Wardrobe Upgrade

Read "The Curated Closet" by Anushka Rees, it's an amazing guide to finding your personal style and building a wardrobe that work perfectly for you and your life! I especially loved the parts about dressing for your actual life and not your fantasy life and building a capsule wardrobe.

As an adult goth (as in dressed goth religiously in my teens, but slowly added colour back), I find pairing favourite colours with black works, and also florals on black makes my goth heart sing.

So I’d advise wearing tops that are in your seasons colours, along with your goth faves. So you highlight your face while still wearing your favourite clothes.

Sleek goth styles are absolutely possible. I do wear more color than I used to, but I still wear lots of grey (cheating because it's not black but it still feels like black haha) and muted or dark colors. Deep berry tones and sage green fits me and my hair/eyes best and they go very well with black or grey. I also like very fine patterns that can break up the "blackness" but still keep that dark vibe, think pinstripes or tiny polka dots. Like another commenter said you can also keep it simple but add "romantic" details like lace or floral/baroque patterns. One of my favorite tops is all black but the bodice has a lace overlay, it looks classy enough but still romantic. Long minimalistic sweater dresses also work great. I personally love lacy and fluttery kimono cardigans and coverups, they can elevate a simple top or t-shirt. I used to own a "victorian style" black blouse with ruching in the front, those fit the goth-but-still-professional vibe too.

I adore Pinup Girl Clothing by Laura Byrnes. It's mostly vintage inspired clothing, but she has "gothic glamour" designs as well. The separate pieces in black flocked harlequin are stunning and office appropriate.

Side note - I highly recommend following Laura Byrnes on TikTok. She has some brilliant FDS-style commentary and as a fashion enthusiast, I love her videos on clothing design.

those are a great combo! you'll find a way to make it work.

i am "true autumn" and swapped all of my black--ok, MOST of it--for dark brown and olive green. there are very dark neutrals out there...they tend to be more expensive, but they'll be your staple pieces.

(i still have black moto-inspired leggings and a warrior-looking black crop that i can't part with...i wear them very rarely, usually when i feel the need to invoke the rage of Kali Ma 🤣wearing black only occasionally imbues the color with a much more powerful energy!)

The other answers cover this a lot better but some of the vintage type clothing stores have some interesting alternative styles that aren't exclusively in black. Definitely try to look for influencers with a similar fashion sense too, this should help with inspiration and confidence.

I also don't wear black because of my season. I look bad in it. I wear light pinks and blues mostly. But I was missing thr goth outfits. I forgot that GRAY looks amazing on me until I pulled out an oversized Grey knit and paired it with my black cargos.

You could just replace the black goth fits with gray.

Depends on what type of job you do and if it's a new work place for you. I wouldn't be so set on purging black clothes out, since it's a socially acceptable neutral color. There's a benefit of dressing neutral when you don't want unnecessary attention. You don't want women at work being jealous of your clothes or your physique, or men thinking you're a bimbo. You can go all out at off work events