New to the Forum and the wonderful subculture.

[Lianuu]

Salutations!

I am new to this forum and somewhat new to the world of Steampunk.  I've nursed a healthy curiosity of it for awhile, it's an intriguing thing that seems to mix many of the things I love together (old things, elegant clothes, alternate history, etc, etc).  So I thought it'd be about time I actually got into the genre (is that the right term?  It seems much to narrow).  So I'm asking this forum for a bit of advice. 

I realize there's no 'true' canon but it seems that most Steampunk seems to gravitate to the Victorian Era.  While this is beautiful it makes for me to dress up in it a little difficult considering I am an unemployed teenager with no funds of my own with which I could purchase such related pieces.  My wardrobe however does have a lot of 'vintage' feeling clothes so I'd like some advice in turning 'Jazz Age Steampunk'.

Which reminds me, I'd also appreciate some advice on what sort of special pieces that only pertain to Steampunk I would need to make it seem Steampunk-ish.  Relatively low prices would be appreciated.

If you have any other advice for me (literature and such) please share.  People in this forum seem intelligent and polite so I beleive I'm asking the right people!

-Many thanks and gratitude!

P.S. Sorry if this is the wrong forum!

[BrittleWrists]

Welcome to BrassGoggles*!

On the subject of being a little cash-strapped and new to Steampunk:

Don't worry about it. A lot of people's wardrobes and props have been acquired over long periods of time. Being that you don't really have a budget, you could eke by for the time being with inexpensive approximations of the aesthetic toward which you're striving. I did that for the longest time, and still came up with some pretty neat stuff. That's the wonderful thing about Steampunk (though many people on this forum may totally disagree with me): due to its fantastical nature, the possibilities are almost limitless. I think you can get away with pushing the limits of "historical accuracy," so long as you don't claim to be historically accurate.

As far as the procuring of costume pieces goes, see what you collect as time goes on. When you do get some extra cash that you'd like to designate for this purpose, check out thrift shops and clearance bins. You might find some clothing pieces that could be modifiable into something fantastic. From my own experience, it's only been recently that I've worn an actual, honest-to-goodness frock coat and silk chapeau; before that, I made due with a modified trench coat and felt top-hat. It wasn't at all historically accurate, but the modifications made it unique and, at the very least, interesting to look at.

As time goes on, as you get a job and start earning money, you'll probably be able to afford more expensive pieces (if that's the route you want to go).

Anyway, cheers! Hope you enjoy the forums!

-BrittleWrists






*I am probably the World's Worst Welcoming Committee.

[GideonFaile]

Miss, I believe you may have found the perfect forum. It is a veritable Eden of information on the World of Steam Punk.

I'm not very savvy on gear, tech, and what-have-you, but I do believe you might profit from looking at these books:
The Difference Engine - William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
Extraordinary Engines - Steam Punk Anthology
Steampunk - Another Steam Punk Anthology
Escapement - Jay Lake

Others would be better suited to filling you in on Things Literature and Otherwise, but I offer you my meagre knowledge of the topics.
I, myself, am an only recently-employed (today) teenager. The thing I did was spread the expenses over time; it makes for lots of impatient waiting, but the result is well worth't!

[cge]

So long as one has time, women's Victorian clothes aren't, I believe, terribly hard to make; while I've never made any, I do know quite a few people who do. Not all fabric is expensive, and dress construction can often be done rather simply, especially for late and early Victorian styles. Unless you have a size unusual enough to wear vintage dresses (and the time it takes to find them for reasonable prices), or an unreasonable budget, making one's own clothes is probably the best option. There are a few people who make or sell things, but not terribly many.

It's worth noting, too, that one usually doesn't need very many clothes, unless one spends one's time going to balls—and even then, many people have only small wardrobes: I know many people your age who only have one ball gown. Two or three day dresses and one or two evening dresses might be a reasonable wardrobe, and even at $200 a dress, that would be less than $1000. Spread that out over a period of time, and the costs become considerably less. Having more valuable clothes often means that one has fewer clothes, and I tend to think that this is the better situation.

Limits of historical accuracy can, of course, be pushed, but while there are likely many on here who will decry my even saying anything about it at all, one needs to be a bit careful about it. Having a knowledge of the historical styles, so that one knows how best to depart from them, is very useful, and developing a good sense of steampunk style is important. There are many examples of people who, I fear, end up looking completely ridiculous; on the other hand, I know a person who chose and wore a modern coat he found in a thrift store so well that I mistook it for a slightly short 1870s morning coat, and I've seen many excellent examples of steampunk styles that aren't historical. There are, as BrittleWrists suggests, almost limitless possibilities, but there are both limitless horrible possibilities and limitless excellent possibilities.

