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The iconic fashion ideology known as Gothic or Goth has its roots in several different style trends, which coalesced during the last decades of the 20th century around a memeplex of social and aesthetic ideals known as the Goth counterculture. These fashion trends include the decadent fashions of the European upper classes during the Renaissance and the Victorian period, the de-construction of gender-specific appearance markers created by Glam Rock and Heavy Metal musicians, the appearance of danger or menace displayed in the Punk and Biker countercultures, the 'futuristic-primitive' fashion aesthetic created in post apocalyptic and cyberpunk science fiction, and the overt sexualization and elaborate costumes of the sado-masochistic sexual underground.

Goth fashion is highly influenced by musical culture and the stage persona of beloved musicians. As a separate fashion style, Goth first began to evolve in the early 1980's from the very distinctive appearance of certain post-punk music artists, notably Peter Murphy of Bauhaus, Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees, and David Smith of The Cure (a specific hairstyle of mid-length spiky hair exhibiting a very chaotic form is still known among Goths as a 'Robert Smith' cut in honour of the man who pioneered it). These artists were not highly 'popular' in the mass-market success-by-the-numbers sense of the term, but did attract a 'cult' following of dedicated fans who took inspiration for personal fashion style from them, creating a recognizable and homogenous 'old school' Goth look. In the late '80s and early 90's, Goth fashion expanded along with the Goth culture and took on aspects of the Metal-head and Rivet-head styles at the same time that Heavy Metal and Industrial music began to combine their influences with Goth music. This more diverse 'new-wave' Gothic style was again spread to a new generation of fans and counterculturists by somewhat more widely known (but still not highly 'popular') artists such as Andrew Eldritch of The Sisters of Mercy, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and Marilyn Manson of Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids.

The fashion style of Goths is intimately bound up in the social-aesthetic ideals of the Gothic culture - most pertinently, the ideals of freedom from social control, respect for sexuality and death, and finding the beauty in darkness. The anchor point of the style is the archetype of the vampire, the psychic symbol of dangerous sexuality. Most Goth fashion choices involve

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