Today’s prompt: Name 5 things I love about (dark) Mori. Okay, I got this.

1. I find that I need a sense of magic and mystery in my life. When I don’t make time for that, I get anxious and become an angry perfectionist about everything. Dark mori helps me create that “enchanted forest” feeling in my everyday life and helps me relax and keep things in perspective.
2. The hobbies definitely suit me. Reading, knitting, collecting rocks and bones out in the woods, all favorite Mori hobbies of mine. It’s not on any official list, but making a nice home cooked meal is another thing I enjoy a lot that feels Mori to me. I like the way Mori encourages us to slow down and appreciate simple comforts and traditions instead of rushing around after the latest trends.
3. Fashion-wise, I love that Mori is more about how the clothes feel than how they look. So much fashion is intensely visual–what matters is how the outfit looks, not how it feels. The textures and draped layers of Mori often don’t look great on Instagram, not compared to a corseted beauty decked out in layers of jewelry, but soft knits and well-worn cottons feel good on your skin. Lace borders and linens feel nice when you run your fingers over them. Flat shoes feel better to walk in than spike heels, even if spike heels look better in photos. Really traditional Mori does have a really specific silhouette and can be a bit heavy and hot to wear, but dark Mori and other more flexible offshoots are both comfortable and beautiful.
4. My fourth thing is sort of related to my third. A lot of fashion, including a lot of goth fashion, is focused on a really specific type of sexiness. There’s a lot of tight and revealing clothing that’s really cool but just never worked for me. Dark Mori is a nice alternative way to be feminine and even dramatic in a way more forgiving for my body type and more suited to my introverted personality.
5. Weirdly, I also love the fact that dark Mori is barely a thing and Strega is basically “whatever feels witchy to you.” Communities are awesome for support, but internet communities are also prone to gatekeeping and being super judgmental because people feel protected behind their screens. I love goth for the online community and the ease of finding goth content, but sometimes I can’t deal with all the “gother than thou” posts and the pressure to goth a certain way. With dark Mori it’s the opposite–much harder to find specific content, but also no wading through page after page of “that’s not dark Mori” or “real dark Mori folk would never wear/like/listen to that.” It’s great.