pastel goth

Pastel goth mixes goth basics with soft pastel colours: a black babydoll dress with lavender hair, creepers with pink tights, skulls next to unicorns. It’s spooky and sweet at the same time.

What pastel goth looks like

• Pastel or dip-dyed hair in pink, mint, lilac or baby blue
• Black babydoll dresses and skirts
• Creepers and platform shoes
• Ombré or patterned tights
• Skulls, crosses, bats and skeleton-hand hair clips
• Unicorns, stars and other cute motifs mixed right in

BuzzFeed described it in 2014 as “nu goth” or “goth lite,” which captures the mood: goth shapes and symbols, without the all-black seriousness.

Examples

• “Lilac hair, black lace dress, a tiny bat backpack. Peak pastel goth.”
• “My whole 2013 Tumblr dashboard was pastel goth.”
• “She’s too cute to be goth and too goth to be cute. Pastel goth.”

Where it came from

Pastel goth grew up on Tumblr in the early 2010s. Know Your Meme notes a Tumblr blog dedicated to the style launched in January 2012, and an Urban Dictionary entry from June that year already called it a fashion trend popular with girls on Tumblr. Nobody is credited with coining the name.

Pastel goth vs. yami kawaii vs. mall goth

• Pastel goth: a Western Tumblr style mixing goth and pastel cuteness.
• Yami kawaii: a Japanese “sick cute” style built around mental-health themes.
• Mall goth: Hot Topic–era goth with giant pants and chokers.

Related terms

• mall goth: late-1990s and 2000s teen goth style
• yami kawaii: pastel cuteness with dark themes
• kawaii: the Japanese culture of cuteness
• e-girl: internet-era alt style
• alt: alternative, outside the mainstream

See more terms like this in our internet aesthetics guide.