Gearing Up

Brought to you by Templar, AZ: Schemepunk

“They like t’ dress up like ol’ silent movie bad guys and tie women t’ airplane runways.”

Well, I laughed.

Fashion Week is the talk of every style blog right now. As usual, there are a few interesting things that could go in a steamy or dieselpunk direction. I found Alexander McQueen’s Fall 2008 Menswear show particularly interesting. A few of his pieces (such as the jacket shown here) would work as steampunk couture virtually without editing, but more exiting to me is the way he blends traditional and modern styles. Citing his time in Asia (India, Nepal and Bhutan) as inspiration for the look, he’s created a fascinating example of the mashup look that so many steampunks pursue.

While the result sometimes looks over the top (as haute couture is almost by definition) it is a good reminder that we do not need to play it safe - certainly the historical Victorians did not, and our steampunk alter-egos are even more prone to a devil-may-care attitude. It’s easy to fall back on looking at historical costumes and reproducing them. While this can produce some stunning costumes, the true standouts of the steampunk look know when to add the unexpected, giving their style a true sense of history - and fashion - that never was.

Costuming is one of the safest places to take risks. After all, if you don’t like a vest or a jacket, you can take it off. If you don’t like a collar, you can modify it. You can always pull your stitching out and start over. When you feel like you’re getting too settled in your historical influences, go ahead and mix it up a bit with an unusual cultural influence or a clever modern element. Even if it doesn’t work, it might inspire you to something else - and if it does work, you’ll have a look that stands out from the crowd.

I’d been putting this off until I had a more polished presentation to bring to the table, but the popularity of Victorientalism lately has given me cause to move ahead, good planning be damned.

Put simply, sky ninja are the natural enemies of that overpopulated scourge of the air, the sky pirate. It was only natural that ninja would evolve skyward just as pirates did.

The name sky ninja actually came about as a joke referring to Captain Jack Rose’s unhealthy attachment to the exotic but dangerous and far-flung colonies of the Mysterious East where he accompanied his parents for a several years of his misspent youth. He spent a few years there in the company of a pair of Imperial agents, eventually losing track of them when they disappeared to oppose the schemes of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and thereafter Jack insisted on bringing an Oriental flair to all things, whether it was really helpful or not.

In addition to the pieces he bought or assembled himself, he has commissioned a few pieces that he feels capture the spirit in which he was “trained”. He enjoys the use of weapons from throughout Asia, including Nipponese shuriken (a pair of which he commissioned from Alexandra of the White Peacock Trading Company shortly after they met) and an Indian talwar sword which was passed on to him from his father. He’s not necessarily much good with all these exotic weapons, mind you, but he tries.

Sky ninja is not so much an actual job (I’d imagine actual steampunk ninja would be more land-based unless they were engaged in specific warfare against their sky pirate enemies) as an expression of interest in Asia as filtered through the Victorian-colonial mentality.

It is important, when looking at Asia through steam-colored glasses, that we use the Western/British mentality toward Asians in the same way we do their mentality toward women and the lower classes: something to play with, parody, and subvert, but not something to seriously adopt. The stereotype of the exotic geisha or the silent warrior monk may be interesting to flesh out or turn inside out, but especially in writing, it’s essential to remember that cardboard cutouts are never interesting characters and stereotypical cutouts are less so.

(If you’re interested in making sure you don’t write stereotypes for your Asian characters, you may wish to read this discussion on LJ for a privilege check and a thread on the many interesting possibilities for non-Eurocentric stories.)

And remember, if you don’t see sky ninja stalking you from above, that just means they’re doing their job.

I think everyone’s heard of “atomicpunk” to describe the -punk aesthetic applied to the cold war. A few weeks ago, I offered “spypunk” for the sub-genre of high-tech, sometimes ludicrously-gadgeted spies that hearken to the same era.

Today I came across two more concepts, both more design-oriented and thus more related to Datamancer-style object modification: modpunk and eamespunk. Both are suggested somewhat facetiously, but I think it would be worth exploring what the -punk aesthetic is and what it means to apply it to the Victorian, pulp, or any other era.

Thoughts?

How did you get started making upcycled and steampunk jewelry?

My first steampunk article was a pair of round, black sunglasses decorated with silver 1920s watch parts. It was a visual prop for a story I was writing about a woman with a mechanical eye. That was about a year ago, and I didn’t know what steampunk was, nor was I making jewelry.
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Over on flickr, section_dor has started a photostream dedicated entirely to photos of steampunk fashion. Many of the photos are from haute couture runway shows that appeal to the steampunk aesthetic, but some are from subculture fashion and other sources. I highly recommend checking it out if you’re looking for some serious inspiration for your steampunk costuming.

While most are far beyond the price range of us mere mortals, and many are a bit more fantasy than practical couture, there are two good things about the presence of steampunk elements in high fashion. First, of course, they can inspire our clothing choices even if we’re not copying the more outrageous elements of the costumes. Second, high fashion trickles down, eventually ending up in your local Macy’s or Target where those accessories are affordable and where you may even find it translated into a style that’s suitable for everyday wear as well as high tea and promenade aboard the move fashionable of airships.

A new magazine, the Gatehouse Gazette, has just published its first issue. It features steampunk and dieselpunk-related articles, fiction and photos by the members of the Smoking Lounge MB. I happen to have an article in there myself. I recommend you check it out!

Can you describe how you look at movements and gears and see jewelry?

Some pieces take longer than others. I’ve had watch plates sitting out in my work area for weeks until something just clicks. Often it’s simply a matter of setting another piece next it and something sparks. Other pieces immediately hint at possibilities. There can be a certain shape or curve or perhaps time has left a colorful patina. With older watch parts many time there is some kind of decorative etching or even inscriptions by the maker that beg to be highlighted.
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I recently saw the new Get Smart movie. On its own, it was amusing, but more than that it made me a bit nostalgic for the original TV show. Watching Max answer his shoe phone, I began thinking about how the ridiculous technology of the spy genre seems like a natural progression from the dieselpunk era.

I mentioned this to my friend Xandra and she suggested we call it spypunk.

So how would I define this theoretical spypunk genre? It shares the penchant for gadgetry that the other punks show, in this case focusing on small gadgets that mimic harmless items. Rather than dieselpunk’s usual Nazi enemies, the Cold War is all the rage, and thus there is some obvious overlap with what has been named atomicpunk.

The key difference, in my mind, is that spypunk focuses on the efforts of individuals, almost like a throwback to the Victorian era’s detectives and gentlemen adventurers. Both era’s heroes work on their own, but often in concert with a greater organization and have a patriotism that is often lacking in dieselpunk outside of the narrow WWII window.

As examples of the genre, I would cite the aforementioned Get Smart, the ubiquitous James Bond in virtually all of his iterations, and the classic Avengers series out of Britain. Austin Powers might also fit snugly in this genre. What do you think?

How long have you been making jewelry, and how did you start?

I began making basic jewelry as a teenager- dabbling in stringing and hemp weaving through high school. Through most of college, my focus moved away from jewelry making in my spare time. As a senior in college, I began making jewelry again, this time, multi-strand necklaces. I planned out the materials and created pieces inspired by various tales, from Hans Christian Andersen and The Brother’s Grimm. I posted them for sale on a forum I am a part of, and from there I discovered Etsy.com
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