The Seamstress - Gothic Clothing & Tailoring.

The Angels Carrying Savage Weapons site has some of the most wonderful corsets imaginable, with beautiful designs, sumptuous materials and can cater for a phenomenal range of sizes from A to G cups and waists from 20″ through to a wonderfully voluptuous 50″!

Handmade in Nottinghamshire (rather than imported from the far east), all of their corsets are steel boned and made to your measurements, which is essential for a flattering fit. You can always tell when someone has crammed (literally) themselves into an off-the-shelf corset, so treat yourself!

All of the corsets are true minimising (reduction) corsets, built to draw in your waist by between 2″-4″, to give you that hourglass figure that your admirers will drool over and your enemies will be sick with envy about.

Our favourites include the Bridal Corsets (though the pictures don’t quite do them justice), with fully tailored skirts and accessories, as well as the wonderful Lingerie Collection designed to complement the corsets.

As with much of the work we tend to gravitate towards, their work isn’t out and out goth, with black lace, drippy velvet and cheap patterns everywhere, but we feel it sits perfectly with the grown up individuality and drippingly dark sensuality that we are drawn to.

Objects of desire indeed.

(As always, we hope that Angels Carrying Savage Weapons don’t mind us pinching their pictures, if you do then please contact us guys: theapprentice@theseamstress.co.uk.)

The Black Wardrobe is run by Spanish gothic clothing designer Nora BenHayyi, who works in the UK designing some beautiful and simple little black numbers for grown-up goth women. Simple items, with lovely touches in lace, combining with her own jewelry are suitable for goths who no longer want to look like teenagers, but who won’t sell out to the norms!

The Satin Shawl Collar Dress is a beautiful piece, understated, cut to flatter and of course, black.

The Gothic Lace Dress is a little more risque, almost see through and figure hugging, which should leave any goth boy drooling.

Though none of her sizes really cater for “real” sized goth women, she will make her stuff to your sizes with her bespoke service, so we’ll forgive her for only doing dinky stuff.

(Thanks to Nora from The Black Wardrobe for allowing us to pinch the pics.)

theapprentice@theseamstress.co.uk)

UPDATE: Nora got in touch with us recently to let us know that she’s re-jigged her sizes. Being european she works in cm (much to The Seamstress’ distress, as Herself refuses to work in anything but imperial measures), but the larger sizes will now go up to around a UK size 16, which will hopefully broaden the appeal of her work. A big thank-you and appreciation to Nora for taking up the comments and acting on them - the sign of a company who really do take their customers seriously.

Goth shoes are normally restricted to the huge and oft uninspiring wedges of foam rubber, with cheap shiny leather and a plethora of un-necessary buckles and laces, so imagine our surprise when we were introduced to the glory of Jeffrey-West gothic hand-made shoes (we’re calling them goth, not the company themselves, but we make absolutely no apologies for this!).

With influences such as Francis Dashwood (Chancellor of the Exchequer and founder of the Hellfire Club), Beau Brummell, Oliver Reed and Richard Harris, who could doubt the individuality that Mark Jeffery and Guy West are trying to capture with these objects of desire!

As far as pure dark fantasy is concerned, have a look at the Rochester Terrence skull detail boot, which is a classic design which only the real shoe fetishist will notice has the tiny (but beautifully formed!) skull details on them. However EVERYONE will notice the points and the quality!

However, as we rarely get a chance to go fully fantasy (we need to earn money as well, and these shoes are capable of being both corporate and goth at the same time), we’re going for the Dashwood Leather Chukka Boot. The flat toe draws slightly less attention than the good old “winkle picker” points (which I could never pull off - even in the eighties), but with closer observation the brogueing shows something just that little bit more interesting than the carbon copy boots found elsewhere.

So if you’re growing too old for the New Rocks, and the biker boots don’t really go with the suit and tie, then corpgoth shoes are the way to go!

(Many thanks to Dan Evans on behalf of messrs West and Jeffery for giving us permission to pinch the pics)

theapprentice@theseamstress.co.uk)

Gloomth’s goth clothing website is a wonderfully humorous place (with the catchline Gloomth and the cult of melancholy), with some phenomenal designs, which do seem to be very reasonably priced. Based in Canada, they will ship to the UK for a small charge (again, very reasonable).

