Hannah Grant was creeping silently by on two-inch crepe soles, but I caught her in the stairwell to ask about her Neo-Victorian Goth style.
Hannah’s wool shirt has puffy, ruched sleeves in the design called “leg o’ mutton” that was popular at the turn of the 19th century and in the 1980s.
With a black bandanna, when do you ever not look perfect? Here, Hannah uses it with her baby-dreads and Betty Bangs for a cute workaday touch.
The vintage ’70s/’80s skirt is a calico (tiny floral) print, popular in the 1800s and was commonly used in men’s shirts at the time, too.
A long necklace with pendant looks right with this outfit (with a higher neckline wear a longer necklace; a lower neckline is nice with a short chain or choker).
Hannah’s eye makeup looked beautiful – all-over beige shadow with a copper shimmer. The neutral color toned down the sparklelicious glimmer and looked just right for a slightly glammy day-look.
Altogether, Hannah’s style choices blend into an interesting outfit. The creeper shoe keeps the outfit modern and edgy by providing a contrast to the antique feeling of the skirt.
From where comes this young woman’s late 1800s vibe? It seems that we generally go for retro styles from eras we didn’t live through ourselves, in Hannah’s case the 1980s and 1880s. I love the idea of harvesting the shapes, patterns and styles we appreciate from eras a century apart to cultivate a personal style that looks uniquely Now. We 21st century folk are lucky to have millennia of fashion history to reference and re-create, time-traveling through our closets.
Heather Narwid owns Sideshow, a vintage and modern clothing store in Durango. The shop will be reopening soon at a new location at 208 County Road 250 at 32nd Street, where they will be for next 1,000 years.
