'I'm used to standing out everywhere I go," designer Kambriel said last night at the opening party for the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology's "Gothic: Dark Glamour" exhibit.

But this night was different. Dressed in a gown of her own design with a black bodice and spider-web sleeves, and with an entourage of friends and models dressed also in her dramatic designs, Kambriel blended in with the crowd. "It's wonderful," she said.

The Gothic look was not only on display in the exhibit, curated by the museum's director, Valerie Steele, but also on the backs of guests at the party, some of whom, like Kambriel and Pandora Harrison, were designers with pieces in the show.

Chrissy Amphlett wore a piece of jewelry designed by her friend Julia deVille, which depicted a mouse head poking out of a cameo pin.

"Julia does taxidermy," Ms. Amphlett said. "The eyes are diamonds."

"Let me just say it's not easy stuffing diamonds into a dead mouse," Ms. deVille, who has several pieces in the show's "Cabinet of Curiosities," added.

The exhibit shows how Gothic fashion has evolved through the ages, and as shown last night, it finds many forms of expressions in street wear today. Some guests looked like they had stepped out of the Victorian age, others out of a heavy metal band.

"This is how I dress all the time," a freelance stylist, who goes by the name Montserrat, said.

It was another night affirming that the New Yorker's preferred color of black can be worn in as many ways as there are creative impulses.

agordon@nysun.com