Written by Mel (Mel-Bell (@Th3MelThatFell) / X)

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It’s that time of year, ATINY: Halloween (hush, I know I’m a day late, but Halloween is a state of mind)! And what better way to appreciate the season than by bringing out the best, spooky ATEEZ song out for inspiration. Of course, I’m referring to “The Black Cat Nero”. And in this week’s installment of Fit Fix, we’ll be dissecting the outfit worn by Mingi for the MV as a lovely vampy-rock outfit for both costume and most day-to-day wear.

As with each Fit Fix article, I’m gonna outline my guidelines:

1. This is more about identifying the pieces of an outfit or costume and providing suggestions for items based on that and that alone. It’s neither an endorsement nor condemnation for brands, styles, or pieces.
2. Your purchased outfit is just as valid as a thrifted or DIY outfit and vice versa, regardless of price.
3. You’re obviously not obligated to dress up for any concert, including ATEEZ. You can come as you are and have just as much fun!

Now, let’s fix in with our Fix On king!

In total, the major components of the outfit consists of 5 parts. Those would be the jacket, button-up shirt, jeans, shoes, and jewelry. For the most part, almost all the pieces are pretty straightforward and easy to find a semi-respectable dupe without busting your bank. ALMOST.

When I tell you trying to find the jacket was the single-most tear-inducing activity I did this weekend, I’m not kidding (aside from trying to find an embossed topcoat for a Jongho-inspired look that I was originally set on). Most of this is due to the abandonment of the crushed velvet/velour fabric for these types of garments. This was a result of crushed velvet itself being a fairly expensive fabric compared to other materials plus also being a more difficult fabric to sew. With longer time to make good products and it costing more to make, it became a lost fabric in the world of faster fashion. While genuine crushed velvet clothes are hard to come by in good construction and at good prices, blends are available that offer the same sort of look at fractions of a cost. While it isn’t the same kind of longer coat, the R.Vivimos cardigan coat in black fits most of the criteria to dupe the overall look for $30.99. While there aren’t other major sources for this article, you may have luck on Thread Up, E-Bay, or Poshmark that do re-sell vintage clothes that would better match the aesthetic. Other options may be to search for Etsy creators that do similar styles and seeing if crushed velvet would be a material they could work with in order to help support creatives who can offer their services. Naturally, these options would have varied prices depending on who you commission.

To round up the upper half of the look is the sheer, animal print button-up. This was also a slight challenge, as the pattern itself is a combination of both tiger and leopard print that is seamlessly blended together without appearing like pattern swatches sewn into a shirt. There aren’t any reliably available shirts that meet the criteria of mixing the two prints, but picking one or the other is the perfect way to find options that work. There are still other great options through online resale sites like Depop, Mercari, and E-Bay for more of the vintage feel that are, quite frankly, pretty inexpensive at the cost of obviously being limited in size and total quantity. However, the options that do work outside of those would be the Cheat mesh long-sleeved top from ASOS retailing for $49 or the WEHOMY leopard-print button-up for $43.38 on Amazon.

Pants and shoes are thankfully much easier staples to find and, as a result, have more versatility in where you get them and how much they may run you. Generally, it appears that they are jeans with a black, solid coloring with a straight-leg and minor distressing around the mid-thigh area (at least on the 6’1” princess). You can buy your jeans already distressed or create them yourself using a host of tutorials across the web. Pre-distressed jeans may be a little bit more expensive, but can save you time and worry in case you’re a bit anxious about making the tears look too inorganic. Potential options for the pre-distressed jeans would be the Distressed Straight Leg Jeans from Grey Labs for about $90, though other options include Express’ Super High-Waisted Black Rinse Ripped Modern Straight Jeans and the Pishon ripped jeans on Amazon (priced at $59.99 and $28.99 respectively).

Shoes also get to be a bit more lax, sticking with a decently heavy boot with a semi-lacquered finish. Because the jeans cover the tops of the boots, the length doesn’t really play much into the decision of what style of boot to look for. Most combat boots should be able to fill this need, and finish isn’t really a necessity to complete the look. If you’re in the market for combat boots, you can check out the Bueno Rage boot for $120.19 or even at military surplus sites like CamoLOTS for $35.00. Amazon also has a lot of options for shoes at pretty reasonable prices, though across all of these platforms extreme ends of the shoe size chart may change availability and prices.

Accessories for the look are pretty minimal from the reference photos I was able to come across. Sunglasses are present through the MV at certain points, so it may be fun to pack a pair in case you’re needing to protect your eyes. The big points to reference here would be the slightly oversized square shape and almost completely opaque tone. You could look at most major clothing retailers for these kinds of shades, though the pair I might use for reference would be the ShadyVEU pair off Amazon. If you would like to cut out the search and go straight to online shopping, you can snag the set for about $20.99 – $22.99 depending on the color selected for a single pair. 

There is also another, smaller item that I almost didn’t notice. But I did notice it the moment I was getting the images together for this article. Could I have let it go? Yes. Was my perfectionism going to let me do it? Absolutely not. There’s a black and red bandana that is tucked into the right pocket of his jeans that makes an appearance only when the coat is moved away from his body. The design isn’t particularly clear in the images I was looking at nor in the video, so the pattern isn’t particularly important, which does open up your options. While there are cheaper options available, I found the very gothic Samhain Bandana from Bloody Rose Boutique for $15, which not only works for the color scheme, but also has a pattern that really feels like it fits the aesthetic of The Black Cat Nero.

Jewelry is also pretty straightforward, with Mingi sporting a short-length gold chain necklace and a golden ring. The detailing on the ring isn’t really one that I’ve been able to find a clear image of, so as long as it has a round or oval head, is gold, and worn on the left index finger, you have full reign. Necklaces are also something that you can generally find in good supply across the web, though I’ll take a moment to mention a jewelry-maker on Etsy who was crafting necklaces really similar to the one Mingi was wearing. The creator, RixenJewelry, has some great items to look over. While their piece would cost between $124 – $142 depending on the length, there’s plenty of other sellers online that you can look into as well.

And with that, we wrap up the spooky season with a very edgy, yet polished look from one of my favorite music videos from ATEEZ. Now we can look forward to the new comeback, set to drop on November 15, 2024 and what new styles, both musically and visually, we are going to be graced with next. Until next time, ATINY!