Original Steampunk Design

Made In. November 2007
Debuted. Anime Los Angeles 2008
Info. A cosplaying friend of mine who went to college with me had taken an art course that gave her the freedom to choose any project she wanted to work on for the entire quarter; she chose to make a costume! I thought that was so rad, so when it came time for me to take the same class, I opted to make a costume as well! I wanted to create something that came from my own design rather than making something based off an existing design, since it was a creative art class, and my friends suggested I look into Steampunk. I was familiar with the genre, but after doing more research I found it had a lot of elements that really attracted me--Victorian design, cyberpunk, old-fashion tech, etc. So I sat down and designed a Steampunk outfit.

I'm not a designer by any means, and I'm still relatively unfamiliar with many aspects of Steampunk fashion, so the costume turned out to be more on the simple side. The only true Steampunk aspect of it are the goggles; the rest of the costume is just Victorian-inspired. Still, I was really pleased with the results, and was excited at how all of the colors and designs came together. I did wear a single red contact lens (though you can't really see it in any of these photos) and exotic makeup to incorporate a cyberpunk element into the costume. The things I love most about this costume are the little details that I put the effort into including, such as the roses on the bustle and the hand-stitching and antiquing on the goggles. The goggles themselves are probably my favorite part of the costume; I assembled them with parts I found at good ol' Home Depot! My awesome friend Jason of i360.com took me to several Victorian-themed locations in San Diego to shoot the costume, with AMAZING results! I just hope I get an "A" in the class! XD (EDIT: I did! Yay!)