What is the soft goth look and can it be flattering in midlife?

Jenna Ortega and Winona Ryder regularly wear gothic-inspired looks, and they were a frequent theme during their promotion of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Photo / Getty Images

The spooky look is back in fashion, but injecting it into your wardrobe isn’t easy. The Telegraph’s Sarah Bailey explains how to wear the style in real life.

By the pricking of my thumbs … there’s something distinctly gothic in the air fashion-wise. On the Venice red carpet, the triumvirate of Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice lead actresses — Catherine O’Hara, Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega — made dressing on the spooky side look very, very glamorous again (and let’s not forget Monica Bellucci, resplendent in jet-black, corseted Vivienne Westwood).

Later this year, the much anticipated Nosferatu remake (starring Lily-Rose Depp, Emma Corrin, Aaron Taylor Johnson and Willem Defoe) promises to intensify our collective longing for a dark Victoriana sartorial aesthetic as will The Design Museum’s forthcoming The World of Tim Burton exhibition, which opens in London on October 25.

Lily-Rose Depp in Nosferatu. Photo / Focus Features

On the high street, the rails are already heaving with black lace. Tish Weinstock, the UK Vogue beauty editor, whose book How To be A Goth: Notes On Undead Style is published later this month, has already declared it, “the season of the witch”.

All said, injecting a little goth into your wardrobe is not so straightforward.

As subcultures go, Goth (founded sometime in the mists of the late 1970s) is a pretty broad church. Cyber-punks, maudlin Victoriana types, those with a penchant for a PVC kink are all welcomed in.

On the high fashion front, Simone Rocha is a reliable source of upscale gothic fairytale pieces, with her black taffeta capes and gauzy dresses. Turkish-English newcomer Dilara Findikoglu gives a spikier take, specialising in corsets and a fierce, punky attitude.

A look from Simone Rocha's spring-summer show at London Fashion Week. Photo / @simonerocha_

On social media, the hashtag ‘Soft Goth’ (denoting style inspo that errs on the romantically crepuscular, rather than full-on Sisters of Mercy shriek wear) is a helpful starting point. But the question remains: can a midlifer such as I actually wear the trend, without looking like I’ve lost my way to a Halloween costume party?

Catherine O'Hara wears a romantic, gothic look to the London premiere of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Photo / Getty Images

“I think it can be as simple as going heavy on the dark, smokey eyeliner and mascara; and if you are wearing all black doing that magic combination of textures, say, a velvet jacket with a fantastic silk pussybow blouse and a jean, maybe add a fishnet,” Catherine Hayward, the stylist and consultant, tells me. “You can wear that to cocktails, or even to work … bar the fishnets. It’s all about a nod. Expensive-looking textures, and smudgier eye make-up. That’s the sexy, modern way to do it, without looking like you are in Beetlejuice costume.”

A “soft goth” dress, which — shocker — does not have to be black. After all, the definitive dress that Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder’s character) wears in the first Beetlejuice movie is, in fact, a distressed gauzy red affair — which has been reinterpreted by Simone Rocha over the years.

And as Taylor Swift’s tartan, fetishy, corseted Dior number as worn to the MTV Music Awards reminds us, gothic punk styling has often embraced the Scottish cloth.

Taylor Swift attends at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards in New York City. Photo / Getty Images

Leopard, interestingly, is also an acceptable fabric in the gothic sartorial vocabulary, particularly for those on the rockabilly (or gothabilly) side of the spooky spectrum.

It’s not just movie star style driving the soft goth trend, there’s also a broader pop cultural context at play. Sarra Manning — a former teenage goth, now novelist and Literary Editor of Red magazine — explains that soft goth book trends such as ‘Romantasy’ (think: the Sarah J. Maas series A Court of Thorns and Roses), “are so big now, they’ve crossed over.

“They are not just a Gen Z phenomenon, they are also widely read by midlifers”. She also points to the popularity of subscription book company Illumicrate, which curates aesthetically pleasing boxes of romantic books with sprayed edges and beautiful covers. “It’s very ‘booktok’, very ‘bookstagram’,” she continues. “Also, autumn is a very soft goth time of year. Everyone wants to get cosy, read a book and get sort of slightly spooked, but not so spooked you are going to have nightmares.”

Winona Ryder in London wearing a tailored take on goth. Photo / Getty Images

Of course for some, Goth is not just a seasonal fashion trend to dip a pointy toe into, it’s a way of life. On November 1,, the Whitby Goth Weekend will see thousands of devotees swathed in suitably macabre attire descend for a three-day festival of eldritch goings-on; and for those in the know there’s a busy calendar of goth happenings throughout the country.

I speak to one modern goth Madelaine Macabre, 32, from Nazeby, Waltham Abbey, who among other things sews stitch-perfect replica outfits from her favourite films (we met at an exhibition of Poor Things costumes, when she was dressed as Bella Baxter).

Emma Stone in Poor Things by Yorgos Lanthimos. The film's Oscar-winning costumes were created by Holly Waddington. Photo / Searchlight Pictures

Why does she think there has been a resurgence of interest in all things goth? “I guess in a way, history repeats itself. The subculture was born in a time of political turbulence and a similar thing is happening today. I think people enjoy looking to the darker side of things and romanticising it. It’s like watching a horror movie, you can experience something scary in a safe way.”

So has she seen the new Beetlejuice movie? “Not yet, but I plan to and I’ve already made a stripy outfit!” Light in the darkness indeed. Here’s to enjoying the season of the goth … even if you are a softie, like me.