I'm a great op shop buyer, and I love looking for unusual things.
It feels very elegant.
You choose your own name, you know, you choose your own
persona.
It frees you up to just act out a bit.
The fun of it has been actually the build up because we've just
had an absolute hoot of a time.
Whether you're a first timer or a professional, the Sci Fi genre
of Steampunk has something for you. With roots in 1980s
literature, authors imagined a futuristic world powered by
steam and mechanics, reminiscent of the Victorian era. It wasn't
until the noughties that people began dressing up as a form of
escapism.
It's intoxicating, seeing yourself bedecked in such beauty
and detail I think and it feels very elegant. I feel beautiful
when I wear a corset and it's not as uncomfortable as you
might think.
And then all the zhoosh — you know, the frills and the bustles
and — I just feel really gorgeous.
And I feel very confident, empowered, and brave and
fearless. You know, I can say what I want to whom ever I want
and it doesn't matter.
This trio known collectively as The Brass Harpies are
professional steampunks who toured the country to share the fun.
They're really curious about the attention to detail you know,
they love all the little knickknacks and brass bits and
pieces and things that move and buckles and jingly and jangly,
and the hats you know, it's all about the hat.
The minute you put a top hat on somebody and you put that frame
around them. They're a bit shy at first but then you get them
laughing and then sometimes you're prying them away with a
crowbar.
For one group of friends new to the scene, their inspiration
came from within.
Well, I mainly took the aspect of my beret and feather from
my father who was in the pipe band — Donald Pipe Band —
and as children we used to polish the sporran and the spats
and really would love the way he would dress up in his kilt. So the
feather comes from that inspiration.
But I realised that I have kind of strange choices of a lot of
clothing. I do wear unusual clothes, and a lot of my clothes
blended into the theme anyway.
Well, I have a lot of beautiful skirts that have unusual lines,
and they're too good to throw away.
And if not for their wardrobee it was at secondhand clothing
stores.
I'm a great up shop buyer and I love looking for unusual
things. So I've been going to op shops since the 60s and I just
collect things and keep them.
Oh the beads I bought in an op shop. And that's an old jumper
that I sewed onto an old hat that was made of straw.
Compared to other types of cosplay steeped in pop culture
steampunk is more accessible.
Cosplay has elements of you know, you create a character
that somebody else has created. You recreate it. You create a
Marvel character or a gaming character. But a lot of
steampunk cosplay is original character cosplay. So you are
the one who (is) creating the character. You're the one who
chooses, you choose your own name, you know, you choose your
own persona.
At a deeper level steampunk also rebels against a mainstream norms.
We might look like we're from the Victorian era, but we certainly
don't have those kind of sensibilities. So the punk is
all about liberation for women,
you know, wearing your corsets on the outside.
Being sassy and adventurous and daring.
Instead of the ideas of colonialism, it's more the
punking of that idea. And instead Steampunks go out and
they seek to learn and to embrace different cultures and
to you know, celebrate them.
But for the casual revelers at the Wimmera Steampunk Festival
in country Victoria, the most important thing is to have fun.
We ended up with about five different outfits each so
whether we wear them all, I don't know. But it's just been I
think the fun of it has been actually the build up. So it can
only get better from here because we've just had an
absolute hoot of a time.
Oh well it frees you up to just act out a bit. And I just think
that you know (for) anyone over 60, just why not?