Steampunk, when it comes to this word, I’d gladly admit to living under a rock because quite honestly I’ve never heard of it before until recent times and even so with very little understanding as to what it means. If I took a wild guess, I’d assume it is indeed a compound word and begin the deciphering by breaking the word up into two -“steam” and then “punk” which brought me to quite the dead end because steam is a form of vapor and punk is merely a subculture with a diverse array of ideologies. Putting those two together made me question myself if indeed I was looking at a subculture that worshipped steam…Well it turns out I wasn’t all wrong or accurately correct either.
By definition, steampunk is “a subgenre of speculative science fiction set in an anachronistic 19th century society (Jules Verne anyone?).” And with that being said, steampunk thus refers to a fictional era where science meets romance typically the Victorian era Britain (19th century) where the use of steam power was at its height. And so let to “steampunk fashion”. A unique taste of ensembles that mimic old Victorian yet different with a zest of mechanical cogs to represent the science bit of the “era”.
Well I’m all for Victorian designs because they (to me) eternally be the epitome of romance but steampunk, even if it is broadly Victorian -those odd decorative bits made of mechanical parts makes it rather not really my thing. Although I will say something about this fashion – come to think of it… steampunk fashion can be quite the eco –friendly fashion as it seems to devise the use of recycled materials.
Now again I stress that I’m not crazy about the clothes that come in that fashion, but a certain men’s collection called “ClangBoomSteam” by Danish student designer Tobias Noe Harboe is something notable for being quite ‘lovely’ and at the same time sustainable.
Somehow the behind steampunk idealogy, whether it was intentional of not lies a root of sustainability. The romanticism of technology with a positive aesthetic towards keeping the old/natural alive and building that impossible dream of science around it rather than forcefully over it.
