A Long Goth Summer

So Paris fashion week is in full swing, and I've been looking through some of the images from yesterday's Chanel ready to wear show. I would in no way claim to identify with the "Chanel Girl" - she typically seems too stiff, too luxe, and too elitist for my tastes - but I have to admit that I'm rather taken with some of the looks that came down the catwalk. It was the gothier offerings in particular that captured my imagination: 

Clodhopping shoe-boots, black feather polo necks, and dewy cobweb necklaces may not scream spring-summer, but there's something quite charming about these darker looks. I just love the idea of staging a disjunction between the season and one's clothes - of finding a way of channeling a certain gothic bleakness at the very moment that the weather becomes more cheerful. In fact, these get-ups offer some practical solutions for the warm-weather goth; stick with your signature colours of black and silver, but be willing to utilize lighter-weight fabrics. The lace here is as delicate and breathable as it is darkly romantic, and that gauzy grey skirt is a dream. You can be a goth without sacrificing season-appropriateness!

Would it lower the tone here to suggest that the whole thing reminds me of the resort wear challenge from this season's Project Runway? I mean, here's April's winning "holiday in a tropical insane asylum" look:

It's hardly Chanel, of course; the dress looks cheap, and the Gaga-esque big knicker-shorts are questionable. The concept is still comparable, though. I mean, it's all about edgy gothic weirdness in floaty summer fabrics, isn't it? April and Karl are pretty much the same, right? Right?! Oh, screw you.