Steampunk culture review - history, machines and fashion.

The only reason I don't dress like that myself is lack of ideas where to get all the materials. In the rest I'm crazy enough to appear in such costume outside. As I usually say - "I'm an artist, I see like this".

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So, what's steampunk? The name of the style and culture is formed from tho words - "steam" and "punk" in sense garbage. The culture implicates an alternative version of human development where the the mechanics and technology of steam engines are perfectly mastered, and where world looks like Victorian England. It also can have elements of fantasy and capitalism.

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The term appeared somewhere close to year 1980 as a ironic version of a term cyberpunk. And in thevery beginning it described a trend in literature. "The Time Machine" of Herbert Wells is a classic example.

The classis example of a steampunky device vehicle in literature can be a Nemo's submarime from "20,000 leagues under the sea" in the Walt Disney screen adaptation.

Now the style came to real life and I must say I can look at it's examples for hours. It comes to real life not limited with books and computer games, but to cloth and interior, also not limited with thematic fests or Comic Con.

So, what are main features here?

1.Technologies based on mechanics and steam machines of high development level
2.Gas and partial candle lighting of streets and houses
3.Initial level of electricity development
4.Weapons of the times of the industrial revolution and variations on its theme (revolvers, for example)
5.Prosthetics - lost limbs are replaced by mechanical parts of the body
6.Information technologies of the Victorian era (street wallpapers)
7.Clothing and accessories of Victorian England (my favorite part:)

So, this everything now is brought to life by people who love it. Often steampunk fashion means dresses, corsets, skirts and bustles for women, and suits with vests, coats, short leggings or military clothing - for men.