Batty was such a key figure in early 2000s gothic fashion. We regularly featured her Azrael’s Accomplice Designs clothing line, and its offshoot AZAC Couture, in Gothic Beauty Magazine. She and/or her clothing designs appeared in Gothic Beauty Magazine 5, 15, 18, 25, 32, and on various best-dressed event attendees and others pictured in additional articles. She combined her fashion education with her clubland roots to create unique looks. She took her inspiration from diverse sources, from J-rock and visual kei magazines to 80’s glam rock and britpop to traditional Chinese noble attire and old west steampunk. Best known for her elegant ball gowns, models Batty dressed included Dana Dark, Apnea, Angela Ryan, Laura McIntyre, Azenett, Belladonna, Wendy, Deven, Brook, Marjaan, and more. Batty also modeled Kambriel and DivaLuxe in the pages of Gothic Beauty Magazine. She and/or her fashion were photographed for Gothic Beauty by Daniel Amezcua, Lithium Picnic, Ron Davis, Fotonoir, Amelia G and Forrest Black.
Today, Azrael’s Accomplice outfits are currently only made available in rare intervals via Batty’s social media or if a client has a particularly compelling idea for a custom gown they would like made. As an actually very natural extension of her Azrael’s Accomplice work, Batty, aka Tracy Robertson, is now back in school, doing work as a clothing historian and archaeologist. Tracy Robertson is not just a designer and former model but an academic with a deep focus on the material culture of fashion.
We are thinking of including one of her collaboration with Forrest Black and Amelia G, wearing DivaLuxe and her own Azrael’s Accomplice, in the retrospective calendar currently funding on Kickstarter. If you pledge the Gothic Beauty Kickstarter project, you can help curate which images we publish. I am very excited about getting to interview such icons of our community. Excerpts of this interview series will be included in the Gothic Beauty 25 Year Reunion of Original Artists – Calendar Project, but I wanted to share the full-length interviews as well.
BTS: How did this particular shoot for Gothic Beauty Magazine 5 come together and what was the shoot day like?
This shoot was done during one of the Gothic beauty pageants at Underworld at Numbers nightclub in Houston, Texas. It wasn’t specifically a shoot we prepared for outside of that. We knew that the photographers would be there shooting the event as they had shot a lot of of us models and the local Houston events before.
Anything you’d like to share about the location, how the collaboration went, what it was like working with your collaborators, anything extra you had to do to make the shoot happen?
It was actually really interesting how this shoot happened, as we knew they would be shooting the event, and the picture that actually ended up of me was basically part of a bunch of pictures of me and my friends kind of cutting up at the time and just being silly. Then they shot a few of me in my dress where I managed to not be making a silly face. One of those ended up on the cover.. of course I had worked with the photographers before so I felt really comfortable around them. I also had had my clothing company Azraels Accomplice in publications before and knew that they were working with Gothic beauty this time but I did not expect to get a cover however, so that was cool.
What was the process like of putting this outfit (dress, falls, all the details) together and has your styling/designing process changed/evolved since then?
Putting together this dress was actually really fun. I had been in the Goth scene since about 1993 at this point and what started off is what I thought a very serious elegant Victorian trad look when I first got into things had evolved at this point into me having a lot more fun with it, and experimenting with a lot more color. Because fashion history was my other love a lot of my designs, especially my formal ware, was inspired by Victorian dresses (even though completely not in a historically correct manner at this point. ) I used to like to challenge myself to make things that weren’t traditionally goth look goth , and this bright red seemed to be screaming to make into something spooky. Of course, when I paired it with my bright blue hair, I thought that I might end up looking like the American flag, but I think that it actually made the color stand out really well and is definitely one of my more interesting color choices over the years. Basically, at this point I was in my “go big or go home” stage so all of my outfits were very dramatic. My hair was very big. I was from Texas after all.
My design and styling process has definitely changed – since now my business is more of a side hobby in which I open up a few times a year to take orders. Later in life, I actually went back to school for a secondary career in anthropology/archaeology with a museum studies minor and I am now preparing to do a masters and PhD overseas in archaeology with a focus on textiles /fashion history.
