The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

Photos by Marcus Metropolis

In the midst of MNFashion Week, a dark and sultry secret emerges from the underground: Couture Noir, a masqueraded runway show complete with the latest goth fashions and costumed burlesque dancers, takes place within the velvet-ensconced and chandelier-lit environs of the Varsity Theater. Long before the doors open, a line of eager patrons decked out in ruffles, lace and Venetian carnival masks stretches down the block. The casual observer might wander by and think to themselves, "Selves, there's some serious Eyes Wide Shuttery going on in there tonight," but for those in the know, the event's draw to fashion aficionados is as natural and imperative as is the flame's to moths.

The many styles of dress and demeanor that have come to reside beneath the umbrella term "goth" have enjoyed a long history of residence upon the fringes of high fashion and, for years, have worked their ways into the mainstream of everyday street wear within fashionable forefronts such as Japan and, more recently, Europe's more progressive cities. Here in the States we've begun to note the recurrence of corsets, gored skirts and balloon sleeves upon the fashion world's more discerning runways so, as a treat to those of us who've had just a taste and now wish to devour it all, dark-chic veteran Mackenzie Labine of Oishiimomo has conscripted her peers and produced this show. Now more a social phalanx than a mere event, collected visions of seven designers from the fringes stand poised to march upon the greater fashion world and lay siege to our modern conventions.

As the doors open and we crowd into the theater, lights begin to dim and a sensual pulse pervades the parlor. The DJ sends spasmodic beats echoing into the ether above us, calling for the night to begin and, as models move from the shadows to the light, we catch our first glimpses of Couture Noir:

Lithe young mannequin-like models begin to take the catwalk, garbed in Anthony Eliason's alternating steampunk and futurepop visions. Skirts bounce about the legs, shimmering under the hot lights in silver and bronze tones, with tops draped or wrapped in a predominantly bare-shouldered style. After several young ladies togged in burnish and shine have passed before the crowd, one standout design parades before us in a sleek, matte black gown billowing just above floor length as its wearer glides into the center of attention. Three jeweled jet buttons and an inconspicuous broach are the only color to be found upon an otherwise dark livery, with dual front slits and web-like lace about the shoulders, and the crowd lulls, lost in its shadowy depths.

What Eliason achieves in color, designer Danielle Everine does with texture. From inconspicuous Renaissance sensibilities like fabrics resembling lamellar and brigandine to vests made of wood and imbricated scales, a vast array of materials serve as playground for the designer's imagination. Colors and patterns together kindle a polished bronze luster in the models' clothes as they move through the room. The more daring designs convey callbacks to the warriors of Olde Europe, of Sixteenth Century palace guards and their squires, while the subtler outfits combine the accepted median with the mildly bizarre in an overall look that wouldn't seem at all out of place at a fashionable party or club, despite its underlying darkwave sensibilities.

Elizabeth Chesney's work is to fashion as the Model T was to Edwardian-era motoring: Accessible, innovative and any color you want so long as it is black. Blending the baroque with the sensibly post-modern, her accoutrements layer leather over fabric with thick, sharp lines and pronounced articulations that draw the eye and accentuate all the right features: Strong shoulders here, supple curves there, slender wrists, graceful bodies and piercing eyes. Leather faux corsets create an obsequious symmetry wrapped over loose-fitting lace, an interplay of the patterns and their absence directing the viewer's attention over the whole in a guided path. Chesney's work is the darkest on display due, in part, to the complete lack of color and, more so, to an ever-present yet mostly-understated dominatrix feel to her finery.

Apatico Shop's Megan Bishop leads us further into the realm of historically faithful fashion while incorporating Ero Aristocratic low-cut tops and high hemlines into the fashions of old. Dark and earthy colors mix with metallics, accented with fleeting flashes of turquoise or orange. A diverse array of nineteenth century lifestyles is resurrected in the adornments before us, from the Cockney strumpet to the society lady in full equestrian apparel, and all re-envisioned through the lens of a modern, macabre sensuality.

Circumventing the archetypal blacks and grays so common within the subculture, Samantha Rei of Blasphemina's Closet assembles period pieces in shades of turquoise, burgundy, pink and deep blues set against clean whites and calming cream tones. Employing many of the more effective and recognizable conventions of Victorian fashion, Rei makes use of flared skirts, princess seams, ruffles and gathered waists, along with prop parasols and all the frills and finery available to the emulated era, to create not just the outfits, but the very characters within and we are left to marvel as we forget, if only for a moment, that we are looking at models and not darkly amorous reincarnations of Lolita Alice or Madam Poppins, as Alan Moore or Laurel Hamilton might have penned them.

From Seamstrix comes Melanie Ree, whose vision mixes both authentic period and some of the most daring departures. Bucking the age old adage prizing concealment over revealment, the first of her models descends upon us barely dressed from the waist up in a translucent web of snowflake-patterned lace adorned in golden-toned trimmings while, further down the body, loose-fitting shorts beckon with a satiny sheen for the beholder to come hither. As other models come into the light, our eyes fall upon surreal '20s era evening gowns and casual dresses starlets might once have worn in a mirror universe Milan, a flapper shimmering in scarce but discerningly connected bits of sequined fabric, a thick and velvety cape flowing about its wearer who is, in turn, adorned in little else. Floor-length black gowns trimmed in sequins, corsets, lace and bows follow and complete the Seamstrix splendor, leaving but one final model to step into our perceptions.

She fades into existence, seemingly from nowhere, and strolls across the runway in a creation by show producer Mackenzie Labine. Fabric shifts and shimmers in the air (now grown palpable with adoration) and flashes black, violet, emerald, blue and bronze all at once. She is a caparisoned chameleon in a skirt hanging tightly toward the top of the thigh, concealed beneath blouse, cloak and gown married together in one solid wrap strapped shut in front, just above and below the midriff. The front opens wide at the shoulders to reveal the neck before tapering almost shut at the base of the bosom and splitting apart again at the waist, where it begins flowing regally around the model's skirt and legs. A hushed silence falls over the crowd, lasting a mere moment, before deafening applause erupts throughout the room as Labine herself strides down the runway.

Rounded off with music by DJ Real Talk Radio and the burlesque stylings of Tomahawk Tassels, The Couture Noir Show disappoints not a single member of the crowd. At show's end, we stream slowly and reluctantly from the interior of The Varsity and back into the streets of Dinkytown. These streets, so often associated with an elusive edginess all their own, now seem mundane in comparison to where we've been. We rub our eyes in wonderment, as if waking from the surreality of a dream and not yet lucid, as we try in vain to catalog and register the many fantastic things we've just witnessed. Our trip through the looking glass is now complete and we return to the mainstream, knowing not what might have followed us back.

For more photos from Couture Noir by Marcus Metropolis, click HERE