[rovingjack]

interesting commentary thus far but there is something missing... 

Ah yes the possability of not doing the whole costumey thing at all. Do a little bit of reading up on styles of clothes if you want to, and watch a few westerns and 20000 leauges under the sea, or some such. Google steampunk images and find what says steam punk to you. and then sit back and ponder.

What is steampunks intrest for me? If all the world were steampunk and I had to be a character in it, who would I become?

That is why the most steampunk thing you can add to your attire is character. Both as an attitude and a persona.

Then do the transformation slowly. Pocet watches and canes, parisols and gloves with a lovely hat. These are great places to start. a simple bodice or corset with the right simple dress you might own can go a long way to helping express the right character. after all a simple frilly or flowing blouse and good trousers or peasant skirt can make the look happen but looks far more convincing with a good corset and gloves.

[helios]

As an excellent example regarding time, I've been a member of this forum nigh on a year and a half now, and been interested by steampunk a good two before that, and I've only recently (Read; last two months or so) started dressing even vaguely steampunk.
There really is no need to go all out all at once.

[Kelley]

The cost of a Victorian dress can be very cheap, if you are patient and know where to look.

Buying fabric on Clearance-Clearance, in the off-season and such all help cut costs.

A Victorian dress, based on a historical pattern, could be made for under $100 - perhaps even under $50 if you made your own pattern. Granted, the corset and other underthings might be a fairly pricey investment (however, you can get away without having a proper bustle for certain fashions, and use some kind of makeshift cushion, like a small pillow, until you have the money), even if you make it yourself - but it can be worn with as many dresses as you make for it.

Clearance-Clearance silk at JoAnn's can be as cheap as $3 a yard and common to find at $6. It's not the highest luxury - but it's there, and it's cheap and it can look very nice if you have a good eye. As well, cheap cottons can be made into summer dresses fairly well.


I just mention this so that you know it can be possible even without much money.



As for how to make something look "steampunk" - I would urge you to start with your character. Think of what they do - then you can think about what they would be wearing during their day-to-day lives. The best "inventions", to me, are not general things, but odd things people have created for their particular "profession".

[Major Wolfram Quicksilver]

Welcome Lianuu!

Literate, intelligent, firm sense of purpose, researched the genre, it's like a breath of fresh air!  Here's wishing you all the best with your endeavours.

[BrittleWrists]

(I don't mean to sound like an arse, but it might be kind of presumptuous on our parts to assume the OP wants to wear a dress.)

[cge]

BrittleWrists, I can't help it! I'm a particularly pretentious and exclusive person, and assume, in point of fact, that gentleman wear coats, ladies wear dresses, and people who wear neither* are often the sorts one is painfully forced to say 'How de do, little girls, how de do' to while thinking back to how one is offending the dignity of one's protoplasmal ancestors. I'm under treatment, for it, though!

On the matter of characters, however, I do feel it necessary to point out, amongst these suggestions about professions and persona, that one can always instead be oneself.

* It's worth noting that by 'neither' I do not mean 'the other'.

[BrittleWrists]

On the matter of characters, however, I do feel it necessary to point out, amongst these suggestions about professions and persona, that one can always instead be oneself.

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."

(I should be shot.)

[TimeTinker]

If I may be so bold as to suggest:

DO NOT think of this as a costume.  Think instead about clothes!  One of the recurrent comments from US visitors to the UK steampunk festival was "you guys don't dress up you wear clothes".  Wear what you are comfortable with and then just push the envelope a little.

My good lady has full Victorian ensembles, Edwardian outfits, contemporary steampunk fashions and a host of other things in her wardrobes.  She may wear long boots and breeches, trousers, long skirts, short skirts, crinolines, bustles, corsets, vests... whatever takes her fancy on a particular day.  Much she has made herself, some is modified commercial items and thrift store finds, some are worn as found. A few key accessories say steampunk rather than period.

Personally I would suggest against trying to create a character but instead think about feeling confident in what you are wearing.  If you need to think of it as a costume and use a character as a "mask" then feel free to do so but it is really not necessary.  It is of course nice to "push the boat out" for special occasions. (You don't think I wear a scarlet tunic everyday do you?).

Take a look at the mulitiude of photographs around for inspiration.

Welcome and enjoy!

[MechanicalMouse]

Could not agree more.

[Rockula]

Welcome indeed. And don't worry too much about the clothes.

Even Steampunks come into the world naked.

