St Mary’s Academic to Speak at Gothics Seminar

Dr Maria Mellins, Senior Lecturer in Film and Screen Media at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham will be contributing to a seminar on Goth culture at the British Film Institute (BFI) on Saturday 18th January. The event, The Gothic Style: A Study Day, will look at the costumes used in Gothic films and explore how these costumes influence sub-cultures and fashion. The seminar will touch on sociology and literary studies as well as film studies and the history of fashion. Dr Mellins will deliver a lecture entitled London Sucks: Vampire Lifestyle from Fiction to Fashion at the event. There will be further guest lectures on the day from Amber Jane Butchart at the London College of Fashion who will speak on Haute Horror: Death and the Macabre in High Fashion; Royce Mahawatte from Central Saint Martins with Cape, skin and silhouette: Gothic men and fashion critical study; and Catherine Spooner from Lancaster University who will discuss Catsuits, Corsets and Funeral Veils: Costume in Gothic Cinema. There will also be a screening of Catherine De Medicis Part 2 (Dir Steven Chivers, 1984). There will be a further consideration of fashion, style and subculture during St Mary's conference, entitled Subverting Fashion, on Friday 11th July.