Casual Friday

Grey jacket from Kohls, red sleeveless from Target underneath.  Dark blue stretch jeans (so comfy) from Old Navy (sweetheart cut), and black Toms.

Octopus necklace.

New skull necklace I picked up doing a bit of after school shopping.

I also stopped by Encore Shoe Dept. and was happy to see that they still have my favorites, so I picked up a backup pair. 

Now I know some of you are thinking, "I thought goths are supposed to be into DIY and thrifting."  Well, to be honest, my job is very stressful at the moment.  I spend nearly every waking hour teaching, lesson planning, or grading.  Only now is the workload starting to lighten up, so maybe I'll have more time for projects soon. I also find that you can get away with more if you mix and match clean-cut pieces from mainstream stores with a darker color palette.

Goth Sites

Here are some goth blogs I read and other websites goths might find useful:

Stripy Tights and Dark Delights

Gothic Charm School

The International Gothic Club Listing

The Dark Victorian

This is Corp Goth

Gothic Beauty Magazine

Sophistique' Noir

Courtesan Macabre

GIY: Goth It Yourself

Scary Jane

Creepy Glowbugg

Vulcan Butterfly

Still Dark at Heart

Goth Mary Poppins

Gothy Two Shoes

Milking the Rolling Cow

Mindless Indulgence

Linnea pa Landet

Style and Graphite

Gothically Yours

The Curious Professor Z

A Darker Kind of Fashion

Aristocratic Elegance


Enjoy!

Shoes.

Oh my god, shoes. (Pardon the reference.)  Here are some of my favorite shoes. 

No macabre madame is complete without a pair of black boots:

These are great because they can be worn with skirts or under pants, are comfortable when standing for prolonged periods, and are work appropriate.  I got them at Kohls on sale last fall.

Here are my old faithfuls:

From left to right:  Target, Hotcakes, Toms.  The Hotcakes are my favorite; they are probably the most comfortable shoes I have ever owned, and have some funky straps and buckles on them.  Perfect for towing the line at work.  I generally wear my Toms in the winter, because I can wear black dress socks with them to keep warm.

Here are my "occasionally" shoes: 

As you can see, I am a fan of flats.  I don't wear heals because I am standing all day at work, and because flats are just more comfortable.  I have a hard time finding shoes that don't give me blisters, because my feet are exceptionally wide. 

Subdued School Ma'arm

I teach in a small town, so I have to be very conservative in my clothing choices.  I typically play with a gray scale color palette, accented with bright splashes of color.  I have to limit the days I go full grey/white/black to a minimum, to avoid arousing the ire of parents and coworkers.    Hence the name of this blog - Muted Macabre.  If I am to chance dressing darkly at all, my efforts must at all times be understated.

Here are some outfits from the past few days:

This is what I wanted to wear, but I ended up going with a white jacket, as pictured below.  I felt as if I had been pushing it with the black a bit to much earlier in the week.

Outfit number two:

The pants are gray pinstripe.

Corp goth, indeed.