Hannah Rothstein - Insiders Guide to Steampunk Fashion

Before we talk about steampunk fashion, we must explore the history of the movement. So go on, strap on that pith helmet and join in on the exploration!

An unruly descendent of cyberpunk, steampunk first stepped its high-buttoned boots into history in 1979. It was at this time that K.W. Jeter published his book Morlock Night , which was largely set, thanks to time travel, in Victorian times. This book was the first to use the word steampunk, and once given a name and and face in the Morlock Night , steampunk did up its Gibson Girl bouffant and presented itself to the world, first as a literary genre and eventually, as a lifestyle.

But exactly what the steampunk subculture involves isnt easily summed up. Ask anyone what steampunk is and youll likely hear a myriad of responses: the classic Victorian science fiction or the future as it may have been imagined by people living the Victorian era; the tongue-in-cheek Steampunk is what happened when goths discovered brown, as punch-lined by Jess Nevins (annotator of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore, a steampunk literary favorite).

Some break the term down for analysis, stating that steam alludes to powering technology as the Victorians would have done it, with revolutionary steam power, and punk well, that depends who you ask. Some, such as G.D. Falksen , state that the punk part of steampunk is nothing more than a residual word leftover from the cyberpunk from which steampunk descended, while others clamour about the punk part being derived from the do-it-yourself spirit of steampunk and a defy the man attitude. However a person chooses to define steampunk, several common denominators underlie the subculture.

Any sort of divide amidst definitions of steampunk is bridged by a general agreement upon the unwitting forefathers of the subculture, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. These two names should be ringing not just a bell but a carillon, as these two gents presciently penned some of the Victorian Eras most famous science fiction works, namely Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Verne) and The Time Machine (Wells). Wells and Verne dreamt up fantastical technology, much of which came into being years later, and all of which was powered by steam.

Hmm, sounds a lot like steampunks alternate history world in which steam is a dream source of energy for everything from clocks to computers. Coincidence? Of course not! The worlds Verne and Wells wove together provide a thick blanket of inspiration for steampunks.

But there are commonalities more obvious than even those inspired by literature namely, the pivot point of 19th century aesthetics. A tie to the Victorian Age always exists, whether were talking impeccably waxed mustaches, impossibly puffed bustles, or polished brass, clockwork monocles.

This isnt to say that steampunk sticks to its 19th century guns with the ferocity of a T-ed off tiger. Personalization runs like a wild child throughout the world of steampunk and its accompanying garb. A bit of anachronism is expected in the steampunk world, or as SteamCon vice chair Diana Vick puts it , Steampunk needs historical accuracy like a dirigible needs a goldfish. Much of this intentional inaccuracy comes into play with the gadgets that steampunks incorporate into their repertoire, a fine example being the famed modified laptop of Richard Doc Nagy, a revamped computer decked out with wood, brass, gears, and a turn key start button:

DESIGNED BY RICHARD DOC NAGY

Would Victorians have ever operated a computer? No, of course not! Yet for steampunks this aesthetically altered, 19th century laptop, and other such revamped technology, is logged into their logic of their lifestyle.

Anachronism and James Dean good looks aside, gadgets redone in the steampunk style are another integral aspect to the subculture: the do-it-yourself (DIY) ethos. Though it might be said that with the growing popularity of the movement, steampunk has strayed from its purely creative roots, DIY remains to the steampunk lifestyle what rings are to Saturn. From reworking thrift store finds into an outfit that fits steampunk aesthetic to tinkering with machines like Doc Nagy , to creating a mechanical arm to imbue an outfit with a hefty handful of steampunk, DIY is the yeast that leavens the steampunk dough and, interestingly enough, reveals the emotion underlying the movement.

PHOTO BY BIKER JUN

In many ways steampunk is a visceral, exterior reaction to dealing with a world that is changing at NASCAR speed, a present in which new technologies are spewing out of the volcanoes of creation faster than people can keep up with them. In the flurry of production, objects are made rather unadorned, disposable-ready, and for steampunks, altering these ugly objects is a way to thumb their nose at all this.