For this blog post our class had to research an inquiry question that each of us had to individually come up with about steampunk. If you aren’t already familiar with steampunk then let me explain. Steampunk is a genre that consists of science fiction, fantasy and steam powered machines.
Here is a diagram chart thing we made in class to better understand steampunk.
My question about this genre is “What fashion trends have influenced and contributed to steampunk fashion?” To try and answer my question this is what I came up with…
I first researched steampunk fashion.
Steampunk was influenced by many different trends from the late 19th century to the early 20th century like such Victorian era and various elements from the industrial revolution.
The Victorian era of fashion really started in 1837 when the industrial revolution created wealth for the more middle class including merchants, investors and industrialists. Because people were proud of their wealth, they showed their status through clothing. Through out this era women’s fashion became more restrictive, corsets were a big part of fashion making a woman’s waist thinner. During the 1860s, the crinoline cage or hoop skirt was made which was a huge improvement from the layers upon layers of heavy stiff fabric called the petticoat which was apparently not enough volume for the women of that time period. The 1850s to 60s was when the sewing machine and synthetic dyes were introduced, which helped with the production of clothing. In the late 1880s the bustle was made, which was a skirt that was made to appear fuller at the back, making the ideal body type for women in that time period (sloped shoulders, wide hips, and a tiny waist). By the early 1890s dresses became slimmer with the bustle at the end of its peak. Men’s fashion at this time mostly consisted of a top hat, a suit and almost always a topcoat. This was a very common style between the Victorian era of fashion.
I think that steampunk was influenced by some of the late 1800s fashion from the Victorian era. such as the corset, the top hat and the top coat. But what could have influenced the rest of steampunk fashion? Because I’m in PLP, I dove deeper into my question and found some more trends from the early 1900s that have contributed to steampunk fashion such as Edwardian street fashion, burlesque, goth, and frills.
After researching all these trends I decided to compare them to steampunk with the similarities and differences By making visual representations.
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In the end I found out different trends that have influenced steampunk, such as some ones I never thought would contributed to steampunk such as burlesque. Steampunk is a very unique style but at the same time it is similar to fashion these days, because when you look at fashion today it is influenced by different time periods like the 1980s. It is the same idea with steampunk that styles from the past make up this unique look.
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