I do a lot more historical sewing now (as in historically accurate). My specialty is 18th century stays (corsets ) my thesis work will actually probably end up having something to do with that. This isn’t a huge departure for me as corsetry was always a huge part of Azraels Accomplice Designs , and I was originally trained at fashion school too make corsets and be a pattern drafter for special sizes. As far as my personal style goes, these days, I have left the hair falls behind. I grew out my own long hair (funny enough it is bright blue at the moment again ) , and have sort of a Victorian Boho influenced look. I kind of like to joke and say that oldschool Victorian goths don’t die we just become Stevie Nicks.
Given that your work helped define the 2000’s gothic aesthetic, what are your thoughts on the ways the culture and its art have evolved?
I think that the Gothic aesthetic is something that has been around since people really started having their own fashion and it’s something that will continue to be around. Of course, Gothic as we know it came from a music scene, but before that it’s vibe still existed in art, architecture , literature, poetry, etc. , and it will continue to exist and evolve. I see a lot of throwbacks these days to the 90s and early 2000s style that me and my fellow Goth models helped sort of pioneer ( god that sounds so arrogant) , I’m seeing a lot of of the ponyfalls/big hair , fluffy skirts and corsets again – younger people embracing sort of the 90s Victorian/ doll aesthetic but it’s also got a really refreshing new energy to it . Goth style today is something that’s entirely a newer generations take while still having a bit of influence of the old. I really love to see that. I really hate when people get older and become sour about anything new, or about anyone younger than them. My generation (Gen X) sometimes really teeters on that gatekeeping grumpy line . I think that’s because as we get older people get afraid of someone taking the thing that defines them away . But that’s not how I see it. I think that we should be welcoming to the young and be happy that our style helped influence something . I’m really honored to have been someone who even influenced this vast subculture even in the smallest way , it’s humbling , and I think it’s great seeing it evolve. I think the kids are gonna be OK.
Obviously your work from this time period is iconic, but, from your perspective, where were you at in your career at the time?
At the time in my career, I was really brave and I think a lot of that came from being freshly out of fashion/art school and thinking that I was invincible. I always projected myself as an extrovert with a lot of confidence and I think that came from being an only child and secretly not having a ton of confidence , especially when I was young. The goth scene sort of allowed me to invent myself into someone different than who I had been. It made me visible . It gave me an outlet to be creative and to experiment . I think that’s its allure for a lot of people. But I was also really cocky back then and honestly at times I was probably not the nicest person. I will never regret my life, but I think a lot of the arrogance of and cockiness of youth definitely came through in my persona and design back then. I think that some of the problems I ran into growing my business a bit fast during the early years definitely came from the arrogance of youth. But at the time I was really riding that creative high you get from when the world is still new and magical and you feel unstoppable.
What are some of your credits (publications, people you have dressed, events you’ve done fashion shows at)?
Since I have a different career that is my main focus these days , thinking back to list of All of my credits is something that is kind of like looking back at another part of my life. It’s hazy. I will say that I was immensely lucky to be widely published back in the day between several times in Gothic Beauty magazine, and also other publications that Amelia G and Forrest Black did. Me and my clothing were featured in magazines that are long since gone, in just about every Goth girl of the week webpage that used to exist in the Internet (when it was more of a little bubble than it was now.) I have done Fashion shows all over the country and Canada – notably New York, Montreal, Chicago being some of my favorite cities to have shown in. A lot of that was thanks to the absolutely amazing Convergence gothic festival, which gave some of us an amazing opportunity to get our names out there and allowed me to see so much of the country every time I attended or got to participate. And I have had amazing models that I have worked with all over the world and sent my stuff out to have photo shoots in so many different countries- getting photo shoots back from beautiful places in the UK really made me fall in love with the landscape there- funny enough the UK is where I will be moving to do my masters and PhD and I think a lot of of that is due part to the positive interactions I’ve had early on there.
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The Gothic Beauty reunion retrospective Project is on Kickstarter until December 11.
