunge and pastel goth aesthetics oftentimes overlapped with each other since people used the terms interchangeably, which is why there are a LOT of posts combining the two aesthetics.
(Disclaimer: Pastel punk is not an established fashion style in the punk subculture, as punk focuses more on politics and music than fashion and aesthetics.)
Pastel punk is a niche style that emerged in the 2010s on Tumblr. It adopts some elements and ideology of the punk subculture and combines it with kawaii motifs and 2010s pop culture references. The key to wearing this style is a DIY pastel battle vest or leather jacket with handmade (or store-bought) band patches, anime/kawaii patches, button/enamel pins, and studs/spikes. Pastel punk commonly gets lumped in with pastel goth and grunge aesthetics, but it's the least recognized style out of the three.
I’m including this style because I’ve heard from others that pastel goth is partially responsible for influencing the e-girl style. While there are different types of e-girls, I’m specifically referring to a particular style known as the “pastel e-girl". This style takes elements from 2019 TikTok e-girl and adds more kawaii and anime girl motifs. The key garments and accessories for this fashion are plaid tennis skirts, graphic tees/oversized long-sleeved tees with anime/kawaii graphics, bustiers, beanies, over-the-knee socks, fishnets, and/or neko ears.
(Also, fun fact, the infamous Belle Delphine used to dress in pastel goth fashion too, lol)
(Disclaimer: Bubble Goth has no ties to the goth subculture.)
Invented by Estonian pop singer Kerli Koiv, this artist aims to "Make the beautiful, creepy and the creepy, beautiful." The style borrows elements from various styles such as cyber goth, Victorian era, and romantic goth fashion. The style consists of accessories and garnments such as gas masks, corsets, bustiers, miniskirts, laces and ruffles, teddy bears, and occult iconography. The key colors used in this style are white, cream, pastel pink, pastel blue, and sometimes black.
Note: Since this style was created by Kerli, the style evolved along with her, now taking a more futuristic and ethereal appearance instead of a Victorian and gothic look.
And last but not least, the final style we have here is:
(a.k.a E-kid/2020s Alt fashion)
There have been some debates about whether this style is considered pastel goth. Some say it’s a revamp of the pastel goth style, while others say it’s an entirely separate style. Kawaii goth is a recent style that emerged in the early 2020s through TikTok and Instagram. The style is commonly associated with “pastel” e-girl fashion as people claimed it evolved from that style. Kawaii Goth also takes major influences from 2000s gothic/punk Harajuku, emo, and the mall goth fashion from the late 90s/early 00s. The style consists of accessories and garments such as plaid laced skirts, solid pleated skirts, Demonia Swings, other platform boots/shoes, slouch socks, arm warmers, spiked collars, Jazmin Bean-inspired makeup, and/or bunny hats. The key motifs for this fashion include Sanrio characters (specifically Hello Kitty, Kuromi, and My Melody), Gloomy Bear, the energy drink "Monster", and quotes in Death/Black metal font. The colors used for this fashion were pastel pinks, reds, white, and black.
The style was popular in 2020/2021, but the style saw a decline around 2023.
So, that’s it for this post. I'm honestly not used to making posts like this, so if there's any confusion or maybe I'm misinformed on something, please leave a comment on this post, DM me, or maybe use the inbox, whichever one is fine.
