It’s an interesting quirk of LA—a place quite literally within The Golden State—that goth culture is one of the city’s biggest (unofficial) exports. Sure, you’d be forgiven for picturing perma-tans and platinum blondes when someone mentions Hollywood. But anyone who’s spent any time there will tell you: that city is run by goth girls. And Gabbriette, a native Californian (and fiancée to The 1975’s Matty Healy), is their dark mistress.
She follows a long line of glamour ghouls: Vampira (iconically buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery), Elvira (whom Vampira—real name Maila Nurmi—once sued for impersonation), heck, even Lily Munster and Morticia Addams (the TV adaptation at least) were born in the so-called City of Angels.
Perhaps it only makes sense, then, that goth culture should burst from the shadows—not in October, a month already devoted to the undead—but in the heat of summer, like a sartorial Nosferatu. And if you needed proof that goth has gone macabre-mainstream, look no further than the press tour for the reboot of the 1997 cult classic I Know What You Did Last Summer.
The film itself is a smorgasbord of eldritch hallmarks. For starters, it’s a slasher, and the original—shot in the ’90s (very goth)—stars a pre-Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sarah Michelle Gellar. Also, the killer’s weapon of choice is a fish hook. Menacing. There are frights, thrills, and of course—fashion.
At a private screening of the film, Gabbriette—who stars in the remake—assembled a coven of gloomy It Girls, including Alana Haim, Jesse Jo Stark, Devon Lee Carlson, and Kylie Jenner’s bestie, Anastasia Karanikolaou.
For the event, which was held at a members-only club in LA, the saturnine starlet stuck to her funereal fashion formula: a micro mini dress with a keyhole cutout, paired with glossy patent leather peep-toe platforms by Christian Louboutin—their blood-red soles winking lasciviously with every step.
For the official LA premiere, she doubled down on nocturnal style codes in a raven-black lace-up corset and matching satin trousers, a look that conjured memories of Jennifer Love Hewitt’s 1998 outfit during the press tour for I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.
Welcome—if you dare—to Goth Girl Summer.
