art-of-style-kit-mills-skeleton-subway-untapped-citiesI bet she has a lot of Misfits albums on vinyl.

In previous Art of Style posts I’ve discussed at length how much I appreciate some good goth and punk undertones in an otherwise socially-acceptable outfit, but today I’d like to cast aside subtlety. Halloween and Dia de los Muertos, the traditional holidays for skull-adorned clothes and festive creepiness, are long past, but darkness knows no season. Today we celebrate unapologetic spookiness.

I saw this gloomy young woman while waiting for the L train one cold night earlier this week. A pair of skeleton leggings would be eye-catching enough on their own, but when worn with a skull-printed scarf and a big, scruffy coat, they become the elements of goth armor. 

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The thing about a dramatic outfit is that the demeanor of its wearer can make or break the whole effect. If you woke up one morning and covered your body in skeletal imagery would you go around smiling all day? I mean, you might, but people are sensitive to their environments and personal appearance. The more likely outcome is that you’d be primed to face the world with your finest scowl.

When you think about it, standing in a drippy industrial underground tunnel until a screeching hunk of metal arrives to take you to the other end of a city covered in dirty snow is pretty punk rock. Might as well act like it.

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