Fashion Salon - Canada's Fashion Blog: steampunk

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Is Steampunk the New Goth???

Watch out what you see on the subway late at night because while in 2001 you might have seen some pretty freakish goths, by 2011 standards that just isn't weird enough. Steampunks (or depending on your fashion sense, Steamgoths!) is the new thing.

No, there's no fantasy element to this. True, many goths were into Wicca, vampires, magic, fairies and such... steampunk is about retrofuturism... anything that looks old but is futuristic at the same time. Think really weird pocket watches, corsets, circa-1900 clothing and gadgets that run on something other than electricity. (Like the steampunk clock shown below.)

Part of this fad (if you can call it that) can be blamed on the Sherlock Holmes movie that came out in 2009.

However there is several other films we could blame as well, including:

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, 2004
Van Helsing, 2004
Steamboy, 2004
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 2003
The Time Machine, 2002
Wild Wild West, 1999
Sleepy Hollow, 1999

In terms of clothing however this is the part where there is lots of room to grow.

See brassgoggles.co.uk and community.livejournal.com/steamfashion for ideas.

Goggles is a common idea when people think of steampunk, but its a bit of a cliche too.

Think leather, brass or copper, gears, clocks, levers, chains (like bicycle chains), Victorian patterns, pinstripes, damask, argyle, hair is usually up or a bob... You can also have fun with tattoos, piercings, dyed hair, torn clothing, tools (ie. pocket wrenches and gauges).

"[Steampunk is] drawing on actual history. You can pull into it what you're into and put your spin on it. It's accessible yet expandable," says Jake von Slatt (aka Sean Slattery, of Littleton, Mass.), who likens the philosophy behind steampunk to open-source software. "There is a real focus on sharing, exploring things together, building community."

Steampunkers also have conventions to exchange ideas and compare clothing and gadgets, they dress to the nines and party like it's 1899.

Mr. von Slatt is currently "steampunking" a fiberglass, 1954-style Mercedes kit car, adding salvaged gauges and lights from other cars and gold filigree trim. Drawn to steampunk's "do-it-yourself, making something from nothing" mantra, von Slatt scavenges most of his components.

Basically wherein gothic culture the protagonist is a vampire or demon, in steampunk the villain is a gadget-crazed mad scientist.

And the hero is a goodie-two-shoes bicycle mechanic who builds himself a steampunk bicycle...

I am sure he gets plenty of weird looks, but anybody who is into bicycles will appreciate what he has done. Its a retro recumbent bicycle, and that is just plain kewl.

If you are looking for something steampunk-esque to read, we recommend The Keepers of the Maser series of graphic novels by Italian comic book author Massimiliano Frezzato.

Huzzah!

Men's Steampunk Clothing!

By Tamyka Bullen.

A few years ago, I learned about the Steampunk culture and it fascinated me immediately. I want to go into a brief history behind of this culture. Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that invented non-existing steam-powered machinery, especially in a setting inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century's British Victorian era or American "Wild West" in a post-apocalyptic future. These steam-powered machinery may be considered as anachronistic technologies or retro-futuristic. Never know if they will be happening in the distant future time when the number of human population decrease to brink of an extinction.

Currently, steampunk is treated as fashionable, cultured, an art and perhaps an architectural style. Traditionally, the steampunk incorporates fantasy, horror, historical fiction, alternate history or other branches of speculative fiction to make it a hybrid genre but not always necessary. Interesting about the term steampunk was brought in the literature in 1987 to describe all those fictious steam-powered machinery mentioned in classical novels written by well-known figures such as H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Philip Pullman, Scott Westerfeld, Stephen Hunt, China Mieville and more.

I wished we were in the Victorian period so I could wear steampunk clothes but realistically, they were too heavy to wear with those tools. I envisaged myself to wear this outfit you see in the picture below..

I imagined what men's clothes looked like...and I bet that their clothes had stories about themselves.

1. This man puffed his fancy pipe while carried his weapon behind his back. He wore common Victorian clothes. I wondered what was the story behind this picture. I guessed he was in a war-torn country where the government was deeply corrupted. If I was in the war-torn country, I wouldn't wear it because it required hours to dress it up, then put this heavy machine on my back. I would pant heavily while carry it when travel long. He didn't look so peaceful. Not a happy guy!

2. I wondered what happened to those three men who all of a sudden wore steampunk clothes in the 21st century? Perhaps, they were tired of seeing advertisements printed on clothes to coerce people to consume more until they became penniless. You never see advertisements on steampunk clothes and they always look polish while modern clothes come in from bum to polish.

3. Look at this tattooed and pierced man! He looked like he was just coming on the stage behind the curtain. I assumed that he was a famous illusionist who needed googles when performed magics. I envisaged his name should be Zachary Kilmt.

4. I believed that this red-haired man was highly skilled in trades! Anything needed to be fixed, take them to his place that is hidden in dense forest. You will notice his lovely treehouse. Sigh...what a magic!

5. This dignified-looking man steered his small passenger pick-up aircraft for a long time. He inherited this business from his one time thief mom. YES, I am serious and that was how they had this aircraft by stole it from other thief named Kevin Goodie. Kevin from the other picture, he always hid his face because he didn't want to be recognized by polices.

See below the real Kevin Goodie...

6. This man in the picture was a police. Hunting after Kevin Goodie was his long life-dedication! Look at his gun! We should be afraid of him. FYI...this police was not so sweet.

7. This lady craze dude never stopped fooling around with ladies! He loved to wear black steampunk clothes but didn't like to wear devices. When his eyes caught a pretty lady, he took off his clothes in a few seconds and said GRRR... True story, all his potential ladies ran away from him!

8. Oh my gosh...This guy was a long descendent of the famous playwright and poet named William Shakespeare!!! He is Henry Shakespeare. He writes a series of Zombie Romance books.