Types Of Goth: 16 Styles for Your Undead Closet

There are over 16 goth styles, including Trad Goth, Deathrock, Cyber Goth, and Pastel Goth. Each one reflects a mood, an era, or a personal rebellion, ranging from Victorian mourning wear to cyberpunk club gear.

Whether you're dressing the part or finding the one that fits your soul, these subcultures give shape to how goth evolves.

What You’ll Find in This Guide

• A breakdown of 16 goth substyles like Trad Goth, Cyber Goth, and Romantic Goth

• Tips for identifying your aesthetic and blending styles

• Product suggestions tailored to each vibe; no poser pieces here

Need the pieces to build your look? Shop VampireFreaks for goth fashion staples that don’t compromise on authenticity.

If you're looking for the full breakdown, it's just below.

Let’s Start at the Crypt, What Makes a Style “Goth”?

Product Featured -> Shoulder Sling Zipper Tote Bag

Goth exists in the tension between beauty and decay. It's about the feeling that lives in your bones, not the bands you know or how much black you wear. It starts with music, but it spills into the way you move through the world.

Some goths dance in the rain with combat boots and black lipstick. Others wear crushed velvet to the grocery store and write poetry on napkins. There’s no checklist. The vibe chooses you.

Fashion plays a role, but it’s not the rulebook. 

Take the Shoulder Sling Zipper Tote Bag, practical, sleek, and dark enough to carry your daily chaos without needing to scream for attention. It’s a look that whispers rebellion.

There’s room for lace, latex, studs, and soft grunge all in the same wardrobe. Style is how you make the inside visible.

Core Types of Goth (The Foundational Styles)

Trad Goth

Product Featured -> Death Raven 32 Oz Water Bottle

Rooted in the 80s post-punk scene, Trad Goths are the sharp silhouettes in all-black, with towering hair and angular eyeliner. Picture Siouxsie Sioux walking out of a fog machine with a cigarette in one hand and an opinion in the other.

Ripped fishnets, platform boots and oversized band tees are all Trad Goth staples. Oh, and how can we forget about the kind of makeup that doubles as war paint? 

Deathrock

Product Featured -> Fuck Off Wallet

More raw than romantic, Deathrock leans into the punk chaos with shredded tights, leather, and DIY everything. This is where horror meets distortion. Messy, loud, and proud of it.

The silhouette is spiky and skeletal. Think mohawks, band patches, safety pins, and anything that looks like it might be haunted. For the perfect middle finger to glossy fashion, try the Fuck Off Wallet. 

It says everything without needing to say anything.

Romantic Goth

Product Featured -> Batwing Pagoda Umbrella

This is where heartbreak gets dressed in velvet. Flowing fabrics, Victorian lace, and a color palette of deep reds, blacks, and midnight purples. Less club, more candlelight.

The vibe is ghost story meets love letter. Add drama to your wardrobe with the Batwing Pagoda Umbrella. It’s made for moonlit walks and stormy entrances.

Victorian Goth

Product Featured -> Ghost Haunting Spiral Notebook

Inspired by 19th-century mourning rituals, this style layers corsets, parasols, and ankle-length skirts. It’s elegance laced with grief.

Everything feels deliberate, from the pearl chokers to the boots with a three-inch heel made for silence. The look says, “I know where the bodies are buried,” but politely. Using the Ghost Haunting Spiral Notebook offers a subtle Victorian touch to your look.

Medieval/Fantasy Goth

Product Featured -> Medusa's Head Plush Toy

This aesthetic fuses ancient myth with dark whimsy. Think flowing sleeves, elven details, and tones that echo forest and fire.

It leans theatrical but with roots in lore. Whether you're cosplaying your DnD character or channeling the forest witch who lives alone by choice, the Medusa's Head Plush Toy fits on your shelf or altar like it was meant to be there.

Want to see how other substyles take shape? That’s next.

Alt Subtypes That Keep the Scene Alive

Cyber Goth

Product Featured -> Batwing Pagoda Umbrella – Goth Rainbow

Welcome to the future, where the club never closes and your boots light up the pavement. Cyber Goth mixes industrial gear with neon accents, synthetic dreadlocks, and goggles pulled straight out of a radioactive rave.

This is where PVC meets platform, and the dancefloor looks like it might launch into orbit. Add an edge to your rainy-day fits with the Batwing Pagoda Umbrella – Goth Rainbow, loud, proud, and impossible to ignore.

Nu Goth

Product Featured -> 3 T-Shirt Mystery Bag

Stripped down and contemporary, Nu Goth tones down the theatrical and dials up the sleek. Minimal silhouettes, occult prints, and streetwear cuts blend seamlessly with the darker side of alternative fashion.

It’s less about historical references and more about fluid expression. You’ll see oversized shirts paired with witchy rings, layered chains, and dramatic eyes. Drop into that headspace with the 3 T-Shirt Mystery Bag. What you get might surprise you. 

Mall Goth

Product Featured -> Vintage Bat Sweat Shorts

Low-rise jeans, Slipknot hoodies, black nail polish from the drugstore, and fingerless gloves in July. Mall Goths were the soundtrack of the early 2000s, stomping through food courts in trip pants and blasting My Chemical Romance on CD players.

It’s nostalgic, messy, and never really left. Want a throwback that still screams today? The Vintage Bat Sweat Shorts give you that soft hardcore vibe that bridges old-school angst with modern comfort.

