Steampunk fashion in music videos (2)

In a previous post I looked at the fashion in steampunk videos, this time around I’m looking at pop music. I originally intended to have all of them together, but the list just got so long, and download times would be insane… so – breaking it up!

(please note – I’m linking directly to YouTube videos… so if the owners take them off YouTube – the links will break. I’ve included the artist and title so you can search for them in the future should that happen…. )

Pop music + steampunk fashion

“Popular” music – ok…. this could really be called the “music I don’t generally like, but am including here because the clothes are cute” section.

Musical taste aside, there are some glorious fashions in this David Guetta/Nicki Minaj video for Turn Me On. With top hats, corsets, waistcoats, gloves, booties, leg-o-mutton sleeves and other Victorian styles, the fashion is much more neo-Victorian than really steampunk, but still nice to look at. If only there were better shots of the extras, rather than long, drawn out shots of Nicki’s pink hair.

I hesitate to inlcue Thursday’s Counting 5-4-3-2-1 in this list, but there are some minimal vaguely steampunk elements in the video. However I’d put the fashion much later than the Victorian era, and it’s almost all menswear too. Eh. Doesn’t hurt to add it to the list I suppose.

Next up, Alkaline Trio’s Help Me – mostly men’s fashion in this one – there are very brief clips of Kat’s full costume, but IMO not enough to be truely inspirational. (And the costume isn’t much to speak of either…)

next up in the “pop” category – Panic! At The Disco’s The Ballad Of Mona Lisa – loads of costume ideas here… though a lot of it strikes me as.. well – costume-y. A bit overdone in some spots (as if to say “look, the new trend is steampunk! let’s do steampunk!”) but still – it’s easier to start with something overdone and distill it into something wearable than start with next to nothing sometimes… (especially if you’re feeling uncreative!)

It’s a stretch, but how about some of the extras from the b/w scenes in My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade?

Alex The Kid – Future

What you need by BB Black Dog – almost entirely menswear apart from the obligatory “hot chique”.

Wild Wild West by Will Smith (from the movie)

Starboy – Eternity

Next up – rock and metal music + steampunk fashion!

Steampunk fashion in music videos (1)

So I’ve talked recently about a few steampunk elements in popular music videos (not specifically steampunk music) and of course what ~I~ am really looking for is the fashion! For this post I’ll be considering anything that has a steampunk or neo-Victorian element to the fashion, not really paying attention to the music itself. Of course, for some of the artists, steampunk/neo-Victorian is just part of their stage persona in general, so although I might only post one video, I’d definitely suggest checking the artist/band out separately as well to see more if you’re looking for inspiration.

(please note – I’m linking directly to YouTube videos… so if the owners take them off YouTube – the links will break. I’ve included the artist and title so you can search for them in the future should that happen…. )

Steampunk music + fashion

These are the artists where I would really recommend checking out other videos or photos for fashion inspiration.
First up – Abney Park’s My Life

Dr. Steel’s Back and Forth (cool costumes on some of the extras/fans)

Rasputina’s The Olde Headboard

Ghostfire’s The Last Steampunk Waltz (if you look hard you can see some fashion here…)

Fighting Trousers by Professor Elemental (obviously not for the performer but rather for the extras)…

A bit of a stretch perhaps since it’s all illustration and all in silhouette, but I wanted to include Set Prometheus Aflame by Steampunk Soul’d

Coppelius – I get used to it

Noteably absent from this list (because I couldn’t find official (filmed) videos (rather than tributes, slideshows, or live recordings) with fashion…and my goal with this was to show depictions of steampunk in either mainstream or commercial videos… rather than a love-letter to steampunk music) (If you know of some links, please add them in the comments!)
The Clockwork Quartet
Vernian Process
Emily Autumn
Unextraordinary Gentlemen
Jon Magnificent

Pop & Rock/metal + steampunk fashion

I had so many entries for these two categories as I was making up this post, that I had to divide it up! Stay tuned for future posts…

but… finally

Although the fashion is minimal at best (feh, and all menswear as well) I’ll close with Just Glue Some Gears On It (And Call It Steampunk)

Millinery: Vintage hat

While I was taking photos of some of my own creations, I also wanted to take a photo of one of my favorite vintage hats – something my father found for me years and years ago.  He knew how much I loved hats, and brought me several over the years (generally all well-taken care of and in great shape!)

Vintage black velvet Juliet hat

This one is a black velvet Juliet cap – there are no clips or combs to hold it on – just the shape of the buckram and wire under the velvet.  However, I did find an indentation in the velvet left from a bobby-pin, so perhaps the previous owner wore it out and about in more windy weather than I do!

This hat has a wired zig-zag of tube velvet accented with pearl studs (they’re flat-bottomed, not round beads) and super-large hole netting. The netting is really old so it’s super soft too, not scratchy at all.

I have a buckram base that I made during my millinery classes to try to replicate something like this… one of these days!  It’s wired and ready to go – now just to select the material (I’m definitely thinking velvet, but then what colour…?) and find the time to actually work on it!

