Hamilton store opens new boutique catering to goth shoppers

The back space had been used for classes and clearance sales but being in a higher rent district in Hamilton’s urban core, she needed to change that part of her business model as was “not good business.”

As she brainstormed on what she could do to generate more income, her employee who she calls her “adopted son,” Hayden Matre, expressed frustration over the past year at how he couldn’t find quality goth-style clothing.

She understood the frustration, being in the scene at a high schooler at Lakota in the 1980s and 1990s. Besides shopping at the since closed Scentiments Rock City on Short Vine in Corryville near the University of Cincinnati’s campus, she thrifted and dyed clothes black and red, as well as cut holes in them, and paint and sew patches on them.

“That’s how our wardrobe consisted in the late ‘80s, post-punk wave, goth area,” she said. “I kept tossing around what was I going to do back here, and I kept thinking, why not build a place for him to find his style of clothing, to feel better represented within my companies. I told him, ‘You know what, I think I’m going to build this for you, for a place to shop.”

Most goth-style clothing is what she calls “fast fashion” that doesn’t last and sizes aren’t accurate.

Singleton, who also owns Sterling Seraph in Fairfield Twp., is sourcing her products from around the world, including the Czech Republic and Poland, and the leather shoes will be bespoke orders from a shop in the UK.

“Nobody needs to spend a couple hundred dollars on something that’s going to fall apart in a couple of months,” she said. “We really paid attention to sourcing, high quality items and size inclusive, and we’re calling all our products are gender neutral.”

But Dark Side of the Moon is not just catering to today’s goth shoppers, but also to her generation of goths who want to “touch base with their roots” as they’re donning a corporate wardrobe for their jobs.

The first Monday of the month, she’ll host Monday Midnight Madness at her store from 9 to midnight for the 21-and-older crowd. The hope is to draw working-class people, including those she calls elder goths or alternative post-punks, from between Cincinnati and Columbus with a monthly event.

The first Monday Midnight Madness will be on Aug. 5 and will feature a live DJ (she’ll rotate DJs among the goth and alternative scenes). She’s partnering with Immortal Vibes, who will make mixed drinks with signature cocktails she helped curate. Since this is a DORA district, they can order from Immortal Vibes and walk back to Dark Side of the Moon “and sit in a more relaxed atmosphere and shop” which includes a 10% discount for the event.

Seraph by the River and Dark Side of the Moon are open five days a week, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays. They’re closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays.