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?

Tags: Costume, Costuming, Fashion

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Permalink Reply by Robert Donnell on January 26, 2010 at 10:57pm

Right now I am making some Sci-Fi Costumes and they are coming out with a distinctly DieselPunk look, whether or not that is because I'm overdosing on all things DieselPunk or that Retro-Futurism of that era is still better than what we imagine now, 'don't know.

To be honest about it the High-Tech of today actually is more futuristic looking than what we imagined in Sci-Fi a few years ago.

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Permalink Reply by TheBoyWhoLived on January 28, 2010 at 4:07pm

I concur

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Permalink Reply by Tome Wilson on January 29, 2010 at 1:42pm

I like it. Modern, but still diesel. Rock on Hayen!

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Permalink Reply by robschwager on February 28, 2010 at 8:10am

My bro Thomas just tried his hand at creating some steampunk inspired clothing. I hope he does more:

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Permalink Reply by Larry on February 28, 2010 at 9:19am

That's really, really cool. There's a lot of great stuff to say about it. It has an aged, distressed look just like a real artifact found in an attic. The gauges and items seem realistic, like they should have a purpose, but you can't quite decipher what they would do, just like a 19th century device would have. The bolts and connectors appear appropriate for 19th century.

This is top of the line stuff.

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Permalink Reply by Tome Wilson on February 28, 2010 at 10:22pm

I like it. Do you have any photos of the front?

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Permalink Reply by robschwager on February 28, 2010 at 10:53pm

Here's a pic of the front you asked about:

There's more pics on his site, which I linked to in my original post above.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Donnell on March 1, 2010 at 12:05am

Nice!

Oh, something wicked is about to happen to my new leather coat!

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Permalink Reply by Jonny B. Goode on March 1, 2010 at 12:09am

That's quite impressive. Could be steamie or diesel. I'd buy something like this.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Pendelton on March 1, 2010 at 3:29am

I just want to say hello and my name is Thomas Pendelton. I am the
guy who created the vest. Thank you denkleder for introducing me to the site and thank you for posting the pictures. Also I would like to thank you all for the kind words, I look forward to learning more about these styles and creating more original and authentic wearable art....