DIY City Blog

Steampunk Fashion - all the rage part 1

Steampunk fashion photography by Kat Bret. Check out also her website.
I have to write more about steampunk and especially the fashion/clothing aspect of it since it´s pretty much the only thing I´ve been thinking about for the past few days. Unlike it´s sister-gendres cyberpunk and goth, steampunk is not dark, gloomy or spooky but innovative, elegant and beautiful. One of the best online source is the Flickr group Steampunk Fashion. Also check out Steampunk Clothing Collective.

Steampunk devotees are almost always DIY people. They sew and assemble their own fashions, an imaginative mix of neo-Victorian, Edwardian and military style accented with sometimes crudely mechanized details and accessories like brass goggles, harnesses, clockwork pendants and of course the mandatory decorative steampunk ray gun dangling at the hip. Steampunk style is corseted and high-buttoned with crinolines, waistcoats, high-arced sleeves and top hats, bowler hats or aviator caps. Sort of 1890 “academical-inventor-chic” that you wear to a Jules Verne teaparty or a Time Travellers ball.

Photos by Amanda Scrivener. The green dress is made from charity shop curtains. Steampunk trashion…

Image via Wikipedia

Photo via Erwinevol.com

The thing that I admire most about steampunk fashions, is that as the genre demands they must do a lot of research to get it right. You know, visit museums and libraries! Unfortunately no brand or webstore covers steampunker´s fashion needs completely. After three hours of www-surfing all I found was Gypsymoon, Abneypark, Ebay and Etsy. Let me know if you know of any more links! Few patterns can be bought online (see links below). I would imagine that since “steampunk” gets almost 2,9 million hits in Google someone would set up a shop soon. The consumers are there!

Photo by TheCassettes