From pasty faced teen outcasts in Sisters of Mercy T-shirts and ill-fitting velvet leggings, to impeccable neo-Victorian dandies like the Horrors or Ipso Facto, the gothic tendency has been responsible for some of the very worst and best of fashion excess. Gothic: Dark Glamour, which opened at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s museum last month and is scheduled to run through Feb. 21, wisely focuses on haute couture that is reflective of the wider gothic tradition of romance, dandyism and libertinage, rather than simple gloominess and an unhealthy obsession with bats.

Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy, evening dress from the Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2006 show. Photograph courtesy Givenchy

Curator Valerie Steele opens proceedings with a brief sketch of gothic aesthetic and literary tropes via an essay, a side-by-side comparison of Henry Fuseli’s sexually charged 1781 painting The Nightmare and a Givenchy evening gown, and some distinctly glamorous Victorian mourning wear (”the trap rebaited,” as a contemporary joke apparently had it). The fun, if slightly gimmicky, setup then leads attendees through various thematic areas: a “haunted palace,” a “cemetery,” and so on.

For non-fashionistas, the most fascinating will likely be the Laboratory section. Here, Kei Kagami’s creepy mixed-media costume-sculptures — metal and glass structures clamped to the mannequins as if in some sado-masochistic torture ritual — sit next to Alexander McQueen’s chilling prosthetic corset, all leather and Frankenstein stitches.

The most impressive pieces in the exhibit expand their color palette beyond the standard black. John Galliano’s devilish tribute to the Marquis de Sade utilizes a deep scarlet in its sexily macabre interpretation of gothic romantic style. A stunning 2001 creation from McQueen, who is responsible for nearly all the genuinely jaw-dropping moments in Gothic: Dark Glamour, combines red microscope slides and feathers to evoke beauty, horror and madness. These dresses, like the best gothic fiction, are dazzling and unsettling in equal measure.

Alexander McQueen dress, made in part from microscope slides dyed red, is from the Voss collection of Spring/Summer 2001, which was inspired by inmates in an insane asylum. Photograph courtesy Alexander McQueen

Dress circa 1880 from the collection of Evan Michelson, photography by MFIT.

This Fall/Winter 2008/09 Rodarte collection was inspired by Japanese horror films, and the red dye was intended to evoke the look of blood in water. Photograph by Dan Lecca, courtesy Rodarte