Emo Fashion - A Mixture of Gothic and Punk

The emo subculture takes a large portion of its fashion sense from the gothic and punk subcultures. It's fairly safe to consider emo to be a mesh of the two subcultures with a sprinkle of sensitivity. Though the mixture of the two subcultures is more apparent in females, you can also see subtle hints in the way that emo males dress.

Emos wear a lot of black. This was more apparent when the style first began to emerge several years ago. Though some emos still stick to the more original apparel, the style has evolved to include a wider color variety. Another notable gothic trend that was carried over into the emo subculture is dying the hair black. When the emo trend first emerged, this was another style that was closely followed by both males and females alike. Though this is still popular among many emos, this too has evolved and hairstyles have taken on more of a punk look. The last notable trend taken from the gothic subculture is heavy dark eye makeup. Eyeliner on males is one of the most notable emo trademarks.

On the punk side of things, animal prints have been brought back into style by the female emo population. Old punk bands have also reemerged as an emo favorite choice of music. An evolved hairstyle went from a primarily black color to multi-dyed hair, though black is still usually the base color. And big hair for females is now the in thing, something that hasn't been seen in society for a long time.

So is emo more gothic or more punk? Aside from the musical aspect, I'd say that emo originally took its fashion sense from the gothic subculture. In later years, punk began to play a larger part. Either way, the marriage of these two subcultures created a pretty attractive baby.