Kilt as part of Steampunk costume

[OC Richard]

Perhaps Steampunk doesn't have to be rooted in the Victorian period, but in my experience it pretty much always is.

I regularly attend comic-cons and I've seen and hung around with hundreds of Steampunk people and the Victorian period is clearly part of the thing. People's clothing is invariably and clearly based on Victorian clothing styles.

I can't recall ever seeing Steampunk costumes based on modern clothing styles.

As Wiki puts it:

Steampunk most recognizably features anachronistic technologies or retrofuturistic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them, and is likewise rooted in the era's perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art.

The one exception, as always, is Highland Dress, which somehow floats outside of time itself.

[Baeau]

......Perhaps Steampunk doesn't have to be rooted in the Victorian period.......
.....Steampunk most recognizably features anachronistic technologies or retrofuturistic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them, and is likewise rooted in the era's perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art.....

Richard, I wonder if Disneyland should have gone that route on the last Tomorrowland revamp?

[Rmadigan]

I did a Google search on kilt jackets (I'm looking to buy one) and I saw some jackets that were listed as Steampunk. If I was 50 pounds lighter and 30 years younger I'd be all over them. Really cool styles. I dont know if I would wear them with my kilt.

[Stan]

Have fun, wear what ever you have, and enjoy the event. It's "your gear", and your going to have fun utilizing what YOU bought...Frankly (and as a guy who own 14 wool kilts, AND plays in a pipe band) I think that there's a lot of over thinking about " garment respect" going on in "the kilt world"... I'm sure that we'll all be looking forward to, and enjoy seeing the photos (if you can post them) of the GREAT time that you had!!!

Stan

[CollinMacD]

How can you wear an authentic clothing when in fact STEAMPUNK is nothing more than fantasy, mimicking the late 19th and early 20th Century. So does it really matter what you wear, as long as you are in the theme of the program. We are splitting hairs on something that never existed. Many of the accessories that are being sold are 20th century made to look 19th Victorian. Just have fun with you impression, go and enjoy, to me Steampunk is nothing more that Comic Con type event. HAVE FUN...

[Styckbow]

I have worn a kilt as part of a steam punk outfit many times in fact I bought a goth style kilt just for that purpose, with which I wore with a cream shirt, Victorian style maroon waistcoat, long tails style western jacket, antique shoulder hoster (with toy pistol of course) maroon silk scarve, top hat with goggles, antique pocket watch and chain, black boots and a replica of a CSA saber. Was my outfit correct or even historically accurate? Hell no but it was a fun day out on the town with my wife (who was also dressed steampunk) where tons of people asked for pictures with us and we won the costume contest. So wear what you like, have fun with it and remember there are very few rules when it comes to steampunk.

[imbrius]

Side View

Front View

Closeup of the "gear" cap badge that my lovely wife made for me.

[Farmer Jones]

What the heck is Steampunk?

Steampunk is essentially an alternate history which seems to have arisen from a novel "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. If you enjoy reading novels, then this book is a most excellent introduction to the idea. The movie "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" with Sean Connery, which in my opinion was dreadful, also presents such an alternate history. People dress in clothing which roughly corresponds to any time between 1820 and 1920, and carry scientific and technological looking accoutrements, often bearing cogs to emphasize the mechanical nature of the period.

[piperdbh]

I think you should wear a knitted tie.

[Steve Ashton]

Steampunk is essentially an alternate history which seems to have arisen from a novel "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. If you enjoy reading novels, then this book is a most excellent introduction to the idea. The movie "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" with Sean Connery, which in my opinion was dreadful, also presents such an alternate history. People dress in clothing which roughly corresponds to any time between 1820 and 1920, and carry scientific and technological looking accoutrements, often bearing cogs to emphasize the mechanical nature of the period.

There are those within the Steampunk genre that would debate the Gibson/Sterling part of above.

It is generally accepted that the term was coined by KW Jetter when he submitted a manuscript to the Science Fiction magazine "Locus".

"Dear Locus,Enclosed is a copy of my 1979 novel Morlock Night; I'd appreciate your being so good as to route it to Faren Miller, as it's a prime piece of evidence in the great debate as to who in "the Powers/Blaylock/Jeter fantasy triumvirate" was writing in the "gonzo-historical manner" first. Though of course, I did find her review in the March Locus to be quite flattering.
Personally, I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term for Powers, Blaylock and myself. Something based on the appropriate technology of the era; like "steam-punks," perhaps....
— K.W. Jeter"