Dark steampunk goth art just in time for valintines day.  Michele Lynch is a mixed media artist with a touch of steampunk.  Her creations have wonderful anime eyes that play well on the reused bodies of savleged machinery.

Another one of my favorites, the Surgeon piece is just after the cut.

 Amanda writes:

This was one of the cakes I created for The Great Cake Bake produced by Wedding TV.

The category for this one was Steampunk and so far I have only come across one lady (after a comment on my blog) who knows what steampunk is.

Well, I'm sure everyone here not only knows what Steampunk is but shares my drop-jaw wonder at this fabulous wedding cake! Click through for a couple more pics!

In Jake's post on goth, via the comment thread, Sangori asked a fashion question I'd like to address:

"How do you really, I mean really, incorporate your subculture style into your everyday work life?

Call me a fence-straddler, (I have come to terms with the fact that I am) but I am having real trouble finding a way to incorporate my love of steampunk inspired Victoriana with my work wardrobe in a way that puts off a fully professional image. Being that I have a toddler at home and don't get out much other than to go to work I have to express myself through fashion mostly in a work-appropriate way. While in a creative field, I do spend my nine-to-five in an office environment. I certainly have a found a few choice pieces that do cross between work and steam well enough, and I have a covet/shopping list of a few more (think tall brown boots, tweed skirts and vests, a herringbone newsboy cap and camel coat to brave the cold weather in). However, while I feel confident in my steampunk styled toggs I can't help but worry that my sense of theme dressing comes off as a bit costumey to my employers and colleagues.

Is my worry more a facet of being unwilling to fully commit to the cultural aesthetic of steampunk style, or something more valid that others struggle with?"

Bloody good question. Ok, so, first of all, I don't think having problems finding work-appropriate attire means that one isn't entirely invested in a subculture. It's not a matter of lowering one's standards, per se. Being conscious of how your fashion choices affect both your own disposition as well as the way others perceive you is actually an incredibly mature way of looking at the closet. There is a fine line between being fearless and being foolish with your wardrobe, so I'm pleased that Sangori is questioning this.

I've been thinking a lot about Goth lately. I missed the advent of Goth almost entirely. In my youth I was a devotee of Punk and New Wave, a child of the second British invasion.  Goth didn't really get going until just about the time I was entering the workforce and my own attentions were focused on coming to grips with adult life in a capitalist society. Thus, it wasn't until quite recently that I started paying attention to the Goth aesthetic and musical forms.

Right now some of you are nodding knowingly and some of you are looking puzzled.  The puzzled ones are the folks who, like me, missed out on the Goth sub-culture and have no idea how closely Steampunk and Goth are related. 

Vintage Punk¹ Street Fashion at SPWS

Because I am primarily a photographer (and only secondarily a coolhunting blogger), a major aspect of my posts here at SPWS is visuals. Thus, once a month or so, I will be posting photographs of the sort of timeless, casual style I laud. My goal is to display real people in their real, everyday clothing, proving that this genre isn't just for cons and parties. I also intend to post a plethora of photos of masculine fashion, as it seems like most of the fashion pics available online are female-centric.

Now, I expect some of you to get all uppity about sticking to established genre conventions or act disappointed that I'll be showing a wide array of mashed-up vintage punk styles (not just Victoriana), but now is your opportunity to get over it. My way is much more fun, anyhow.

So, let me introduce someone you may recognize--this is Nathaniel Johnstone from Abney Park. 

Steampunk style--what is it?

As tempting as it is to begin my residency here at SPWS as fashion reporter with a verbose and pretentious tirade about style philosophy, I believe my audience is likely informed and intelligent enough to already know enough about the genre to grok the basics.

Let me make this quick so we're all on the same page: I will address steampunk fashion as a style of dress that has nostalgic elements lifted from the 19th century (and other time periods, not limited to the past) married to speculative nods toward the fantastic, cheeky, or romantic. I think we can all [mostly] agree on this vasty description.

So, with that out of the way, let's talk nuances. Let's talk about one of my favorite style motifs, one that belongs equally well to the mainstream as well to a plethora of subcultures: STRIPES. There are entire books on the pattern, including a fantastic read by Michel Pastoureau called The Devil's Cloth: A History of Stripes. Pastoureau considers the stripe as an optical illusion of sorts that "clarifies and obscures the view, disturbs the mind, confuses the senses". Marvelous!

Here is a nice article in the online 'zine Morbid Outlook on the subject of Steampunk.  Featured are the work and images of many of my friends including the multi-talented Libby Bulloff and local Boston artist David Dowling along with quotes from the always wonderful Steampunk Magazine.

While I always knew that Steampunk would appeal to many in the dark/spooky/goth community, I was quite surprised how much those same people had to offer that was of interest to this normally shabby dressing garage tinkerer!  ;-)

[Left: David Dowling and Kat Cradock in a photo by Libby Bulloff]

(Photo from Stephanie Booth's Flickr stream)

This is either brand new or somehow snuck completely under my RADAR. It's a little essay by Bruce Sterling written, I think, for GOGBOT that describes what Steampunk is and he F&@%ing nails it! NAILS it! I say.

He gets the community part right:

If you like to play dress-up, good for you. You're probably young, and, being young, you have some identity issues. So while pretending to be a fireman, or a doctor, or a lawyer, or whatever your parents want you to be, you should be sure to try on a few identities that are totally impossible.Steampunk will help you,  because you cannot, ever, be an authentic denizen of the 19th century. You will meet interesting people your own age who share your vague discontent with today's status quo. Clutch them to your velvet-frilled bosom, because you will learn more from them than you ever will from your teachers.

He gets the crafts part right:

Steampunks are modern crafts people who are very into spreading the means and methods of working in archaic technologies. If you meet a steampunk craftsman and he or she doesn't want to tell you how he or she creates her stuff, that's a poseur who should be avoided. Find the creative ones who want to help you, and who don't leave you feeling hollow, drained and betrayed. They exist. You might be one.

And he wraps it up exactly right:

We are a technological society. When we trifle, in our sly, Gothic, grave-robbing fashion, with archaic and eclipsed technologies, we are secretly preparing ourselves for the death of our own tech. Steampunk is popular now because people are unconsciously realizing that the way that we live has already died. We are sleepwalking. We are ruled by rapacious, dogmatic, heavily-armed fossil-moguls who rob us and force us to live like corpses. Steampunk is a pretty way of coping with this truth.

And then he puts a cherry on top!  Go read the whole thing now!  As they say on the LiveJournal: "I am full of Squee!"