Thank you Mister Fairbrass, for your explanation. That's indeed something I haven't thought about, that many Steampunks are inspired more by pop culture, movies etc. than by actual historical fashion. I guess I should add this in the article. May I quote you?
When I think about it, that would also be a nice topic for a survey - asking Steampunks where the inspiration for their outfits came from.
By the way, I'm now offline for the weekend as I visit a Steampunk festival (the "Aethercircus" in northern Germany).
There's no need to quote me m'dear, you can certainly forward that as an opinion if you agree with it. I should underline though it is just my opinion rather than an absolute, and some may well not agree. Being in the UK, in an area with a growing but still hardly massive Steampunk scene, these are largely observations I've made from afar as it were.
I think to a degree it may be a cultural thing as well. There certainly are Steampunks that are influenced more by historical than fantasy or sci fi styles. I've met a few in my area, but they've often come to it from a background of being re enactors. I still believe that the pop culture influence has originated largely from the States. It was actually Bruce Boxleitner of Tron and Babylon 5 fame that I heard state that observation. He's currently still trying to promote a Steampunk influenced production of his own called Lantern City. Hence he's doing interviews and panels on the con circuit. He said this whole scifi fantasy cosplay etc fandom, has in recent years grown to such proportions that it truly should be considered pop culture and I totally agree.
Steampunk in origin is a sub genre of scifi/fantasy literature. So it does make sense that many of it's fans are also part of the wider fandom, and that is often very much reflected in their representations of Steampunk. It seems to me (again just an observation) that this influence has spread world wide because that aspect receives a great deal of publicity. But it hasn't necessarily been embraced by everybody. Hence for example you have some folks that are new to Steampunk who are under the impression that developing a persona is almost mandatory. And others (like myself) rather scratching our heads at that idea, as it's not something we've encountered much in our cultural circles, and we would consider that more of a cosplay take on things. I personally am not really involved with that, but again it is definitely something that is growing in popularity here.
So yes I would say the angle a person views Steampunk from (at least initially), is almost certainly influenced by the path or environment through which they first encounter it. And for many folks now that is pop culture.
Does anyone here make clothes ?
I believe so, what are you after?
