wild wild west con part three

The garments.

Yes, steampunk clothes are cool. Really cool. (and I don't mean anything to do with the temperature). The people who did it well, did it very well. There were Victorian dresses, very prim and proper. There were top hats, and dressy vests and spats. One of the men who we met when he and his wife and daughter sat at our table for dinner the first night looked like a very respectable banker. There were jackets and ties and a definite air of a more formally dressed era. And there were corsets. Anything from a corset belt to... well, yeah. It would seem that for those less practiced, a corset over just about anything made it steampunk. I could understand over some of the skirts, but, there was also one young lady who wore one over what looked like a prom dress. As a former SCA-er, I was amused to watch some of them wearing a corset for their first time. Others were very comfortable in theirs, and I only saw a couple of women who boobs-as-unattractive-shelf above their corsets. Does seeing all the boob but the nipple really count as "cleavage?"

Anyway, I really enjoyed people and clothes watching, as you can tell. Now, my own efforts were out of the norm, as I really wasn't sure about the range of clothing. I didn't have a corset, though. I made overalls in green denim and a peasant shirt in an off white, subtly patterned calico. I also crocheted a tam o'shanter for my hat. Now, no one thought mine were the coolest steampunk clothes ever (nor were they) but I did get several people ask me things about Old Tucson while we were there. (yeah, it was my first time there, I had no clue) So, I feel like I got the time period represented. What I really lacked were the accessories. I was kind of lost trying to think about those, and what would be appropriate before we went. NOW, I have some great ideas, and I'm excited to try them out. After I make them, of course.

It was pretty easy to dress Raine for the event. Jeans and a western shirt seemed appropriate, and a vest that Ron had made (it was getting pretty short on her) and she even had a lab coat in her costume box, the perfect thing for a mad scientist wanna-be. She has a bowler as well, but on the day of, it decided to hide under the bed, and so we went without.

Ron - of course - looked spiffy with his Asian influenced Victorian clothing.