{"id":833,"date":"2013-06-23T08:28:54","date_gmt":"2013-06-23T12:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.travelsizerobot.com\/?p=833"},"modified":"2013-08-20T12:50:22","modified_gmt":"2013-08-20T16:50:22","slug":"my-first-steampunk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelsizerobot.com\/my-first-steampunk\/","title":{"rendered":"Steampunk on a Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>Also: “The Cogless Steampunk”<\/p>\n Last weekend, after an amazing all-nighter rave called Rumpus<\/a>, I heard about another all-nighter called Imaginarium<\/a> – a sci-fi\/fetish themed event. This one, unlike most of the others, required<\/em> some sort of effort be put into your costume. At previous events, considering I’m living out of a backpack, I hadn’t bothered to get dressed up. I wish I had, because I always felt out of place, but it was always fun nonetheless.<\/p>\n But for this one I got excited about the idea and decided to go steampunk. Since steampunk is hard to explain, check out the wikipedia article on it<\/a> if you’re not familiar with the style or do a Google images search.<\/p>\n Little did I know how into it I’d get. I spent the next four days going around London looking for clothes and accessories. I didn’t have time to shop online for the stuff, so everything I got had to be local. Charity\/thrift shops were a lifesaver, as were the pound shops, and Camden markets helped out a lot. Steampunk is damn hard to do on a budget, but with some creativity and especially by not buying anything that says “Steampunk” on it, it’s possible to whip up a pretty good outfit.<\/p>\n Here’s what I ended up getting. Although it didn’t turn out perfectly, I think I did alright given my resources and time given. I’ll list what I got an how much it cost.<\/p>\n I started off in Tooting Broadway (SW London) which has a few pound shops and a couple charity shops. I did a little bit of research online to get an idea of what I’m supposed to get, but didn’t really know what look I was going for. The first charity shop I stopped by I found a pair of shants (shorts\/pants) that looked the part, along with a cool leather purse:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n I figured I could distress the purse with sandpaper and rough it up a bit for that vintage look.<\/p>\n Shants: \u00a33<\/strong> From there, I walked down the street to the Oxfam charity shop and found the perfect<\/em> waistcoat for steampunk:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Very high quality heavy leather. From there I decided I was going more for the cowboy steampunk look. For \u00a38, you couldn’t beat it.<\/p>\n Waistcoat: \u00a38<\/strong><\/p>\n I also bought a pair of trousers at Oxfam, unrelated to Steampunk, which will go in the “collateral damage” section below.<\/p>\n I looked around at shirts but didn’t find anything that interested me yet.<\/p>\n From there it was on to Poundland, where I bought some sandpaper to rough up the purse and whatever other leather I thought was too shiny.<\/p>\n Sandpaper: \u00a31<\/strong><\/p>\n Next stop – Primark. For those in the States, Primark is like a huge version of Wal-Mart’s clothing section. Very cheap, disposable clothing and filled with “interesting” characters.<\/p>\n I looked for anything I could use for the costume here, but ended up with some accessories:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Various leather straps, jewelry, bracelets, etc. The bracelet in the upper left was actually from the first charity shop I went to; the plan was to paint the white stones with black nail polish. The rest is from Primark.<\/p>\n The strap in the middle is to go along with the fetish part of the theme (as a choker) and the women’s belt I planned to unravel and use as thin leather straps for my hair. I still wear some of the bracelets on the left.<\/p>\n Copper bracelet: \u00a32<\/strong> So now I’m starting to get an idea of how things are going to pan out. I still need a shirt, plenty of chains, cogs, a pocketwatch, and I wanted some old gate-style keys.<\/p>\n I spent the next few hours walking down high street from Tooting Broadway to Clapham Common, stopping at every charity shop and DIY store I could find.<\/p>\n I picked up a few things along the way:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Those are the closest thing that resembled cogs that I could find, and they looked pretty cool.<\/p>\n “Cogs”: \u00a31.20<\/strong><\/p>\n I didn’t have much luck finding anything else.<\/p>\n Camden, of course, was the place to go for this kind of stuff. The next day I headed up to Mornington Crescent Station and took the walk up high street stopping at all of Camden’s thousand or so charity shops, ending up in the markets.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n That tie was perfect – it’s vintage, thin, and already a bit distressed. I could also use it again if need be. The pendants were from a bric-a-brac store, and were bought in case I couldn’t find anything else.<\/p>\n After a long<\/em> search, I wasn’t able to find any reasonably priced goggles, so I bought these sunglasses which were the closest thing I could find.<\/p>\n Vintage Tie: \u00a32<\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n I planned to use the belt as an arm strap and in one of the charity shops I found a big belt with those chains on it. I didn’t want the whole belt so I asked if I could just buy the chains off of it for a couple quid. The worker said he didn’t see why not; they could still sell the belt for a little less. SCORE! Those thick chains were exactly what I was looking for.<\/p>\n Chains: \u00a31.50<\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n The one thing required in every steampunk outfit – a pocketwatch. Camden has loads of them. I stopped by a few places and got an idea of pricing. I ended up going with this one, which was pretty unique from the rest, and ended up befriending the cool Lithuanian girl who sold it to me.<\/p>\n I bought a couple strips of leather and a couple of the thickest chains I could haggle, which were still pretty thin. But you can’t have steampunk without chains.<\/p>\n Pocketwatch: \u00a36<\/strong> The pocketwatch ended up falling off at the party. I only attached it by two safety pins, which apparently weren’t up to the task.<\/p>\n I never did find a good shirt to use, so I ended up wearing a shirt I already had:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Shirt: \u00a30<\/strong><\/p>\n I didn’t originally plan to do a steampunk gun; they’re a pretty intensive and typically expensive project. But I found the perfect water gun at Poundland and decided to go for it.<\/p>\nThe Beginning<\/h2>\n
Tooting<\/h3>\n
\nPurse: \u00a34<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nBracelet pack: \u00a32<\/strong>
\nChoker: \u00a32<\/strong>
\nBelt: \u00a31<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Long Walk<\/h3>\n
Camden<\/h2>\n
\n“Goggles”: \u00a34<\/strong>
\n4 pendants: \u00a31<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nLeather belt: \u00a32<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nChains: \u00a32<\/strong>
\nLeather strips: \u00a31<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Gun<\/h2>\n