Since I have a black one  – what colour do you think I should consider?  I have red, several shades of blue, green, bronze/copper, and possibly a few others in my ‘stash’.  Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Steampunk Makers in music videos

So, while looking for steampunk-influences in my airships in music videos post, I came across a few videos that I thought deserved some steamy notice – but focused a bit more on the makers – the tinkerers, or the inventors… It’s not my area of interest personally (if I can’t craft it out of fiber I’m rather lost!) but since I know some of my readers are here more for the steam than just for the fashion, I thought it would be worth a good share nonetheless.  For the costumers out there – don’t worry, I have a post about steampunk  fashion in videos coming too!

(please note – I’m linking directly to YouTube videos… so if the owners take them off YouTube – the links will break. I’ve included the artist and title so you can search for them in the future should that happen…. )

First up, and in definite order based on how much I like the music… (well, at least for the first one!) I’ve got The Rasmus’ lead singer Lauri Ylonen’s solo project, and the video for Heavy.  In this he’s sort of a not-very-nice maker/mad scientist type…  since I don’t fancy myself a maker, I can’t really say that the video is necessarily inspirational – but still fun! Plus. Lauri! Finnish! Strange puppet!

If you like the puppet, it is also featured in the video for In the City.  (Another solo project single.)
It’s a bit of a stretch, but I’m also going to include Nine Inch Nails’ Closer in this category as well – the setting is a mix between mad scientist and steampunk maker’s lab I figure.

(n.b. this is the director’s cut apparently, and might include language or visuals unsuitable for people who really should be in bed by now…)
For the robotic squid, fish, and pterodactyls I’ll add in Depeche Mode’s Precious.

Franz Ferdinand – Take Me Out – um.. cus there’s lots of gear stuff. (feh, I don’t really like it, but someone recommended it… so I’m including it!)

Lastly, beacuse I think this video is best watched with the sound turned off (personal preference only of course!) I have a music video by David Guetta performing Turn Me On featuring Nicki Minaj. (Yah, I don’t care for anything I’ve heard from David Guetta or Nicki Minaj, (I just can’t handle a songwriter that thinks that “I-I-I-I” is a legit lyrical line…) but that doesn’t mean the video isn’t cool! Musical taste varies greatly, and these days if it doesn’t come from Finland or Sweden or Germany it appears I’m much less interested.. haha)

So… do you have any other music videos in your playlist that feature awesome maker-inspiration with a steampunk theme?

Millinery : Red felt top hat

In the 7th Millinery class (the original, not the advanced…) the first hat I started working on was a red felt top hat.

Steaming the red felt on the block

Part 1: blocking the crown

I started by padding a 23″ top hat puzzle block with felt, and then steaming my felt hood.  I began stretching the crown of  a ‘short’ capeline over the top hat puzzle block but I needed additional help from one of my classmates to accomplish this because it was very difficult!  From there I started pinning down the band of the hat, stretching the felt down bit by bit, working from North to South, East to West, (or 12pm/6pm, 3pm, 9pm depending on how you like) then doing the sections in between also from opposite side to opposite side.  I pinned down about an inch and a half to start, then kept going down further bit by bit – stretching the length to shrink the diameter of the hood to the block.

Once I was down as far as I figured I could go but still leaving enough for a brim, I let the whole thing cool, pins and all.

When I removed the hat from the block, I did so carefully, because the puzzle block wouldn’t release!  (The center section should come out easily when upside-down, so that all the pieces can be removed without stretching the felt any more, but it didn’t!)  I let it cool a little bit more, and then began work on the brim.

I started by trying to shape the brim over an existing brim block, but found it tedious and not very functional, so instead I steamed the brim and hand-shaped it to start.

At that point the class was over, so the rest I needed to do at home…

Part 2: shaping the brim

Once at home I tried hand-shaping the brim a bit more, comparing it to two other top hats I have (one small, the other full-size) but really thought there was just too much fabric in the brim to get it to do what I wanted it to do.

So…I decided to iron my brim with lots of steam to shrink in that excess felt.  But – I didn’t want the steam to affect the nice straight crown as well…. sooo… I got a crock pot, tipped it upside down over the hat, exposing just the brim.  Basically the crock pot acted like a barrier against the steam.  This worked really well to straighten/flatten out the brim.  There was a bit of an impression of the pot on the hat brim, but I thought I could still steam/brush that out, or perhaps that would be the place where some decoration could rest.

Part 3: wiring the brim

So from here I wired the brim.  I used the same techniques I have used before, so I won’t go into them here….

Part 4: trying it on and a decision to make…

Wired edges on the red top hat – looking a lot more like a western hat

From here, I tried on the hat – for some reason, I’m not keen on it. I’m not sure exactly what is wrong, but I suspect the brim is too wide. All that work I did getting lots of felt for the brim… and I think I will need to trim it down. It just looks too “Western” to me – which, living in Calgary (aka ‘the heart of the new west’) is exactly what I DON’T want.  Cowboy and western hats are a dime a dozen around here (ok, not really, and certainly not custom/hand made ones, but you get my jist..) and not something I want to add to my collection.

So, here’s a question out there to other milliners, costumers, and fabulously stylish people – what are your thoughts? Am I right to think it’s the brim that is messing me up here? Should I make the brim narrower? Help! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.. I have a beautiful red top hat just waiting for me – I just need to make it!