[Ezra Hogbin]

Hi Liannu, welcome to what I've found to be a very friendly forum 

As an excellent example regarding time, I've been a member of this forum nigh on a year and a half now, and been interested by steampunk a good two before that, and I've only recently (Read; last two months or so) started dressing even vaguely steampunk.
There really is no need to go all out all at once.

Well, I have to say, that makes me feel so much more comfortable on this forum. I thought I must be the only one who doesn't really wear steampunk clothing, yet.

I wear waistcotes and pocket watches almost all of the time, and tend to wear hats, but nothing that really says steampunk. My life doesn't really allow for me to go to steampunk "events", so any clothing would have to be everyday wear and affordable. I've been pondering, since finding this site, how I can improve my "look". I'm considering getting a bowler hat, but my wife found this hilarious and suggested I'd look like "Laurel and Hardy". What can I say, she must have had taste to marry me, but it seem sto have evaporated since 

[Lianuu]

Oh my so many helpful posts! :-O

I don't think making my own clothes from scratch is an option considering I'm a terrible seamstress.  Minor alterations are possible though.  I suppose aquiring big pieces over time is the only way to go.

But I sort of wanted to assemble something in time for San Diego Comic Con in July (I've gone for the past three years and have yet to dress up, I think it's about time).  I already own a bowler hat and some oxfords and vests. 

Also someone mentioned a 'character' aspect to dressing up that is possible, I suppose that means constructing your own character to fit into some fabricated world?  Sounds like a lot of fun to me!

[Kelley]

If you want to sew - it's not terribly difficult to learn and improve. It might seem intimidating - but the thing you really need is patience.

However, I would just say that in general, men's clothing is more challenging to make - even a very simple coat follows the same basic construction principles as a much grander one - and it involves a lot of hand-sewing that simply cannot be accomplished by machine.


How you approach Steampunk is up to you. Personally, I've always been more interested in "characters" - not in outfitting myself. But I over-think things, to be fair (if clothing "myself" I would really get into the idea of what place in society I would really hold in antiquity, although there are even multiple approaches to that).

The one costume design that I am most fond of, that I would like to make some day for Steampunk is definitely not something that I would wear - no matter when I was alive. However, I think it would be fun to play at that character, anyway.

I don't think either approach is wrong to take if you're looking to make clothes. However, I still advocate research and a practical approach. I remember when I was first designing clothing and costumes - I wasn't very good, I only had impressions of things in my mind, and I didn't know anything about them. Learning how to sew and how clothing construction works has been invaluable to the design process for me, and I feel I can be much more creative knowing this. As well, knowing more and more about specific eras of dress allows me to see many new ideas and ways of doing things. I love to look back on the evolution of clothing - it tickled me to see the same pad-stitching used today in Elizabethan garments (thought for different goals).

But what can I say, I'm kind of a dork who's interested in that kind of thing - watching the silhouette and techniques used morph and change with a sort of fluid continuity.

[rovingjack]

I think it's easier to give an example of character construction than it is to define it.
So here it goes:

I was a bit torn between several aspects of steampunk and what suited me as a personality. Most of the time I like to think of myself as somebody who would go out of their way to help others and carry around tools and gedgets while doing it. Sort of a poor schlub trying to be a knight in shining armour with a poor mans batman-utility belt.

But there is another part of me that wants minions, and knows enough of chemistry and physiscs and occult, mix it with my artistic creativity and stitch it to that little part of me that is so bruised by others and down trodden and belittled by the seething masses of stunning idiots that can't figure out that when you power goes out for a week in the middle of an ice storm... you can put the food in the fridge out in the cold, so it doesn't spoil in the fridge and have to be thrown out.

I suppose you could mix and match those aspect however you wanted to but that just seemed to naturally devide that way.

But what to choose? Then inspiration struck, why choose at all? So it was that I realised I am some sort of Dr. J and Mr. Hyde. Roving Jack the adventurer seemed obvious, and after a bit of searching my other activities I realise that my goofing around with Runcible objects allowed me to create the alternative Runcible Jack.

I found that for the Roving Jack look a crimson or burgundy or denim coloured chefs Jacket worked nicely with a tool belt to start(I use cargo pants for now but may opt for something better in the future. While Runcible jack is about a pressed white shirt and everything else is black. Vest, trousers, shoes socks. and he is more likely to be seen with an eltrified raipier or a raygun than a wrench or anything rusty.

Poket watch for each, and goggles. I'm working on an aviator cap for Roving., and maybe a white scarf.

The story is they inhabit the same body, they don't know why or how, they consider each other brothers and Runcible Jack is not evil but there is no doubt he might be a gentleman, he is not a gentle man.