Glam Goth

Product Featured -> Pride Skeleton Love T-shirt

This is for the peacocks of the night. Think crushed velvet, metallics, dramatic makeup, and a stage-worthy presence that never apologizes. Glam Goth walks like it owns the room because it probably does.

Pair sequins with studs, platform boots with floor-length coats, and line your eyes like you’re headlining. Store your chaos in style with the Pride Skeleton Love T-shirt. It carries everything except your subtlety.

Gothabilly

Product Featured -> The Little Murdermaid Hoodie

Imagine rockabilly’s slicked-back swagger stitched together with spiderwebs and skulls. Gothabilly marries the vintage pin-up aesthetic with macabre flair. Polka dots and coffin rings. Red lips and bat tattoos.

This style leans into nostalgia without giving up its bite. It’s the lovechild of Betty Page and Bela Lugosi. Show some fang with The Little Murdermaid Hoodie, equal parts cute and cursed.

Fringe Styles (Often Overlooked, Always Iconic)

Pastel Goth

Product Featured: Skelekitty Purse

Baby blue hair. Lavender chokers. Cute meets creepy. Pastel Goth walks the line between soft and sinister. The bones are still there, but the palette is candy-coated.

Bows, bones, and oversized platforms are all fair game. Keep your look grounded with something playful like the Skelekitty Purse. Soft doesn’t mean safe.

Witch Goth

Product Featured -> Haunted Mansion Makeup Bag

Moon phases, sheer veils, silver rings, and enough tarot decks to curse a bloodline. Witch Goth draws from magic, mysticism, and shadow work. It’s more spellbook than stylebook, but the fashion casts its own kind of charm.

Whether you dress in gauze or velvet, layer it with meaning. Our Cosmetics Collection brings that ritual-ready vibe to your mirror, no summoning circle needed.

Fetish Goth

Product Featured -> Vampire Keychain

Latex. Harnesses. Spikes. Fetish Goth pushes boundaries, bends norms, and never asks permission. Whether it’s inspired by club culture or personal expression, it’s built around control and the thrill of aesthetic tension.

Structure and silhouette lead the way here. Your gear says what you don’t. Add finishing flair with something like the Vampire Keychain. 

Clown Goth, Cowboy Goth & Elven Goth

These hybrid styles are hard to define but impossible to miss. Clown Goth mixes exaggerated makeup with sinister glee. Cowboy Goth leans into western silhouettes in dark palettes. Elven Goth embraces fantasy with ethereal pieces, lace, and medieval touches.

They’re niche, expressive, and unapologetically weird. No rules. No roadmap. That’s exactly what makes them work.

Next, we’ll break down how other styles orbit the goth aesthetic without fully landing in it. Keep going.

Styles That Aren’t Quite Goth (But Ride Alongside It)

Emo

Product Featured -> Serial Freaks Enamel Pin

This one bleeds heartbreak. Skinny jeans, side-swept bangs, lyrics scrawled on Converse, and a playlist that never forgives. Emo leans heavy on personal expression, layering eyeliner with melodies that hit straight in the chest.

Add the Serial Freaks Enamel Pin to any look with feelings and fangs. 

Scene

Product Featured -> Creepy Crew Socks [Bone/Black Stripes]

Scene brought the chaos. Neon cheetah prints, teased hair sprayed into skyscrapers, layered wristbands, and cartoon everything. While goth stays in grayscale, scene dives into the digital rainbow and doesn’t look back.

Wild patterns clash with loud energy. It’s meant to be obnoxious. Accessorize with a pair of Socks or Tights that clash on purpose. That’s part of the fun.

E-Goth / Internet Goth

Product Featured -> Lycanthrope T-Shirt

Born online, this style skews digital and curated. Chain necklaces over mesh tops, winged liner sharp enough to cut code, and selfies where lighting is half the aesthetic. E-Goth thrives on visuals and shape-shifting.

While the roots are newer, the edge remains. Build your daily fit around something like the Lycanthrope T-Shirt, bold, clean, and ready to haunt your grid.

How to Find Your Style (and Make It Yours)

Product Featured -> VampireFreaks Stickers – 5 Pack

Start with what pulls you in. Maybe it’s a lyric. Maybe it’s a movie scene you’ve never been able to shake. Maybe it’s the first time you saw someone dressed like they stepped out of your nightmares, and you felt something like recognition.

Goth style builds from instinct. You don’t need a starter pack. Begin with one piece that feels like it belongs to you and build out from there. A shirt. A ring. A pair of boots that make you walk differently. The VampireFreaks Stickers – 5 Pack are a low-stakes entry. Throw one on your sketchbook, mirror, or laptop. 

Let the mood follow.

Layering helps you experiment. Toss a Romantic-style lace top under a punk jacket. Pair pastel makeup with cyber goggles. If you hate it in ten minutes, you can change. If you love it, you’ve found your lane.

You Found Your People

You don’t need permission to wear what you like. You don’t need a decade of history to start now. If something inside you responds to lace, leather, fangs, fog, eyeliner, or eyeliner that looks like it was applied in a blackout dream, this space is yours.

This is about creating a look that reflects your mind, your mood, and your sense of power.

When you're ready to go deeper, hit the VampireFreaks Collection. 

Wear your weird. We’ll keep it stocked.