My fiancee and I challenged ourselves to create steampunk outfits. We chose to go paranormal inspired, with the premises that we had to
1) Compile everything except the shoes (unless we happened to find something perfect, we could use our own shoes). This means shirt, pants, jacket, et cetera. Anything it would take to make a good outfit with a strong steampunk feel.
2) Do it for as little money as possible (we didn't give ourselves a limit, because we were being easy on ourselves).
3) Bonus points for getting components to build some kind of paranormal apparatus.
The reason we did this is because we've been thinking about two things concerning steampunk. 1) When components to a costume don't have a purpose (i.e. Glueing gears on it and calling it steampunk) and 2) When people want to create a steampunk outfit, but complain about not being able to find anything at a thrift store.
To be fair, we went to five thrift stores. Mostly because we could. In reality, we could have done it at one. It would have been more challenging, but it's possible. We decided to challenge ourselves to prove that yes, you can make a decent steampunk outfit using anything. We did go to a dollar store for a couple of extra things, but it wouldn't have been necessary. Also, we went in without a real plan of what characters we wanted to create. For me, that paid off, because I ended up finding things that combined into an amazing Old West inspired outfit (belt, shirt, leather-suede pants, a red vest, and a Mandarin-style jacket). It's going to be awesome. We did agree that we can supplement our outfits with small things that we have, but the main structure needed to be found. Challenging ourselves! But the good news is... everything we got are actually really good staple pieces that will serve our steampunk wardrobes for many costuming events to come.
2) Do it for as little money as possible (we didn't give ourselves a limit, because we were being easy on ourselves).
3) Bonus points for getting components to build some kind of paranormal apparatus.
The reason we did this is because we've been thinking about two things concerning steampunk. 1) When components to a costume don't have a purpose (i.e. Glueing gears on it and calling it steampunk) and 2) When people want to create a steampunk outfit, but complain about not being able to find anything at a thrift store.
To be fair, we went to five thrift stores. Mostly because we could. In reality, we could have done it at one. It would have been more challenging, but it's possible. We decided to challenge ourselves to prove that yes, you can make a decent steampunk outfit using anything. We did go to a dollar store for a couple of extra things, but it wouldn't have been necessary. Also, we went in without a real plan of what characters we wanted to create. For me, that paid off, because I ended up finding things that combined into an amazing Old West inspired outfit (belt, shirt, leather-suede pants, a red vest, and a Mandarin-style jacket). It's going to be awesome. We did agree that we can supplement our outfits with small things that we have, but the main structure needed to be found. Challenging ourselves! But the good news is... everything we got are actually really good staple pieces that will serve our steampunk wardrobes for many costuming events to come.
Also, what makes it more fun is the fact that we are doing this for a steampunk meeting... Tomorrow. We are going to craft and make like crazy tomorrow, to assemble our steampunk paranormal apparatuses. Ah, the few days before a busy summer of working and making things for our wedding. Hurrah! Steampowered hearts.
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