Steampunk Fashion – What Is Steampunk Fashion And How Does Steam Punk Culture Work?
There’s a culture called Steampunk that is dedicated to a revamp of the Victorian age. Typically filled with massive steam powered mechanics and extravagant dirigibles, this classic age is mixed up with fantasy. The Steampunk genre includes not only clothing, but music, art, and literature.
In the fashion industry, steampunk has become a major hit. Classic steampunk designs including cogs and gears are being incorporated into the clothing lines of various designers. However, it is in the cosplay scene that steampunk is seen as a growing trend. Many cosplayers get together to wear steampunk costmes, including modified and stylized Victorian clothing, and portray themselves as pirates, adventurers, explorers, and victorian socialites. They wear outfits adorned with top hats and goggles, decorated coats, and even mock ray guns! The do-it-yourself community supports steampunk because most steampunk stuff has to be made your self. The aforementioned ray guns are simply modified and painted Nerf or Airsoft guns. Some are even good enough to use wood and metal to build their own ray guns or other accessories! You can find more info on this at Steampunk Store.
There is no definitive style of music that is steampunk; rather steampunk qualities can be found in all different artists from all different styles of music, including rock, rap, electronic, and others. Steampunk qualities in rock tend to have dark beats, gritty guitar, and sometimes a hint of folk. A once industrial band named Abney Park proclaim themselves a Steampunk band. They are influenced by steampunk not only in their music, but in their clothing, design of their instruments, and even the fictional personas that they carry with them on stage. Aside from steampunk rock, there is rap and hip-hop music influenced by steampunk, and usually includes a deep but up-beat bass and lyrics that either depict the life of a mad scientist, or a post-apocalyptic world. The best example of this is Dr. Steel. He has catchy but heavy-hitting beats, and his stage-persona is of a mad scientist.
The art culture has embraced the steampunk culture with open arms. Not only online, but in art galleries and local art shows. The art includes dirigibles and flying machines in the sky, soaring above barren wastelands. There is no particular art style, any artist can incorporate their own style. What makes it different is the purpose and perspective. Many such paintings are dark and dreary, with violent oceans, labs that resemble dungeons scattered with frankenstein-esque tools, or a deslote and deadend landscape. In a line, steampunk can always be picked out by it’s unique theme.
Literature has made breakthroughs with the Steampunk culture. The birth of this trend can actually be linked back to H.G. Wells, and Jules Verne. Without there knowledge, the inventions, and worlds that these two writers depicted became the base of what we see in today’s Steampunk community. The idea of a massive submarine, such as the one in ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’, and a brass time machine in ‘The Time Machine’ set up the idea of futuristic, yet what we would call retro nowadays, machines that seem so out of place in there given time periods. This idea was the very basis of Steampunk, and has been the driving force for many fanatics and hardcore fans.