Dieselpunk + Steampunk Culture
Dieselpunk Costuming
From: Robert Donnell
This is more a philosophical question how do you make a costume look Dieselpunk? Steampunk is easy Victorian plus Sci-Fi. Logically if you mix 1940s plus Sci-fi you get today. For example the Nazis took the World War One era M-16 helmet and modernized (shrank and streamlined) it to the M-35 helmet, slapped on a high-technology camouflage cover and that was their look, the modern helmets we have today look almost exactly the same as the Stahlhelm 35. Very little we have today is more advanced looking than 1940s stuff. All military guns look a lot like the MP-44 assault rifle.
So what I was thinking was for a Steampunk helmet you take a Star Wars helmet add rivets and paint it brass. So for Dieselpunk what about taking a WWII steel pot (USA M-1 helmet) and add clunky steel/chrome helmet accessories, paint it black and add a big stenciled insignia. Altho such a thing would look very odd to someone from the 1940s it would be over the top enough to be obviously Dieselpunk.
What do you think?
This is more a philosophical question how do you make a costume look Dieselpunk? Steampunk is easy Victorian plus Sci-Fi. Logically if you mix 1940s plus Sci-fi you get today. For example the Nazis took the World War One era M-16 helmet and modernized (shrank and streamlined) it to the M-35 helmet, slapped on a high-technology camouflage cover and that was their look, the modern helmets we have today look almost exactly the same as the Stahlhelm 35. Very little we have today is more advanced looking than 1940s stuff. All military guns look a lot like the MP-44 assault rifle.
So what I was thinking was for a Steampunk helmet you take a Star Wars helmet add rivets and paint it brass. So for Dieselpunk what about taking a WWII steel pot (USA M-1 helmet) and add clunky steel/chrome helmet accessories, paint it black and add a big stenciled insignia. Altho such a thing would look very odd to someone from the 1940s it would be over the top enough to be obviously Dieselpunk.
What do you think?
Tags: Costume, Costuming, Fashion
Views: 250
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Virgil Briggs (Samuel Crowe) on -
No DS Halloween party. They pulled those outfits together for Steamcon last October in Seattle. Unfortunately, work and the scope of my project kept me from going with them to Steamcon. They tried to apply some historical "accuracy" to the outfits in regards to the badges. They turned out real well.
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Permalink Reply by Virgil Briggs (Samuel Crowe) on
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I'd state DS runs from 1900 to 1945. The next phase would be Atomicpunk IMO, which would incude the whole red scare and early cold war era up to the eding of the Vietnam war. Not much interest after that though. I'd love to delve into Atomicpunk with Jaes Bond style spies :)
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Permalink Reply by Robert Donnell on -
Mad Max, Tank Girl, love them!
I just don't see them in the Dieselpunk Universe the two are not related.
For example what hapens after Steampunk? Dieselpunk, after that, Cyberpunk. It follows logically, it flows. Nowhere in there is a place for Mad Max.
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Permalink Reply by Larry on -
I'm more interested in non-military style dieselpunk fashion. I'm curious what ideas others have here along those lines.
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Permalink Reply by Jonny B. Goode on -
Anything inspired by the jazz or swing age, for starters. Fedoras, almost mandatory, lol. Or boaters if you're going for the '20s look. Wingtips and spectators, pleated pants, wide ties...
I went out last week in a black fedora with white band and zoot suit brim, two-tone grey and black vest, black and white tie (with my Dr. Steel pin as a tie tack), crisp white shirt with Batman cufflinks, grey pleated pants, spectator shoes. A black duster with military-looking epaulets, black ammo belt (where I keep my harmonicas) and cane rounded out the look.
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Permalink Reply by Jonny B. Goode on
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There would be if there was some sort of apocalyptic event - as there almost was many times in the 20th century. And Steampunk has it's post-apocalyptic look, so why not Dieselpunk?
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Permalink Reply by Robert Donnell on
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But if you stick Mad Max in the middle there is no Cyberpunk, no Star Trek future either.
I like the style of Post Apocaliptic it just does not lead anywhere.
Sorry I can not say it any plainer, it just can't be Dieselpunk, which is industrial which you can't have if you no longer have industries and a global civizlation.
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Permalink Reply by Jonny B. Goode on
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Well that's just the thing. Dieselpunk (like steampunk before it) grew out of science fiction, and in science fiction sometimes there isn't a Star Trek future. Sometimes it's dystopian. Sometimes it's ugly.
Science fiction doesn't shy away from the ugly sides of things, and neither did history. Cyberpunks? You have the slick, "cool" looks of The Matrix, but there's also the dark side of the "real world," isn't there. There's Star Trek and 2001, but there's also the uglier, grittier futures of Blade Runner, Judge Dredd and Johnny Mnemonic.
In dieselpunk we have the shiny, "cool" '30s and '40s with the swing duds and the sharp uniforms - the "Sky Captain" dieselpunk, if you will - but we also have the gulags and the Soviet "prosperity" farms. In fiction we also have the underbelly of Metropolis, The Shape of Things to Come, and 1984. And of course the post apocalyptic worlds of Mad Max and Tank Girl. Gritty, ugly, but still diesel. (As Mad Max 2 and 3 showed, you don't need global industry to have a diesel-based society. If our civilization ever collapsed, there'd still be scientists who knew how to make fuel to run some of our machines.)
The purpose of dieselpunk fashion - or fiction for that matter - isn't to "lead anywhere." You could say the same thing about post-apocalyptic steampunk, it doesn't lead anywhere. So what? It's all about "what if", the core of Sci-Fi. An alternate past doesn't always have to be a shiny penny past.
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Permalink Reply by Larry on
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While I know many consider Mad Max as dieselpunk my problem is that it lacks what I consider to be a critical componant, which is at the minimum the feel and flavor of the 20's through 40's. It's a good movie, especially its sequel Road Warrior, but I just can't see it as dieselpunk.
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Permalink Reply by Miikka on -
I usually buy my clothes from ordinary clothing stores and I prefer good brands. Today's mens fashion fitted to look a like old fashioned together with my fedora. So my style is very functional too.
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Permalink Reply by The Machinist on -
lol...I see where you are going with it, and am digging it...but how about a mixture of a rammstein video, kroenen from Hellboy and see where we go from there?
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Permalink Reply by Larry on
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Many here may have already seen this thread at The Gatehouse but it seems to tie in to this topic.
http://www.ottens.co.uk/lounge/viewtopic.php?id=740
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