The site itself has some excellent touches on it - all of the pics are clickable, giving larger versions. Each item tells you how many of them have been made (often only single figures, so you can be pretty certain that you’re not going to be wearing the same thing as all the other girls at the goth ball). Each piece also has it’s own size chart - the one thing The Seamstress was wary about as each item’s sizing is different, so beware. It seems that some items are made larger, with the idea that you can strap or tie them in to cinch them, so don’t just presume that if you fit one item, you will always fit that size.

One of our favourites was the Gothic Aristocrat Autumn Weight Overcoat, which has it’s inspiration in the classic English riding jacket, with just a little strappyness and some eye holes that clean up the lines and turn it from practical to stylish, without making it unwearable at the local gymkhana.

My own personal favourite is the Gothic Damask Lolita Dress, which though I am not normally a fan of Lolitas (they need feeding usually, and I have no interest in women much younger than me) this one is an absolute treasure, and I think could be worn by women of any age or size (or maybe it’s just the stripy stockings…?).

There’s also several pieces for the corpgoth part of your life, like the wonderfully understated Precious Misery blouse and the Lobelia in Jet Blouse, both of which would be emminently suitable for the liberal office.

(Many thanks to Taeden for allowing us to pinch the pics!)

Based in New York, Stacy Williams’ company - The Aesthetic’s Corpgoth and Fashion Clothing leans towards the mainstream, but with an edge that all but the most hardcore (and probably pretentious) goths will appreciate. Though some of the designs do tend toward the silliness of fashion, the very best of them come very close to being timeless in style. All of the items are made to order, so if you are looking for an impulse buy, you may be stuck.

The women’s range has some lovely items in it, from the wonderful Peplum Corset Coat, with it’s hint of equestrian fetish, it’s internal boning (who could do without it?) and it’s strappy detail on the back, it could just make it onto the essential list by virtue of it being really very wearable.

Other favourites include the Geisha corset dress, which is a lovely cross between tradition and modernity, the V-train Skirt, and the interestingly urban Skants (both short and long). They have a small corset collection, including a men’s corset (tempting) that looks like it actually suits the man it is modelled on - something which most fail miserably to do.

If you’re looking for something that you can’t find anywhere, they will do custom work for you, though unless you’re in New York, this may not be the ideal way of going about things, but The Seamstress cannot be everywhere. We especially like the Brocade Trenchcoat they made:

For those in the UK, most pieces are available through Designer Clothes Online.

(As always, we hope that The Aesthetik don’t mind us using their pics - if you do guys - let me know: theapprentice@theseamstress.co.uk)

Designers with an interesting history have always intrigued me. Jed Phoenix’s background is both exciting and varied, and this seems to inspire her designs and the way she runs her clothing brand - Jed Phoenix of London - A twist of English.

The City Punk clothing range has razor sharp lines and could easily pass for corporate goth in many situations (though you may have to tone down the bondage aspect by matching the skirts with something less strappy, and taking the tie-sleeves off the coat!).

The CP2 skirt even has a pocket for your favourite riding crop, and it’s touches like this that will cheer even the most hardened and cynical fetish clothing buyers.

For the corp-goth and fetishists, both the citypunk and victoriana ranges have some marvellous touches, and testimonials from users attest to their practicality in whatever way you use them.

There are some wonderful pictures across the whole site, and the blog gives some interesting insights into how the company is run, their ethos and philosophy, and I have to say that it is people like Jed who really cheer me when I get tired of the off-the shelf cheap velvet import stuff we are so often presented with.

My personal favourite is the Victorian Bustle Skirt. A wonderfully underplayed piece in pinstripe fabric, which seems to be beloved of dominatrices! The Short Bustle Skirt would also look marvellous on a girl (or boy, though I doubt I have the legs for it) on a leash.

(Many thanks to Jed for letting us use the pics - theapprentice@theseamstress.co.uk)